SF leaders react to Joe Biden dropping out, line up behind Kamala Harris

President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris as presumptive Democratic nominee.

The decision comes after mounting pressure from Democratic allies to step aside following a disastrous June debate with Republican challenger and former President Donald Trump in which 81-year-old Biden trailed off and gave nonsensical answers.

Biden plans to serve out the rest of his term, which ends at noon on Jan. 20.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote in a post to the official @POTUS X account. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, 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.”

In a follow-up post 30 minutes later, Biden gave his blessing for Harris, 59, to accept the Democratic mantle in his stead.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” he wrote on X. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

Harris said she’s honored to have the president’s endorsement and plans to “earn and win this nomination.”

Harris, the first woman and person of color to serve as vice president, now has a new chance to make history as contender for the highest office in the land. The president’s endorsement also makes Harris the first-ever presumed presidential candidate for a major party who hails from the Bay Area. 

Biden’s decision came while he quarantined in his Delaware beach house after catching Covid-19 last week, huddling with a shrinking circle of family and confidants about his political fate. Biden said he would address the nation this week to explain his decision in greater detail.

Senior campaign and White House staff were notified just minutes before the letter went out, people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. Biden was reportedly reflecting on his future in recent days and kept his thoughts about the decision closely held until broadcasting them to the world.

The news marks the latest shock to what both major political parties view as the most consequential election in generations, coming just a week after a gunman tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Never has a presumptive presidential nominee in a major political party stepped out of the race so close to the election. The closest parallel would be President Lyndon Johnson who, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would forgo his bid for another term.

Democrats now have just weeks to bring coherence to the nominating process and must persuade voters in a remarkably short time that their nominee has what it takes to beat Trump. For his part, Trump must shift focus to a new opponent after years of training his attention on Biden.

A host of California and Bay Area political leaders promptly commended Biden for stepping down.

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said his “legacy of vision, values and leadership make him one of the most consequential presidents in American history.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked Biden for being “an extraordinary, history-making president.”

Calling Biden “a transformative leader,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the country is better off because he took office.

“He came into a time of great peril for our democracy, in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, and he had the courage, wisdom and vision to stablize our nation and move us forward,” she wrote on X. “He has supported cities like ours with unprecedented investments in infrastructure, climate change solutions, public safety and more, and the United States of America is far better off today than it was when he took office.”

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin said he salutes Biden for what must have been a difficult decision and called on Democrats to throw their support behind the new nominee.

“I pledge to make whatever efforts possible to work together with my fellow Democrats at this pivotal moment in history,” he added in a statement on social media a couple of hours after Biden’s announcement.

Fellow Supervisor Matt Dorsey said Biden’s exit secures his place in history as “a great president and George-Washington-caliber patriot.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener applauded Biden’s decision as selfless.

“President Biden is an extraordinary leader,” the Democrat from San Francisco wrote on X. “He led us out of the pandemic & a disastrous Trump presidency. He delivered critical legislative wins on climate, manufacturing & infrastructure. And once again, he’s putting the nation before himself.”

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan echoed the sentiment, saying, “A great leader knows when it’s time to pass the torch.”

The head of Equality California, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights advocacy organization, expressed gratitude to Biden for his “lifetime service to our country, and his longtime support for the LGBTQ+ community.”

“At a time of unprecedented anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and hate violence directed at our community, it is more important than ever before to have strong champions for LGBTQ+ equality in the White House,” Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang said in a statement. “In the coming days, we will reevaluate the organization’s endorsement for President. Equality California remains committed to getting out the vote this November to ensure that pro-equality champions are elected up and down the ballot to continue building a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all people.”

Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, said now that Biden has dropped out, the Republicans should demand the same of their own 78-year-old nominee.

As soon as Biden announced his endorsement of his second-in-command, others followed suit.

Outside John’s Grill late Sunday morning, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told The Standard he hopes “all the Democrats who’ve been pushing Biden to quit will now ring doorbells with me” and embrace Harris’ candidacy.

If Biden “wishes a country to be better off and he wishes us to beat Trump,” Brown continued, “then the best way to do that is with Kamala Harris, the vice president he chose to participate if he was unavailable.”

As for the vice presidential ticket, Brown said he’d like to see Harris run with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Mayor Breed wrote on X that she, too, believes Harris, whom she calls a friend, “has the experience, the strength, the judgement and the integrity to defeat Donald Trump and serve as our next president.”

At a press conference later in the day, Breed elaborated on her earlier remarks, saying that Biden has stood strong on issues such as reproductive rights and leading the nation’s post-pandemic recovery and that Harris is the logical successor.

“We have an opportunity to ensure that we rally around someone who has been working hard, standing by President Biden, someone who’s from San Francisco, has a track record of being a fierce prosecutor and of leading the district attorney’s office, leading the state attorney general’s office of the state of California and doing some remarkable things as senator,” the mayor told reporters outside Sens Restaurant at Embarcadero Plaza. “We have an opportunity to make the best person, the most qualified person and the person with the highest name recognition the next president of the United States. And I think we have to come together as Democrats.”

The fact that Republicans are so energized means Democrats need a fire in their belly too if they want to prevent another Trump presidency, the mayor continued.

“We cannot mess around with this opportunity,” she said. “There is so much at stake that all I can think is I wish I could travel to battleground states and just go across the country and help elect Kamala Harris and whoever the vice presidential nominee will be so we can continue to move our country, and specifically our city, in the right direction.”

San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí offered a brief but enthusiastic endorsement for Harris on social media.

Nancy Tung, chair of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, called on the party to stand behind the new presidential hopeful. The DCCC plans to lead a rally for Harris 9 a.m. Monday outside City Hall.

Harris’ successor as California’s top cop, state Attorney General Rob Bonta, said he’s “all in” for the vice president to take the mantle as Democratic nominee.

“She spent decades taking on the worst offenders — from drug and human traffickers to Wall Street banks who cheat consumers,” Bonta wrote on X. “With our democracy and rights at stake, no one is better prepared to defend our values and defeat Trump.”

U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler — who was appointed by Newsom this year to complete the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term — said “there’s no one better prepared” to succeed Biden than Harris.

“The threat to all that progress remains,” she wrote in a statement emailed to reporters, “and we must now do everything we can to ensure Vice President Harris succeeds. There’s no one better prepared for this challenge.”

Robert Reich, U.S. Labor secretary under President Barack Obama and professor of economics at UC Berkeley, called on the nation to rally behind Harris. “Our freedom and democracy depend on it,” he wrote on X.

MoveOn Political Action Executive Director Rahna Epting said, “Vice President Harris is tested and respected, and her voice is critically important at this moment.

“MoveOn and our members have her back and believe that those who share our commitment to winning this election and protecting our futures will do everything in their power to lift her up and stop Trump in his tracks,” the statement continued. “MoveOn is more driven than ever to unifying the anti-Trump coalition and defeating Donald Trump and extremist MAGA Republicans once again in 2024. We are all in on electing Kamala Harris and Democrats to the U.S. House and Senate and we look forward to engaging our members and surge voters across the country to rise up and make their voices heard this fall.”

Harris appears to be the natural successor, in large part because she is the only candidate allowed by federal campaign finance rules to directly tap into Biden’s war chest.

Biden’s backing helps clear the way for Harris, but a smooth transition is by no means assured.

The Democratic National Convention is set for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. Whether other candidates will challenge Harris for the nomination remains to be seen.

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said the party would “undertake a transparent and orderly process” to pick a nominee.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s exit. But even before the news broke Sunday, the Republican nominee’s team began ramping up attacks on Harris as pressure intensified for Biden to step down.