President Joe Biden’s decision on Sunday to withdraw as a candidate for reelection is without precedent in American history. Presidents have declined to run before, most recently Lyndon Johnson in 1968, but never had such an announcement been made so late in a campaign cycle.
Democrats quickly coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris as their presidential nominee, and Virginians will need to hear more from her about issues critical to the commonwealth — her approach to military leadership and her plans to fight climate change, chief among them. That will be a challenge with only 15 weeks until Election Day, but one she must readily accept.
Murmured concern about Biden’s age grew into full-throated shouts following a disastrous debate performance in June that had the president’s colleagues and party leaders fearful of an electoral rout this fall. Biden stood resolute against those seeking to push him out, but reporting suggests his inner circle — first lady Jill Biden, his family, trusted aides — convinced him that winning would be a near-impossible task.
On Sunday, the president, isolating at home due to a COVID infection, released a statement formally ending his reelection bid. Social media messages from the campaign followed, in which Biden threw his support behind Harris as the Democratic nominee to face former President Donald Trump this fall.
Prominent Virginia Democrats followed suit, heaping praise on Biden for a lifetime of public service and pledging to help Harris in the coming months. These included the entire Democratic congressional delegation and most, if not all, prominent party leaders in state government.
Polls in Virginia showed a dead heat between Trump and Biden, with trends favoring Trump. The former president held a rally in Chesapeake last month, a day after a visit by Jill Biden, showing the emphasis both campaigns place on winning the commonwealth’s electoral votes.
Expect Harris to continue that strategy and to court Virginia in her quest for the White House. That would be refreshing, not only for commonwealth voters to be at the center of the presidential race, but because it will force both candidates to speak about topics that matter to places such as Hampton Roads.
Military leadership and foreign policy will be key. Neither Trump nor Harris served in the armed forces, but Trump’s record on these issues was well defined in his four years in office and subsequent presidential campaigns: his contempt for the NATO alliance, his pledge to swiftly end the war in Ukraine (no matter what that may mean for the Ukrainians) and his praise for dictators such as North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.
In contrast, Harris’s record is more opaque. She served on the Senate Intelligence Committee prior to her election as vice president, and has been a prominent voice in the administration in favor of aid for Ukraine and for a more robust and assertive foreign policy in response to growing Chinese influence in southeast Asia. Her campaign must articulate where she would continue Biden’s policies and those areas, such as the Israel-Gaza war, where she would take a different approach — issues of great interest to the thousands of active-duty service members and veterans who call this region home.
Climate change will also weigh heavily in local voters’ minds, but here the candidates’ contrast is clearer. Trump claims global warming is a “Chinese hoax” and pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement as president; Harris prosecuted polluters while serving as California’s attorney general and, as a U.S. senator, sponsored the Green New Deal legislation. As vice president, she also cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate for the Inflation Reduction Act, considered to be one of the most consequential climate bills in history.
Virginia alone will not determine who takes the oath of office in January, but voters here are likely to play a prominent role in the election. Speaking to issues important to the commonwealth will be necessary for both candidates, and Virginia should relish the chance to see its issues front and center this fall.
