Cong. Raúl Grijalva Calls on Biden to Withdraw from Presidential Race
4th Sitting Dem Rep – first from AZ – to bolt following debate
By Ken Kurson, July 3, 2024 4:06 pm
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, Democratic Congressman in Arizona’s 7th CD, became the fourth sitting US House member, and the first from Arizona, to call for Joe Biden to leave the presidential race in the wake of last Thursday’s catastrophic debate performance by the president.
Grijalva told the New York Times today that “If he’s the candidate, I’m going to support him, but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere … What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.”
Yesterday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas had been the first sitting Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw. That was followed by Democrats Jared Golden (Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington), who didn’t quite demand a withdrawal but publicly expressed that Biden’s continued presence in the race would result in widespread Democratic losses in November.
At 76, Grijalva isn’t exactly a spring chicken himself. The news in April that he was undergoing treatment for a cancer diagnosis led to speculation that he might not run for re-election this year, possibly opening the door to a run by his daughter, Adelita Grijalva, who currently serves as a Pima County Supervisor for District 5.
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