Lubbock political leaders, expert weigh in on Biden exiting 2024 presidential election

After President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would not seek the Democratic Party's nomination, local lawmakers, political leaders and experts weigh in on what this means for the 2024 Presidential Election and Lubbock.

This last-minute decision to drop out of the race sent shockwaves across America, with thousands wondering what this means for the election.

Drew Landry, associate professor of government at South Plains College, said this is an unprecedented move from Biden, citing the closest situation to this was in the 1968 election.

"President Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out on March 31 and he just barely won the New Hampshire primary against Eugene McCarthy," Landry said. "Earlier that week, Senator Robert Kennedy from New York announced he was getting in. So he kind of felt that the pressure was on him and that he may not even win renomination. So from that moment, he makes this national address and kind of slips in at the last line of the whole speech that I'm not running again."

More: Do Texas Democratic delegates have to vote for Biden? Here's what to know ahead of the DNC

However, American politics have not seen the presumptive party nominee drop out a month before its national convention.

Lubbock County Democratic Party Chair Margie Ceja said when she heard the announcement, she felt sad but understood the decision at the same time.

"I understood that this is a Biden decision, a family decision, so we had to support that decision, that it was time for him to hand over the baton. So it's always sad when someone has to do that," Ceja said.

Now, Democratic leadership has been left scrambling to look for its party's next leader, with Biden throwing his full support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

How does Harris fair against Trump?

Prior to Biden's announcement, polls showed that former president Donald Trump had an edge over Biden. Landry said that the polls didn't change significantly when comparing Trump to Harris, but it's too early to tell.

Even if it is too early to tell, Ceja said this election has changed, noting that those voting for Biden may not have been voting for him but rather against Trump.

More: Will VP Kamala Harris be first woman president in US? See polling odds and lengthy process

"Do we want to go forward, or do we want to go backward 40 years?" Ceja said. "That's what's going to happen with the other candidates. So I'm saying that with Kamala, we're going to have progress."

Ceja said overall, the ballot has become a women's issue ballot, saying abortion is a key issue in this election cycle.

"As a woman myself and a woman of color, I think it's time that we have this opportunity as women to vote for a woman president," Ceja said. "We know we had Hillary, but America is getting another shot at it, and choice is on the ballot for women. Kamala is ready and America is ready for Kamala."

What does this mean for Biden and his policies?

Landry said that there are two impacts to this announcement — foreign relations and domestic policy.

Looking at foreign relations, Biden is still the one world leaders have to deal with until the transfer of power in January to whoever wins.

"The president has to remind these other leaders, whether it's Putin, whether it's Zelinsky, Xi (Jiping), the prime minister in the UK, all of our allies, 'Yeah, I'm not running again, but I'm still the guy you have to talk to me, okay, you know, I'm still the guy who's making all these decisions here for the next six, seven months,'" Landry said.

However, the same cannot be said about domestic policies and dealing with Congress.

"As soon as he announced this, (House) Speaker Mike Johnson says (Biden) needs to resign, and so I don't really know how they can really get along," Landry said. "And Senator Chuck Schumer has been rumored that he was kind of trying to make President Biden not run again, so these guys are pretty much in election mode. I don't really know if they're in governing mode."

Who will Kamala Harris choose as her vice president?

Landry said there is no neat way to answer this question. Many factors go into deciding who the vice president on the ticket should be.

"You often hear of the Vice President being just a heartbeat away from the presidency," Landry said. "The strategy usually revolves around finding somebody from a swing state or a battleground state."

Current names being circulated right now include Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andrew "Andy" Beshear and U.S. Secretary for Transportation Pete Buttigieg. However, Landry said sometimes it can be someone who is standing off in the wings and no one is talking about that gets picked.

"We're going to have to wait and see," Landry said. "But I have to imagine it's going to come from somebody, a Democrat in a state that has won statewide in a potential swing state."

What are local Republican lawmakers saying about Biden exiting the election race?

U.S. House Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, said that Democrats were embracing what many people in the nation knew — Biden was not fit to serve.

In a statement, Arrington said that "with record crime and inflation, international conflicts and threats of world war, and a nation teetering on stagnation and a sovereign debt crisis, I expect my Democrat colleagues’ support in calling for President Biden to resign immediately."

More: Texas politicians react to end of Biden's reelection bid: 'A stunning act of patriotism'

Texas State Rep. Dustin Burrows also joined in the same notion for calling for the president to resign.

Burrows posted to social media that "hiding President Joe Biden’s incapacity from the voting public and duping Democrat voters into electing him in the Primary has to be one of the most egregious acts of voter suppression committed by the Democratic party and the media."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: President Biden exits race, leaves Lubbock asking questions