“It has been 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.
For my part: my very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President.
And it’s been the best decision I’ve made.
Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.
Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”
– A message from President Biden on the Biden-Harris campaign website
To be sure, Vice President Kamala Harris is not officially the candidate for President yet— that is what the upcoming Democratic National Convention is for, which starts Aug. 19.
There is no formal rule-based structure that transfers pledged delegates from one candidate to another (Biden to Harris) ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
Under the Democratic National Committee rules, pledged delegates are bound to initially vote for the candidate they’re assigned.
Since Biden has left the race, delegates are now free to support whomever they choose.
Biden’s endorsement will nudge them towards voting for Harris, though.
A much more forceful endorsement would have been for Biden to resign as President, handing over the reigns to Harris, and vaulting her to the top of the ticket that she has been on all along.
Then there is the latest political parlor game: trying to guess correctly who Harris will pick as her running mate once she has secured the nomination.