The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has announced that he will not seek re-election, a decision that comes after weeks of increasing pressure from some members of the Democratic Party, including influential investors and tech executives.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” Biden stated in a press release. “And although I intended to seek re-election, I believe the best course for my party and the country is for me to step aside and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
In a subsequent post, Biden expressed his “full support and endorsement” for Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate.
The announcement comes after Biden’s appearance in the presidential debate on June 27 reignited concerns about the 81-year-old candidate’s age, leading sectors of the Democratic Party and its donor base, including notable names in the tech world, to press him to withdraw.
Venture capitalist Michael Moritz stated this week that Biden should step aside and suspended his donations to the party in the meantime. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus had also called for Biden to drop out of the race.
Another venture capitalist, Ted Dintersmith, co-authored a plan for a “flash primary” process designed to select Biden’s replacement. Other Democrats in the tech industry have been involved in the process, although their positions on Biden were less clear. Harris met on Friday with a group of Silicon Valley donors, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Since Biden announced his withdrawal, Hoffman stated, “I unconditionally support Kamala Harris and her candidacy for the presidency of the United States in our fight for democracy in November.” Hastings did not endorse Harris but said that Democrats “now have hope” and that the party delegates “must choose a winner in a key state.”
The announcement also comes after the week-long Republican National Convention, where former President Donald Trump officially accepted the party’s nomination and named JD Vance (a former venture capitalist with deep ties to Silicon Valley) as his running mate. X owner Elon Musk declared his support for Trump, as did venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who argued that “the future of our business, the future of technology, and the future of America are at stake in this election.”
Biden’s term has been significant for the tech sector: he signed the CHIPS Act with $52.7 billion allocated to revitalize domestic semiconductor production, funded the manufacturing of electric vehicles and batteries, and passed another bill that will ban TikTok if its parent company, ByteDance, does not sell the app. He also appointed an FTC chair willing to challenge big tech companies on antitrust issues.
By: ForAllTechNews Director