U.S. President Joe Biden has announced he no longer plans to seek reelection, a decision that follows weeks of growing pressure from some Democratic Party supporters, including high-profile tech investors and executives.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden said in a statement. “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.”
In a subsequent post, Biden offered his “full support and endorsement” for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s nominee.
The announcement comes after Biden’s appearance at the June 27 presidential debate reignited concerns about the 81-year-old candidate’s age, prompting parts of the Democratic Party and its donor base — including notable names in the tech world — to pressure him to drop out.
Venture capitalist Michael Moritz said this week that Biden must step aside, and he said he was putting his donations to the Democratic Party on hold in the meantime. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus had also called for Biden to drop out of the race.
Another VC, Ted Dintersmith, co-authored a plan for a proposed “blitz primary” process designed to select Biden’s replacement. Other tech industry Democrats have been visible in the process even if their positions on Biden were less clear — Harris met with a group of Silicon Valley donors including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman on Friday.
Since Biden announced he was dropping out, Hoffman said, “I wholeheartedly support Kamala Harris and her candidacy for President of the United States in our fight for democracy in November.” Hastings did not endorse Harris but said the Democrats “have hope now” and said party delegates “need to pick a swing state winner.”
The announcement also comes after the weeklong Republican National Convention, where former president Donald Trump officially accepted the party’s nomination and named JD Vance (a former VC with deep ties to Silicon Valley) as his running mate. X owner Elon Musk declared his support for Trump, as did VCs Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who argued that “the future of our business, the future of technology, and the future of America is at stake” in this election.
Biden’s term has been an eventful one for tech: He signed the CHIPS Act with $52.7 billion aimed at revitalizing domestic semiconductor production, funded EV and battery manufacturing and signed another bill that will ban TikTok if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the app. He also appointed an FTC chair who’s been more than willing to challenge big tech companies over antitrust issues.
