Biden's departure from Presidential race opens the door for Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris launched the AANHPI for Biden-Harris earlier this month.

UPDATED July 22 to include references and information about the APIAVote poll.

President Biden's stunning decision to drop out of the campaign for a second term sets the stage for history to be made:  An Asian American could occupy the White House. 

Under mounting pressure to leave the race after a disastrous debate performance  raised questions about his mental capacity to serve as President, the most powerful and important job int he world, Biden made his announcement Sunday after weeks of insisting he would continue his campaign.

Moments after Biden released his announcement,  on social media the President endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democrats' Presidential candidate. 

"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,"Biden posted. "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."

Biden said he will speak to the nation later this week “in more detail about my decision.”

FYI: President Biden's statement

Biden told Harris about his decision sometime over the weekend as he was still recovering from a case of Covid in his Delaware home.

"Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election," Harris said in a statement released hours after Biden's decision. "And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda. We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win."

If the Democrats choose Harris as their candidate at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19 through Aug. 22, she would become the first Asian American nominee of a major political party in the US.

If Harris beats Trump in November, she would make history in a number of ways: as the first Asian American President, the first woman and the first Black woman to lead the nation.

Democrats who only hours before were calling for Biden to "pass the torch" began rallying around Harris and donations to her campaignbegan pouring in.

The New York Times reported that the reenergized Democratic campaign topped $50 million in donations by a wide margin making Sunday the single biggest day for online Democratic contributions since the 2020 election.

“This has been the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle. Small-dollar donors are fired up and ready to take on this election,” said ActBlue, a nonprofit fundraising platform.

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Rep. Jamila Jayapal, chair of Congress' Progressive Caucus, and one of five Indian American Congressmembers, said in a lengthy statement, “Vice President Kamala Harris just called me and I told her I am 1000 per cent in for her to be our President! She has the smarts, the experience, the accomplishments and the agenda to lead us to victory in November. Let’s go!”

Prior to Biden's Sunday announcement, Rep. Ro Khanna of California predicted to The Hill:  “I believe that the vice president would win that vote. I don’t think you’re going to see many people challenger her. I mean, these are Biden-Harris delegates, it’s not an open primary. 

"I think if it were an open primary, there should be many candidates, but the idea that in two weeks, someone not on the national stage is going to be able to put together a majority of Biden and Harris delegates, I just think is unrealistic,” said the South Asian congressmember representing Silicon Valley.

National polls pitting Harris vs. Trump have them basically tied with Trump ahead by a percentage point or two, well within the margin of error.

The possiblity of having Harris on top of the Democratic ticket could very well energize the Asian American electorate, which already favored the Biden-Harris team against Trump based on a poll by AAPI Data. However, a recent poll from APIAVote showed support falling off from 54% to 46% among AANHPI voters.

Karthick Ramakrishnan, researcher at UC Berkeley and founder of AAPI Data, said: "This very well could be a game changer. If we look at 2020 election and saw Indian-American community energized in a significant way both in terms of voters and donors. We did a survey of Asian Americans in April and May and favorability ratings for Kamala Harris among Indian Americans were about the same as for Biden and it wasn't great for either of them. It was much better than Trump's approval ratings. This really shakes up the race in a huge way." "

"Among the young, black, Asian American voters, we will see a lot more enthusiasm than what we found even a week ago," he further said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.