It appears as if some people were surprised to see that President Joe Biden wasn’t on the ballot this year.
According to Google Trends, search results for “did Joe Biden drop out” have peaked this week, and are spiking on Election Day, even though the president had dropped out of the 2024 race this summer and endorsed the current Democratic Party nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
On July 21, Biden shared a letter announcing he would no longer be running for president, although it was originally his “intention to seek reelection” in 2024.
“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
The same day that Biden announced he’d no longer be running for president, he also endorsed Harris for the ticket.
“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” he said in another post on X. “Democrats—it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”
The announcement came soon after a presidential debate performance in late June that many saw equally uninspiring and troubling, and led to subsequent questions about Biden’s mental fitness and ability to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump. Even many of his supporters, donors, and fellow Democratic lawmakers called for the 81-year-old president to concede the candidacy after the debate.
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” Biden told CBS News. “When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition President. I can’t even say how old I am; it’s hard for me to get it out of my mouth.”
While it’s been months since Biden officially dropped out of the race, apparently there are still Americans who don’t know who’s running for president.
“Imagine being a voter who just today found out Joe Biden isn’t running,” Armand Domalewski, a data scientist and cofounder of YIMBYs for Harris, posted on X Tuesday.
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