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‘Biden’s Exit Is A Boon for the Young in America’s Intergenerational Political Battle for Its Democratic Soul’

America has a gerontocracy problem – in acknowledging it, President Joe Biden has shifted the political battleground against the far-right, writes Matt Gallagher

First Lady Jill Biden, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Second Gentleman Douglass Emhoff on Independence Day 2024. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP/Alamy

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It’s Joe-ver. President Joe Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 US Presidential race, succumbing to mounting concerns from top Democrats – and the American public – about his age and mental acuity.

Despite Biden’s insistence earlier in July that he was “more qualified” than anyone to defeat Donald Trump, his withdrawal ultimately makes good on a promise he made back on the 2019 campaign trail: to serve as a “transitional candidate” and a “bridge” to a new “generation of leaders”. 

“While it has been my intention to seek re-election, 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,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

Prior to his announcement, the majority of Americans wanted Biden to step aside. His disastrous debate with Trump in late June ignited chaos within the Democratic ranks, creating mounting pressure on Biden even from historic allies such as former President Barack Obama, actor and Democratic mega-donor George Clooney, and New York Times columnist and personal friend Thomas Friedman.

In the wake of that ill-fated debate, Biden made matters worse by publicly introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “Putin”, forgetting the name of his own Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin (calling him “the black man”), and referring to his Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump”. 

Donald Trump at a Save America rally in Florence, South Carolina, in March 2022. Photo:Richard Ellis/Alamy

Politics isn’t a young man’s game in the United States, and Biden himself had become symbolic of America’s deep-rooted gerontocracy. It’s not just him though.

Donald Trump is 78 (and with Biden out, now officially the oldest ever presidential nominee). Nancy Pelosi, a top Democrat who likely played a pivotal role in getting Biden off the ticket, is herself older than the President at 84 years old.

Beyond the lack of political representation for millennials and Gen Z, aging Democratic politicians such as Diane Feinstein – and progressive Supreme Court Justices such as the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg – have inadvertently handed key roles to Republicans in the past by refusing to retire at opportune moments. 

With American democracy itself on the line at this election, Biden tactically decided to reject the reckless careerism of his octogenarian colleagues in a move that will seismically shift the entire US political landscape overnight, turning right-wing talking points upside down. 

Indeed, the MAGA movement – which seemingly did not plan for any other plausible scenario than battling Biden – is collectively fuming over the President’s decision.

“Now we have to start all over again,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday night. “Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everyone around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being President?”


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Other key Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, former Trump policy advisor Stephen Miller, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, were up in arms. “The coup is complete,” Republican Congressman Paul Gosar said. 

But for Democrats, as Kamala Harris likes to say, “what can be” is now “unburdened by what has been”.

Potentially a record-smashing President as the first woman, the first Asian-American, and the first African-American in the White House, Harris secured Biden’s immediate endorsement and that of all 50 Democratic state-level chairs. The VP looks well-equipped to face off against an emboldened yet reeling Trump campaign. 

Harris is not a lock for the nominee, but support is rapidly moving in behind her from across the party, and no major challenger has so far emerged. She also has a number of advantages, notably including immediate access to Biden’s nearly $100 million in campaign funds, and direct control over the President’s vast campaign infrastructure (the Biden campaign has already formally renamed itself ‘Harris for President’). 

At the age of 59, Harris may not quite be the perfect solution to American politics’ lack of generational representation. But, animated, eloquent, and forceful on key issues such as abortion and the rule of law, she has access to a new set of narratives that Biden simply failed to communicate effectively.

She’s a former prosecutor running against a felon; and a (relatively) young woman running against an old man who wants to restrict female bodily autonomy. Crucially, unlike both Biden and Trump, she may also hold the key to bringing out America’s youth vote. 

National youth-led political organisations, including Voters of Tomorrow and Dream for America – and state-level youth organisations such as the Florida College Democrats – are pledging to vote “en masse” for a Harris-led ticket.

A spokesperson for Voter of Tomorrow said: “As Vice President, Kamala Harris has been one of Gen Z’s fiercest champions. She has toured the nation to engage young people in the fight for reproductive rights, economic justice, climate action, voting rights, and LGBTQ+ equality. She oversees the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and stepped up to fund mental health care in schools.” 

Millennials – now the largest generation in the US labour force – and Gen Z, who notoriously support America’s ascendant unionisation movement, may also like Harris as a work reform candidate.

According to The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, Harris is “very close with labour”, reportedly opting out of a hotel in solidarity with striking workers, declining TV interviews during the 2023 Writer’s Guild of America strike, and liaising with “economies of care” advocates as well as unions themselves.

Biden claims the mantle of America’s ‘most pro-Union’ President, but Kamala looks poised to take a run at that title – much to the joy of overworked and underpaid young Americans. 

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Stein also indicated that Harris is seen in Washington circles as “strongly backing student debt cancellation” and “initiatives on medical debt”. As Emma Vigeland, the left-wing co-host of the progressive US webshow The Majority Report, commented on X (formerly Twitter): “It’s hard not to be excited about this.”

Harris also has a certain internet star-power that may give Donald Trump’s meme-fuelled campaigning strategy a run for its money. The ‘K-Hive’ – as Kamala Harris’ online fandom is called – is a powerful force across social media, vigilantly defending the VP from misinformation campaigns and online racial and gender abuse since her run for President in 2020.

Numerous right-wing attempts to mock Harris for her silly (yet oddly profound) quotes have badly backfired, unleashing a flood of support for her and her notorious quips online. Gen Z in particular has heartily embraced Harris’ infamous “coconut tree” remarks, throwing their support behind her and leaning into “project coconut”.

Questions still remain, should Harris become the nominee, about her prospective VP pick. The general sentiment indicates that it will be an olive branch to the older, more conservative, parts of the Democratic Party in Middle America, potentially picking up swing voters in the notoriously fickle constituencies of the American Midwest. Names being thrown out include Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. 

Ultimately, Biden has empowered Kamala Harris to flip the narrative about America’s ageing political class. Trump, despite being emboldened by his attempted assassination earlier in July, is now on the back foot in America’s inter-generational political battle. Given the stakes – the major threats to the very foundations of democracy distilled in the Heritage Foundation’s authoritarian Project 2025 – it could not have come at a better time. 


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