President Joe Biden has officially announced that he will seek a second term in the White House, ending months of speculation and firing the starting gun on a 2024 re-election campaign that could result in a rematch of his 2020 clash with Donald Trump.
In a video posted on social media, the president said: “This not a time to be complacent; that is why I am running for re-election.”
He added: “The question we are facing in the years ahead is whether we will have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer.”
Biden has long signalled that he would seek a second term. He told reporters at the White House on Monday: “I told you I’m planning on running. I’ll let you know real soon.”
The official launch of his campaign quells doubts that the 80-year-old president would run for re-election, and allows him to begin fundraising aggressively to support his campaign apparatus.
Biden is expected to address a conference of building trades unions later on Tuesday at an event in Washington.
Biden is unlikely to face a serious primary challenge from within the Democratic party’s ranks. So far the only Democrats to launch presidential bids are Marianne Williamson, the self-help author, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, an environmental lawyer and scion of the Kennedy family who has become prominent for his anti-vaccine views.
However, Biden is still likely to face an uphill battle at the ballot box in the general election against a Republican opponent. The American electorate is sharply divided, and Biden has battled persistently low approval ratings for much of his presidency.
unsuccessfully for president in both 1988 and 2008. Barack Obama eventually chose him as his vice-president.
Biden is the oldest serving president in US history. If re-elected, he would be 82 at the start of his second term, and 86 at the end of his White House tenure.
Source: Financial Times
