Joe Biden clinches easy Democratic primary wins in Georgia, Mississippi
President Joe Biden clinched the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2024 election on Tuesday night after winning primary races in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington and the Northern Mariana Islands. He will not officially become the nominee until the Democratic National Convention delegates vote this summer.
The incumbent president won his second nomination, surpassing the 1,968 delegates required to secure his spot as the presumptive Democratic candidate.
The Democratic Party has 4,672 delegates in total, and the presidential nominee must win the majority of delegates at the DNC in Chicago in August to officially accept the nomination.
The GOP frontrunner, Donald Trump, is expected to secure the nomination following Tuesday evening’s results of the Hawaii caucus.
“We are facing a sobering reality,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday after winning the nomination. “Freedom and democracy are at risk here at home in a way they have not been since the Civil War. Donald Trump is running a campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America.”
Sign-up for Your Vote: Text with the USA TODAY elections team.
“I believe that the American people will choose to keep us moving into the future,” he added.
Biden will not be officially the Democratic nominee until the DNC delegation votes this summer.
DNC chair urges support for Biden-Harris ticket
DNC Chair Minyon Moore celebrated the win and encouraged Democrats to support the Biden-Harris ticket.
“As we face another battle for the soul of our nation, we encourage every American to tune in to the Democratic National Convention this summer to celebrate the Biden-Harris ticket and rally around Democrats’ vision of a free and fair America,” Moore wrote in a statement.
Biden win comes after release of Robert Hur interview transcript
Biden’s victory comes after the House Judiciary Committee released the full transcript of his two-day interview with special counsel Robert Hur last October regarding his handling of classified documents.
Transcripts showed that the president told Hur that he didn’t purposely keep the classified information after his tenure as vice president ended. In a report released last month, the special counsel said Biden shouldn’t face criminal charges for mishandling documents and described him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”