Biden Ends Reelection Campaign Built On Legislative Agenda With Big Implications For CRE
President Joe Biden has ended his reelection campaign, a historic move that puts the Democratic ticket up in the air with less than four months until Election Day.
Biden faced mounting pressure from Democratic leaders calling on him to step aside after his performance in a June 27 debate raised concerns about his age.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” Biden wrote in a letter posted on social media Sunday. “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.”
Former President Donald Trump’s lead has grown in national and battleground state polls since the debate, heightening fears among Democrats that Biden would be unable to win a second term in office. With one month until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, it remains to be seen who will be the next standard-bearer for the party.
Vice President Kamala Harris has been viewed as the most likely replacement, and Biden endorsed her via another social media post Sunday.
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. 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… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
Harris said in a post shortly after that she is “honored to have the president's endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.” She also received endorsements Sunday from former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as Rep. Jim Clyburn, an influential Democrat from South Carolina.
Biden had spent months campaigning on his success in pushing through a major legislative agenda over the last four years, signing a series of spending bills that had implications for commercial real estate and the economy at large.
He signed the $1.9T American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021, a sweeping pandemic relief bill that sent checks to many Americans and injected money into state and local governments.
In November 2021, the president signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, adding $550B in new federal investment into roads, bridges, rail systems, public transit networks, ports, airports, power grids, broadband internet and more.
In August 2022, Biden signed the $280B CHIPS and Science Act, spurring a series of new semiconductor chip factory developments around the country and pouring money into regional tech hubs. That same month, he signed the $2T Inflation Reduction Act, which included $369B in clean energy and climate change-related investments.
While these huge federal investments sparked new real estate projects around the country, they may have also contributed to inflation reaching a 40-year-high in 2022, causing the Federal Reserve to launch an aggressive campaign of raising interest rates. Higher interest rates have dramatically slowed new real estate construction and have put many existing owners with floating-rate loans in financial distress.
In his reelection campaign, Biden has increasingly made the housing crisis a focus. Last week, he proposed capping annual rent increases at 5% at apartments owned by landlords with portfolios of more than 50 units.
