What will happen if Biden steps out of 2024 presidential election race?

US President Joe Biden is under pressure to step down from the presidential election candidacy by fellow Democrats after his disastrous debate showdown against the former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Biden has previously rejected to exit the presidential race believing he is fit to lead a federal government for four more years. However, he has been losing support of the Democratic Party as more and more Democrats urge him to step down, reported CNBC.

Moreover, it was revealed on Wednesday that Biden had contracted COVID-19. Just a day prior, he had stated that if a medical condition were to arise, he would rethink his decision to run for the White House.

As reports of Biden stepping out of the race are emerging, it is important to know if the president makes the decision or if the decision is made for him, and if he steps down then how will the Democratic Party deal with the situation with the election in November.

Biden won the primaries and grabbed more than 4,000 delegates, automatically becoming the Democratic nominee for the upcoming election. The delegates will go on to virtually vote for him before the Democratic National Convention in August.

If Biden’s race ends before the delegates begin the voting, then they could cast their votes for a new Democratic candidate. The Democratic National Committee's (DNC) rules state that if a candidate fails to grab the majority of votes, then more than 700 super delegates would cast subsequent ballots. The voting will continue until a candidate wins a majority of the delegates.

In another case, if Biden did not step down but would pass away, resign or suffer a disability after the convention then the DNC chairman Jaime Harrison would conduct a meeting with the top congressional Democrats and he would then report to the committee who is authorised to fill the seat.

The pressure on Biden could possibly result in the likeliest alternative of Vice President Kamala Harris being appointed as the Democratic presidential race nominee but just like Biden, Harris’s ratings have been on a decline during the last four years she has been VP.

Harris's declining popularity and favour in the public has also urged Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to say that the people who want Biden to step down also want to see Harris out of the race: "If you think there is a consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that they will support Vice President Kamala Harris, you would be mistaken," she stated during an Instagram live on Friday.

She added: "I'm in these rooms, I see what they say... a lot of them are not just interested in removing the president, they are interested in removing the whole ticket."