Former First Lady Michelle Obama quelled speculation she may replace Biden as the Democrat candidate, with her office proclaiming that she will not run for president in 2024.
In a statement to NBC News, Obama’s office said Tuesday she and former President Barack Obama will support Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.
“As former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” said Crystal Carson, director of communications for her office. “Mrs. Obama supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign.”
The report went on to say that Michelle AKA “Big Mike” will campaign for Biden in a limited capacity as Election Day approaches.
Sources familiar with the discussions say she intends to assist the Biden campaign this fall, as she did four years ago. But as in 2020, her engagement is likely to be fairly limited compared to that of her husband, reflecting both her other commitments and her long-standing reluctance to re-enter the political fray full time, the sources said.
The expectation of many close to Biden is that, given the former first lady’s star power, the Biden campaign will seek to maximize her limited role later in the campaign, when more swing voters will be paying attention to the race. A senior Biden adviser said there have been early conversations with Obama’s team about campaign engagements and noted that an obvious area of “alignment” with her is her nonpartisan voter registration group, When We All Vote, which aims to promote turnout and close the registration gap among young voters and people of color.
“President and Michelle Obama were enormously helpful in the fight to beat Donald Trump and elect President Biden and Vice President Harris the first time and we are grateful to have their voice and their support in the fight for the fate of our democracy this November,” Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement.
The former First Lady previously shut down speculation that she wouldn’t run in 2024, claiming politics is “not in my soul.”
“Politics is hard,” she said in the 2023 Netflix documentary The Light We Carry. “And the people who get into it…you’ve got to want it. It’s got to be in your soul, because it is so important. It is not in my soul.”
Speculation about a Michelle Obama 2024 run grew among both Democrats and Republicans as Joe Biden’s deteriorating cognitive and physical health have become blatantly obvious, reflected in numerous polls showing most Americans are concerned 81-year-old Biden may be unfit for the job as president.
Obama fueled the speculation after stating in a January interview that she was “terrified” about the possibility of Trump retaking the White House.
“What’s going to happen in this next election? I’m terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted,” Obama told Jay Shetty on his podcast “On Purpose.”
