President Biden announces run for a second term in 2024 election

After months of speculation, President Joe Biden officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign.

In a video released by his campaign on Tuesday, the president announced he would run for a second term to continue his “battle for the soul of America.”

ACCOKEEK, MD – APRIL 19: President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at an International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 union training facility on April 19, 2023 in Accokeek, Maryland. Biden spoke on his plans to expand the economy and addressed Republican leadership’s approach to raising the debt ceiling later this year. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

“Personal freedom is fundamental to who you are as Americans. There’s nothing more important, nothing more sacred,” said Biden in his campaign launch video, which opens with images of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and a protester holding up an “Abortion is Healthcare” sign in front of the Supreme Court. 

He continued: “Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting Social Security – that you paid for your entire life — cutting taxes from the very wealthy, dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books and telling people who they can love all and making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.”

If current polling of potential voters is any indication, President Biden will likely clear the Democratic presidential nomination to face former President Donald Trump for a 2024 rematch of the 2020 presidential contest — even as Trump faces 34 felony charges and several criminal and civil investigations and lawsuits.

As Biden dusts off the campaign boots, he will have to hit the road to energize Black and brown voters who were critical to his 2020 victory against Donald Trump.

While the president’s campaign launch makes reference to key issues impacting Black communities, like the banning of Black history books in schools and restrictive voting laws, Howard University associate professor of political science Marcus Board Jr. warns that Biden and the Democratic Party will have to void “abandoning social justice” or risk “alienating their base.”

“2024 will be the first election since Obama 2012 where Black Lives Matter will not be prioritized on the campaign agenda,” Board predicted. 

“The Republican right has effectively moved the language of racial politics in elections away from BLM and towards being woke and what they call CRT –  but is actually just U.S. history.”

The president already gave an early nod to Black voters in his decision to make South Carolina the first voting state in the Democratic primary. The state was a turning point for Biden’s 2020 campaign after longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-SC, endorsed him just days before the primary – so much so that Clyburn and Black voters in South Carolina are credited for Biden’s presidential win. 

Clyburn told theGrio in a previous interview, “I think it’s important to him to demonstrate that to the African-American voters in South Carolina, that he respects them as part of this party and their influence should be applied early in the process and not wait for momentum to build somewhere else and put them out of reach.”

SPARTANBURG, SC – FEBRUARY 28: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with supporters during a campaign event at Wofford University February 28, 2020 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. South Carolinians will vote in the Democratic presidential primary tomorrow. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

In a previous interview with theGrio, Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison expressed optimism for President Biden’s chances for re-election.

“We are going to win … we have a plan which we have been executing, in a flawless manner, to continue to deliver for the American people,” said Harrison. “We just got to put in the work, and that’s what we’re going to do and that’s what we have been doing.”

Biden, 80, the oldest-living U.S. president in American history, will also be the oldest president to seek re-election. The commander-in-chief’s age has been a focus of sorts for pundits and voters, and it will certainly be a factor for the Biden campaign to navigate.

Board told theGrio that while Biden will continue hearing about his age, he must keep assuring voters he feels great to lead.

The Howard professor predicts the Biden team will lean into a “highlight reel” of their accomplishments to appeal to Black voters, from the appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court to “getting unemployment to century lows, and more.”

He added, “They’ll be banking on their incumbent advantage, and that usually works.”

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