CORVALLIS, OR -- Sunday's announcement that President Biden would withdraw from his re-election campaign was one for the history books. Pundits have used the word "unprecedented" to describe Biden's decision. But academics say that's only partially true.
In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson withdrew from his re-election campaign, "But he did so on March 31 of 1968, so there was a lot more time to have other candidates come in and run in the primaries," says David Bernell, an Associate Professor at Oregon State University's School of Public Policy. Johnson backed out after winning the New Hampshire Primary, but Bernell says the small margin proved he'd lost the support of voters.
Biden's announcement comes less than four months before the General Election, "So, it's an incredibly short time period in order to figure out what to do in this time. So in that sense, it really is unprecedented in this modern era, where over the last 50 years, we have used primaries to determine the nominee."
It was also a different time in America. The nation was divided over the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. "In April of that year, Martin Luther King was assassinated," says Bernell, "And in June of that year, Robert F Kennedy - who was running for President to succeed LBJ - was assassinated." That led to a contentious Democratic convention in Chicago and an eventual election loss for the party.
Bernell says the swift elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris may have been an attempt by Democrats to avoid a similar drawn out fight, this time. "That just wasn't going to serve the party well. They had just spent the last three or four weeks arguing among themselves about, 'What should be the fate of President Biden? Should he run again or not?'" He notes a Harris campaign also forces Republicans to adjust, "The question of age and 'two old men running for President,' that a lot people said they didn't want either of them on the ticket, now the whole dynamic has changed. So this really upset everything."
But Bernell says nothing is official until the Democrats' convention in late August, again in Chicago.
Listen to our full conversation with Assoc. Professor David Bernell:
