Harris gets chance to press reset on 2024 race against Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the past year, the presidential campaign seemed destined to be a monotonous slog featuring two candidates, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, that voters didn’t really want.

But that all changed on a quiet Sunday afternoon just 107 days before the election.

Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor resets the campaign with a swiftness that is unparalleled in modern American politics.

Once a contest between two elderly white men, the election will likely force Trump to contend with the much younger Harris, who was consolidating support among Democrats and would be the first woman of color atop a major party’s ticket.

“It shakes things up entirely,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to President Barack Obama. “It turns everything on its head.”

The crumbling of Biden’s reelection effort, which began with his shaky debate performance last month, has left both parties scrambling. Although no one has stepped forward to challenge Harris for the Democratic nomination, she still faces the unprecedented challenge of taking over a campaign only four weeks before the party gathers in Chicago for its convention.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-parsely-url=«https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parsely.com%2Fv2%2Frelated%3Fapikey%3Dapnews.com%26url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fkamala-harris-joe-biden-donald-trump-election-90b9d5c6dc5553703af88dfa442a6bac%26limit%3D9%26respect_empty_results%3D1%26sort%3D_score%26pub_date_start%3D2024-06-07%26exclude%3Dsection%3APress%20Releases%26exclude%3Dtags%3ACelebrity%20Birthdays»