Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Another historic development in the race for the U.S. Presidency occurred Sunday when President Joe Biden made the decision to step away from the race, making way for a new candidate to face Republican nominee Donald Trump.
It's not a first, however.
Back in 1968, Lyndon Johnson told a national audience he would seek, nor accept another term as President. Jacob Neiheisel from the University at Buffalo attributed it to a couple of factors.
"My understanding of that is he was looking at things like Vietnam in particular, and looking at things on the domestic side that were changing in large part because of Vietnam. Chiefly, his domestic legislation wasn't really moving, because so much of the focus was was abroad. So I think that he thought the race is unwinnable," said Neiheisel in an interview with WBEN.
Neiheisel says it led to a chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
"It wasn't just the sort of side that wanted to continue the war, [Hubert] Humphrey, versus the more antiwar Democrats, I think most closely identified with George McGovern. It was also the fact that, Mayor [Richard] Daley, and his sort of machine politics had infused the floor, and they were trying to put their thumb on the scale," Neiheisel added.
The best analogy Neiheisel gave to Humphrey winning the nomination was a broken prize.
"You face a Democratic Party that was divided against itself, he faced a more unified Republican Party, and went on to defeat because of those kinds of factors," Neiheisel noted.
Neiheisel says he doesn't anticipate what happened in 1968 to happen in 2024 with Biden stepping aside.
"I do think you would have lots of infighting that, of course, gets broadcast over-and-over again. That becomes the narrative of that campaign." Neiheisel explained.
He does say no matter who emerges from that, the nominee will have to deal with the fact he or she is facing something of a broken party, and being behind time in campaigning to get the message across.
This year's Democratic convention is Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
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