MAINE, USA —
Voters from both sides of the aisle are expressing their thoughts and trying to make sense of the most recent developments in an already intense bid for the United States presidency.
President Joe Biden announced Saturday afternoon that he would be dropping out of the 2024 race. Biden also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jim Wright is a Democratic voter in Maine and said he's never struggled when deciding which party to support.
"I agree with a lot of the Democrat policies," Wright said.
However, in regard to the upcoming election, he said he found himself struggling to fully send the party his support.
"I'm not voting for Trump, but I was in a pickle," he explained.
Wright said he was specifically concerned about Biden's health.
"Since the first debate, it was just obvious he didn't have what it takes to be the president of the United States," he said.
Biden withdrew his bid, so those concerns may be gone, but there's a lot at stake for Democrats.
"This is an enormous risk," Ronald Schmidt, professor and chair of the Political Science department at the University of Southern Maine, said.
Schmidt said the U.S. hasn't seen this happen since 1968, when Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out. The results that time, by Schmidt's standards, were not good for the Democratic party.
"The result was a convention that descended into utter chaos," Schmidt said.
However, Schmidt said he believed history wouldn't necessarily repeat itself.
"The party does seem to be trying to pull itself together behind her," Schmidt said of Harris, who already has the backing of several caucus heads. "She's become sort of a point person on issues of women's health, reproductive freedom, the right to privacy."
Still, he predicts the last-minute change will be a dramatic shift for both sides.
"I think it will be a frenzy of attempts at definition ... of the party trying to define itself and trying to define the leading candidate and of the Republicans trying to define the Democratic leading candidate," Schmidt said.
For Republican voters, how they define the other side is already changing.
"I think it's a good thing for them," Dana Graham, a Republican voter, told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Graham said she's happy that even if her vote for former President Donald Trump doesn't help Republicans win in November, Biden still won't be the one in office.
"I think they need someone to run the country that is competent and can get things done," she said.
Now the question is, will the Democratic party throw support behind the current vice president at its convention next month? Some local voters think it’s the smoothest transition.
"I think with Kamala Harris, I think some of the priorities Biden was speaking to would stay on that path," Jim Wright expressed.
The decision whether to move forward with Harris as the nominee will be made by the Democratic National Committee. DNC chair Jamie Harrison has previously said in a statement that the party would use a transparent and orderly process to move forward with a candidate in the coming days.