Ahead of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race, many of the Democratic incumbent’s supporters said he had to keep going with his re-election bid — because the alternative would be intraparty chaos, division and disarray.
There was one important flaw, however, in the argument: Democrats were already dealing with intraparty chaos, division and disarray. Nearly every day, more party officials called on the president to pass the torch, and there were multiple polls showing most rank-and-file Democratic voters as wanting an alternative to Biden. It appeared unsustainable.
It also appears that the party has turned a corner. A Wall Street Journal report summarized:
Fearful of chaos and losing to former President Donald Trump, Democrats quickly fell in line behind the vice president. … Potential challengers to Harris backed her, and party leaders who could have stood in her way chose not to. Harris was well-positioned as Biden’s No. 2—she received the president’s endorsement within 30 minutes of his announcement. The vice president quickly built on that advantage, burning up the phone lines with calls to party leaders and activists from her home at the Naval Observatory. Behind the scenes, lawmakers and activist groups coalesced around her.
With extraordinary speed, a party that appeared fractured is suddenly united. A party that saw its fundraising efforts screeching to a halt is suddenly reporting record-breaking hauls. A party that cringed in response to every new poll is celebrating the latest national survey data.
This seamless handoff from Biden to Harris wasn’t inevitable, but it has been executed with striking skill.
It prompted Matt Compton, a veteran of the Obama White House, to note via social media: “Shout out to the staffers in Delaware who just lived through the most stressful five weeks in campaign history, then flipped every piece of branding and content on a dime, raised $100m, recruited 58,000 volunteers, and generally just lit the internet on fire for Kamala Harris.” Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer added, “What [the Harris campaign team] has pulled of since Sunday is truly incredible. No campaign in history has ever undergone such a shift with no notice. The way they been able to capture the wave of enthusiasm is so impressive. True professionals.” That’s certainly fair, though it’s also worth pausing to emphasize Biden’s role. The incumbent president didn’t just do the bold thing by standing aside, he also played a direct role in helping rally Democrats behind their likely new nominee. The results have been unmistakably impressive.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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