LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — President Joe Biden officially dropped out of the 2024 Presidential Race, leaving the democratic party without a presidential nominee.
Biden made the announcement in a statement on social media Sunday afternoon.
He said it's in the best interest of the party and the country if he stands down and that he will now focus on serving out the rest of his term in the White House.
Dr. E. Fletcher McClellan, a political science professor at Elizabethtown College, said he believes Biden decided to drop out due to his declining numbers in the polls paired with the democrats overriding desire to defeat former President Trump.
"I imagine over the last few days he got some pretty sobering news about his standing in the polls, especially in swing states like Pennsylvania - sinking," McClellan said.
Some republicans have been calling for President Biden's resignation as they say if he is not "fit" to run for re-election, he is not "fit" to carry out his term.
McClellan responded by saying he thinks Biden is clearly fit, "we have his performance in office for three and a half years and there hasn't been much evidence that he's been off his game there."
"I think the main disqualification is that he would not be a good messenger because everything he would say and everything we saw in the last month, was not so much the content or his message but people looking for signs of infirmity," McClellan said.
After Biden's announcement, he immediately threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, endorsing her as his pick for democratic nominee.
He is now calling on democrats to rally behind Harris to beat former President Donald Trump.
The vice president did release a statement thanking President Biden for his service and for making the decision to step aside. Harris said she intends to earn and win the nomination.
Since President Biden made the announcement, a lot of money has poured in to support the Harris campaign. The democratic fundraising platform "Act Blue" said it's collected more than $46 million.
Harris is the only candidate who can directly tap into the Biden campaign's war chest, according to federal campaign finance rules. It's because both her and Biden's name are on the campaign account that was registered with the Federal Election Commission.
Many democratic leaders have already thrown their support behind Harris, including Governor Josh Shapiro who took to social media to share he will do everything he can to help elect Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the United States.
Shapiro is one of the top names being floated as a potential running mate for Harris.
FOX43 heard from Sarah Neibler, a political science associate professor from Dickinson College, about her thoughts on what this quick turnaround could mean for the campaign.
“I think Harris has a lot of time, certainly other democracies across the world run executive campaigns in 100 days, or 107 days, or whatever we have between now and the general election,” Neibler said.
"Trump no doubt has a big head start, he had a successful convention, he's been leading in the polls. However, he still has not been able to get his numbers above 50%, he's been hovering around the same 45%," McClellan said.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to begin on August 19th in Chicago where delegates will vote for the democratic nominee.
President Biden is expected to address the nation sometime this week to share more about his decision to drop out of the race.