The president works with Congress to pass laws, and has the power to pardon federal crimes. They are also expected to set an example for other elected officials by their behavior and style of work.
Candidates for the presidency belong to political parties with different ideologies. The two main parties are the Democrats and the Republicans. The candidates campaign by organising events called Primaries and Caucuses. Voters go to these events and use a secret ballot to choose their preferred candidate. Those who get the most votes are awarded with delegates that will represent their party at the conventions.
Those delegates will then go on to select the final presidential candidate for their party. The winning candidate must win the most votes in the general election. The person with the most electoral votes becomes president. In the US there are 538 electoral votes, and each state gets a certain number of them depending on its population. The candidate who wins 270 of those votes is declared the winner of the presidential race.
In January 2024, Biden was leading Trump in a series of Democratic and Republican primary elections and caucuses. However, he was struggling to gain a significant lead over Trump in televised debates. A growing number of Democrats and left-leaning commentators, newspapers, and news organizations began to call on him to withdraw from the race.
In June 2024, he announced that he would end his campaign and endorsed Harris as the party’s candidate. He cited concerns about his debating abilities as well as worries that he was less suited to navigating foreign policy and economic issues.