President Joe Biden formally announced early Tuesday that he will run for reelection, posting a video explaining why he wants four more years as president and saying he is the Democrat best positioned to keep former President Donald Trump from retaking the White House.
The video, released on the four-year anniversary of the announcement that he was running for election in 2020, set up the 2024 presidential race as a battle against what he has called the “extreme MAGA” faction of the Republican party. MAGA comes from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are,” he said in the video.
The video opens with images of abortion rights activists shouting outside of the U.S. Supreme Court building and rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer,” Biden says in voiceover narration. “I know what I want the answer to be and I think you do too. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
In the video, Vice President Kamala Harris walks with Biden outside the White House.
According to The New York Times, Democratic donors have been invited to Washington, D.C., with strategy sessions for the 2024 election planned for later this week.
Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms. I believe this is ours.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2023
That’s why I’m running for reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job. https://t.co/V9Mzpw8Sqy pic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly
Two Democrats have declared their bids to run against Biden for their party’s nomination. Robert Kennedy Jr., son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, declared last week his intention to run for the nomination.
Marianne Williamson, a self-help author and former spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey, is running for the nomination for a second time.
Biden, at 80 years old, is the oldest person to have served as president. If he is re-elected, he would be 86 at the end of a second four-year term.
He has said age wasn’t part of the calculation on whether to launch a 2024 bid but said it was “totally legitimate” for people to raise issues about it.
“And the only thing I can say is, ‘Watch me,’” he said in an interview with ABC News.
Trump would be 78 on inauguration day 2025.
Seven in 10 Americans, and 51% of Democrats, said in an NBC News poll this month that they did not want Biden to seek a second term, with half of them citing age as a “major” factor.
Six in 10 Americans — including a third of Republicans — think Trump shouldn’t run in 2024, according to the poll conducted after April 14-18.
Biden’s approval ratings have lagged in the past few months. In a Wall Street Journal poll last week, Biden’s job approval rating remains underwater, with 42% of voters approving of his performance in office and 56% disapproving.
However, in other polls conducted last week, Biden would beat Trump in a rematch of the 2020 presidential election according to the Wall Street Journal poll.
In a Harvard-Harris poll, Trump would beat Biden in a head-to-head rematch if the election was held today.
In addition to the video, the Biden campaign announced seven national reelection co-chairs. According to the Times, six are elected officials and allies of the president: Reps. Lisa Blunt-Rochester of Delaware, James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and Veronica Escobar of Texas; Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
The other is Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Julie Chávez Rodríguez was named Biden’s campaign manager. Rodriguez is the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez and Helen Fabela Chavez, civil and farm labor rights leaders.
