Joe Biden drops out of the presidential race

US President Joe Biden has announced that he no longer plans to run for re-election, a decision that comes after growing pressure from some Democratic Party supporters, including high-profile tech investors and executives.

“Serving as your president has been the greatest honor of my life,” Biden said. a statement“And while I intend to run for re-election, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and country that I step down and focus on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

In a subsequent post, Biden offered Vice President Kamala Harris his “full support and endorsement” to become the Democratic Party’s nominee.

The announcement comes after Biden’s appearance at the presidential debate on June 27 rekindled concerns about the 81-year-old candidate’s age, leading parts of the Democratic Party and its donors – including notable names from the tech world – to pressure him to pull out of the debate.

Venture capitalist Michael Moritz said this week that Biden should step aside, and said he was pausing his donations to the Democratic Party in the meantime. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus have also called on 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 appeared in the process, even if their positions on Biden are 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 of the election, 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 Democrats “now have hope” and added that party delegates “need to pick a swing state winner.”

The announcement also comes after the week-long 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 are at stake” in this election.

Biden’s tenure has been eventful for tech: He signed the CHIPS Act with $52.7 billion aimed at reviving domestic semiconductor production, funding EV and battery manufacturing, and signed another bill that would ban TikTok if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the app. He also appointed an FTC chair who remains willing to challenge big tech companies on antitrust issues.