KY Rep. McGarvey calls on Biden to withdraw from 2024 race
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Is Gov. Andy Beshear in play for Vice President?
President Joe Biden announced July 21, 2024, he would be bowing out of his re-election bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the new nominee. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s name has been tossed around as Harris’s potential running mate.
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Rep. Morgan McGarvey, the lone Democrat representing Kentucky in Congress, on Friday called on President Joe Biden to abandon his re-election campaign.
“There is no joy in the recognition he should not be our nominee in November,” McGarvey wrote in a statement. “But the stakes of this election are too high and we can’t risk the focus of the campaign being anything other than Donald Trump.”
McGarvey joins more than 30 House Democrats who have asked the president to step aside in order to elevate a nominee with a better chance of stopping a second Trump term. Three Senate Democrats have also called for Biden to halt his run.
Biden is reportedly reevaluating his candidacy as he recovers from a bout of COVID-19, which has sequestered him in his Delaware beach house.
McGarvey’s statement praised Biden as an “effective and empathetic leader” but emphasized the importance of not only defeating Trump, but flipping the House back into Democratic hands and protecting a narrow Democratic majority in the Senate.
Since the June 27 presidential debate, congressional Democrats’ anxiety has soared that Biden’s unpopularity could endanger many of their own seats in November.
“President Biden is a good man who cares deeply about the American people,” McGarvey said in a statement. “I trust that he will do what’s best for the nation, and we will come together as Democrats to move the country forward.”
Former Rep. John Yarmuth, who previously held McGarvey’s seat, told the Herald-Leader Thursday evening he thought Biden should step aside.
Yarmuth said a lack of time ahead of the Aug. 19 Democratic National Convention would require Democrats to rally around Vice President Kamala Harris as the replacement 2024 nominee. If were to become the new Democratic nominee, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear would be on the short list to be a potential vice-president, Yarmuth said.
This story was originally published July 19, 2024 at 4:57 PM with the headline "KY Rep. McGarvey calls on Biden to withdraw from 2024 race."
