By Joseph Stepansky

    United States President Biden says in a letter on X that he is stepping aside as a candidate for the 2024 presidential election and backs Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic nominee.

    Dozens of Democratic Congress members, governors and officials have endorsed Harris for president.

    Many Congressional Democrats had publicly urged the 81-year-old Biden to drop out of the race after his shaky debate performance last month against Republican challenger Donald Trump, 78.

    Biden, who had previously dismissed the calls to abandon his re-election campaign, says he plans to serve the remainder of his term in office.

    Harris’s vice-presidential pick likely to come from a swing state

    More from Caruthers, the vice president of the Fair Elections Centre.

    She said the Democratic Party is in “unprecedented territory” and laid out Harris’s possible calculations in choosing a vice-presidential candidate.

    “I would assume that whoever the running mate is someone who has strategic value to the ticket – whether that is through proper name ID where a lot of people across the country understands, knows or is familiar with that person,” she said.

    “I would assume this is also someone who has strategic value especially, in thinking about the Electoral College – looking at particular states that the Democrats need to win versus the particular states that the Republicans are predicted to win. And I would assume that it’s going to be someone that is connected to one of the swing states,” she added.

    World leaders react to Biden dropping out

    Leaders across the world are responding to Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid.

    Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Australia’s Anthony Albanese and Germany’s Olaf Scholz lauded the US president and credited him for deepening ties with their countries, while a spokesman for the Kremlin said Russia was more focused on winning the war in Ukraine than the outcome of the US election.