President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he is running for re-election in 2024, plunging at the record age of 80 into a ferocious new White House campaign “to finish the job.”
“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. That’s why I’m running for re-election as president of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job,” Biden wrote on Twitter, along with a video.
For Biden, 80, the announcement marks a pivotal moment in a political career that has spanned a half-century. The decision may defy the wishes of some Democratic voters clamoring for a different standard-bearer — one who is younger, more progressive and more reflective of the party’s diversity — while also underscoring Biden’s strength among party leaders, including those who believe he has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump or another Republican.
The 2024 race is expected to be the final campaign of a figure who has run seven races for the U.S. Senate and sought the presidency or vice presidency four times.
It will shape the legacy of a man who rose from a county council in Delaware to become one of the youngest U.S. senators in history, a partner to the country’s first Black president — and ultimately the 46th president as a pandemic swept the country.
Biden’s announcement moves the United States one step closer to a likely tumultuous 2024 presidential campaign, as former president Donald Trump pushes for a rematch with Biden after more than two years of falsely claiming that he was the true winner in 2020.
Trump has already announced his own candidacy and begun exchanging barbs with other Republican hopefuls.
