Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Tuesday that he is supporting President Biden’s reelection in 2024 and is foregoing a third presidential bid.
Sanders, who finished second to Biden in 2020 for the Democratic presidential nomination, made the announcement hours after Biden announced his bid for a second White House term. He also discouraged any progressive politician or individual from challenging the incumbent president, asking them to train their focus on defeating former President Trump or another eventual GOP nominee.
“The last thing this country needs is a Donald Trump or some other right-wing demagogue who is going to try to undermine American democracy or take away a woman’s right to choose, or not address the crisis of gun violence, or racism, sexism or homophobia,” Sanders told The Associated Press in an interview. “So I’m in to do what I can to make sure that the president is reelected.”
“People will do what they want to do,” Sanders said about a possible progressive challenger to the president. “I think Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee. And my job, and I think the progressive movement’s job, is to make certain that he stands up and fights for the working class of this country and does not take anything for granted.”
Sanders had left the door open to a 2024 campaign for much of the past year, largely in case Biden, 80, declined to seek a second term. Biden has for months teased that he would seek four more years in office, but he waited until Tuesday to make that call official.
The decision also means that Sanders, 81, will not seek the presidency again. Sanders, who also finished second to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 race for the Democratic nod, said running for the presidency was “a wonderful privilege.”
“I enjoyed it very much, and I hope we had some impact on the nature of American politics. But right now, my job is to do what I can as chairman of the [Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee], to see Biden gets reelected and to see what I can do to help transform policy in America to help protect the needs of workers,” he told the AP.
Sanders is up for reelection for a fourth term in 2024, but he has yet to announce his plans.