WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has formally announced he’s seeking reelection. But he’s also still the president, with roughly 20 months left in his term regardless of whether he wins a second one on Election Day 2024.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has formally announced he’s seeking reelection. But he’s also still the president, with roughly 20 months left in his term regardless of whether he wins a second one on Election Day 2024.
With Tuesday’s campaign video release, Biden is following through on months of saying he intended to seek reelection. Top Democrats have remained solidly unified behind the president, despite his low approval ratings and many Americans saying they’d rather not see the 80-year-old Biden try for four more years in the White House.
But all that has meant Biden faced relatively little pressure to make his 2024 bid official. Here’s a look at why he announced now and how things will, and won’t, change for him going forward:
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WHY NOW?
A formal reelection announcement means the president is now allowed to raise money directly for his campaign. It’s a change from his speeches at donor events benefiting the Democratic National Committee or other outside political groups that he has given since entering the White House.
Biden will spend campaign funds on salaries and logistics building out a 2024 staff and holding events outside his official presidential business. He plans to have dinner in Washington on Friday with leading Democratic donors and DNC leaders, paying special attention to those who write big checks to ensure his reelection campaign stays well funded.
Some party donors and organizers had begun grumbling about a lack of movement on the reelection front, and the announcement, followed by Friday’s gathering, will allow the president to reassure them.
Another reason why Biden waited until April was that it allowed him to avoid releasing publicly how much his reelection campaign raised during the year’s first quarter. That’s when donors typically slow down their contributions — and some top Democratic givers wanted a break after a busy election season during last fall’s midterms and before next year’s presidential race kicks into high gear.
President Barack Obama waited to announce his 2012 reelection bid until early April of the previous year. Tuesday also marks the fourth anniversary of Biden’s announcement of his 2020 presidential campaign.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, first filed for reelection on Jan. 20, 2017, the day of his inauguration, and held his first campaign rally in February 2017. But his second White House campaign didn’t formally kick off until June 2019 with an Orlando, Florida, rally that fell roughly four years after he first entered the 2016 presidential race.
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WHAT ABOUT HIS AGE?
Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history and would be 86 by the end of a second term. He has acknowledged that age is a “legitimate” concern but scoffed at questions about whether he will have the stamina for another campaign, much less four more years in the White House. “Watch me,” he has repeatedly declared.
Voters will now get the chance to do just that — but that is unlikely to make such questions go away.
Republicans have often highlighted Biden’s age, and even some De
