President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House.

In an announcement published to social media, Biden said he will serve out the remainder of his term that ends on Jan. 20, 2025. He also endorsed vice president Kamala Harris to succeed him on the Democratic Party ticket in November.

“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in his statement posted to his X account. “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

Following Biden’s endorsement of Harris, Mississippi Democrats have been quick to urge constituents to get behind the decision.

“As Democrats, we have faced a lot lately, and although I wish President Biden would be leading the Democratic ticket, I am committed to supporting our nominee,” Congressman Bennie Thompson, who represents Vicksburg, wrote on social media. “We have to unite; democracy depends on it!”

The announcement comes about a month after a disastrous debate against former president and Republican challenger Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office.

Biden faced criticism from within his own Democratic Party about his reelection prospects. A number of prominent Democrat politicians and donors had urged Biden to step aside.

Last week the 81-year-old Biden was diagnosed with COVID-19, which also raised health concerns. He has been isolating at his beach house in Delaware.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote in his initial announcement. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

A party’s presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. The last first-term incumbent who decided not to run for reelection was Lyndon Johnson in 1968, and he made his announcement in March.

It was not immediately clear how the Democrats would choose Biden’s replacement. The party’s convention is Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

Biden won the vast majority of delegates and every primary election but one, which would have made his nomination a formality. Now that he has dropped out, those delegates will be free to support another candidate.

Harris, 59, appeared to be the natural successor, in large part because she is the only candidate who can directly tap into the Biden campaign’s funds, according to federal campaign finance rules.

Vicksburg Mayor Geroge Flaggs Jr. is now an Independent, but spent 26 years in the Mississippi House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party. Flaggs said he believes Biden’s decision showed the president’s willingness to put the country first.

“After he assessed everything and looked at his physical ability, I think he put himself second and the country first,” Flaggs said. “I think he did a courageous thing.”

Flaggs also said he believes Harris will emerge as the party’s eventual nominee.

“(Biden) used protocol. He did what he thought was best for the country. Normally, that’s what a president will do; nominate his second in command. I think the opportunity for (Harris) to be nominated is probably fast-approaching. And who wins might come down to who she picks as her VP.”

As Democrats work to solidify their eventual nominee, they also face looming deadlines in several states to register a candidate to get them on the ballot. They had sought to get around that by holding a virtual roll call in the coming days to nominate Biden, and got waivers from some states since Biden appeared to be locked in as the nominee.

“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement issued through the Biden-Harris campaign. “Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead.”