These Are the People Who Endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic Presidential Candidate

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Vice President Kamala Harris continues to garner support from Democrats in Georgia and across the state after President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is ending his 2024 re-election campaign.

After his performance in the Atlanta debate against Republican nominee Donald Trump and after weeks of verbal assurances that he would stay in the race, Biden endorsed Harris on social media just minutes after announcing he was dropping out of the race.

In Georgia, U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson and Nikema Williams, Democrats representing metro Atlanta’s 4th and 5th congressional districts respectively, issued their endorsements just hours after Biden’s announcement completely upended the 2024 general election.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens also endorsed Harris, as did former Georgia Sen. Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. Biden previously said Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver his eulogy.

The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has received a request from Biden’s re-election campaign to change the organization’s name to “Harris for President.”

“This letter is to inform you that Vice President Harris is no longer a candidate for Vice President in the 2024 election,” the campaign’s letter to the FEC reads. “Vice President Harris is now a candidate for President of the United States in the 2024 election and will henceforth conduct campaign activities solely in connection with that office. The Statement of Organization and the Statement of Candidacy of this committee are amended accordingly.”

One notable name missing from Harris’ list of endorsements is Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president for eight years.

“We will navigate uncharted waters in the days ahead,” Obama said on social media Sunday afternoon. “But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party can create a process that will produce an outstanding nominee. I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, united America that provides opportunity for all will be fully realized at the Democratic National Convention in August. And I expect each of us to be prepared to carry that message of hope and progress into November and beyond.”

Full Coverage: President Biden Ends Re-Election Bid

According to CBS News, Biden spent Saturday night with his immediate team, including longtime adviser Mike Donilon, working on a path forward after dropping out. Biden reportedly made the decision to end his re-election bid Saturday night and called Harris, his chief of staff and campaign manager, before posting his letter on social media at 1:46 p.m. Sunday.

Biden’s announcement also came just weeks before the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and days after Republicans endorsed Trump at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.

Biden ultimately appeared to bow to enormous pressure within his own party, a downfall that began after his disastrous debate performance — at least for Democrats — against Trump in Atlanta.

During the debate, Biden often appeared confused and disoriented and had difficulty finishing thoughts and sentences.

In the weeks that followed, Biden held a major press conference, gave two interviews to national networks and several others, appeared on national television after an attempted assassination of Trump, and went into self-isolation after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Biden is the first sitting president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to end his re-election campaign, and the first in American history to end his re-election campaign after winning virtually all of his party’s primaries.

In 2020, Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992 to win Georgia — or any other Southern state — in a presidential election.

If Biden had remained in the race, he and Trump would have been the first two presidential candidates to face each other in back-to-back elections since 1956, when Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson again in a rerun of the 1952 election.

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