How will election go down in history? 2 AU experts weigh in

AUGUSTA, Ga. - President Joe Biden facing former President Donald Trump in 2024 was a race that was full of historical implications all its own.

It would have been the first time two presidential candidates would have faced each other in consecutive elections since 1956, when GOP President Dwight D. Eisenhower again defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson in a repeat of the 1952 election.

So much for that.

After Sunday’s stunning announcement from Biden on social media that he was ending his reelection bid, 2024 has taken on an entirely new historical perspective.

News 12 talked with two experts at Augusta University – political science professor Gregg Murray and history professor John Hayes – to get their thoughts.

See the full interviews

The political perspective from Gregg Murray:

The historical perspective from John Hayes:

Trump’s Republican White House nomination was already unprecedented:

• First time the GOP has nominated the same candidate for three consecutive years;
• First time the GOP has nominated a president who lost a reelection bid for another term;
• First time an impeached president has been nominated for another term;
• First time any major political party has nominated a convicted felon for president.

Biden has now become the first sitting president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to end his reelection bid. He is also the first presidential candidate in modern political history to withdraw from the race after winning virtually all of his party’s delegates.

Also, for the first time since 1976, a general election presidential ballot will be without the names “Biden,” “Bush” or “Clinton” appearing on the ticket:

• Bush - George H.W. was Ronald Reagan’s vice presidential running mate in 1980 and 1984; he ran for president in 1988 and reelection in 1992, when he was defeated by ...
• William Jefferson Clinton - Clinton won the presidency in 1992 and won reelection in 1996. His wife, Hillary Clinton, was the Democratic White House nominee in 2016, when she was defeated by Trump.
• Joe Biden - Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate in 2008 and 2012. He ran for and won the presidency in 2020.

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