Joe Biden Drops Out of 2024 Presidential Race After One Term. Has This Ever Happened Before

President Joe Biden made history this weekend when he announced that he would be stepping down from his reelection campaign. But this isn't the first time an incumbent president has exited mid-race.

Biden, 81, announced the news in apost shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, July 21, writing, among other things, "the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President."

"And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, 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," the statement continued in part, before Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.

As the oldest president in U.S. history, Biden has faced concerns about his ability to serve another term, and hisperformance at the first 2024 presidential debate— after which critics suggested that he struggled to dispute Trump's lies and had a hard time articulating his own arguments — heightened doubts about his cognitive health.

Although no other sitting president seeking reelection has dropped out of the race this late in the game, two other incumbents in the history of the U.S. presidency have abandoned their campaigns rather than seek reelection.

PresidentHarry S. Truman dropped out of the 1952 election in March of that year, during his second term in office. Although the 22nd amendment was ratified just one year prior, limiting the number of terms served by the President to two, the language of the amendment meant that Truman was eligible for a third term, according to the National Constitution Center.

Truman's popularity began to plummet towards the end of his second term, with many voters and critics citing frustrations with the Korean War and several scandals as why they chose not to vote for him in the Democratic primary that year, according to the Harry S. Truman Library. After he did not win a majority of votes at the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, in early March 1952, he announced his exit from the -

He Is ‘Certainly Not Fit to Serve ,...

race later that month.

The Democratic party nominated Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, who lost the race to President Dwight Eisenhower.

Additionally, President Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out of the 1968 election on March 31 that year, as his approval rating dropped significantly during the Vietnam War. Although he had every intention to seek a second term at the beginning of the year and many believed he would secure the Democratic nomination, the war became extremely unpopular as the year went on. With 295 days left in his term, he announced in a televised address that he would not be seeking reelection.

Vice President Hubert Humphrey secured the Democratic nomination in 1968, and lost to Republican Richard Nixon.

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Although many questions still remain about what the 2024 presidential election will look like — including who will secure the Democratic nomination, who the Democratic vice presidential candidate might be or what role Vice President Kamala Harris will play in the race — many Democratic leaders have spoken out about who they endorse for the role, and Republicans including former President Donald Trump have shared their excitement about Biden's exit from the race.

Harris responded by thanking Biden for his service as president, and seemed to reaffirm her intent to secure the Democratic nomination.

“With this selfless and patriotic act, President Biden is doing what he has done throughout his life of service: putting the American people and our country above everything else," she wrote in the statement."

“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination," she continued. "... 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."

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