After Much Speculation, Michelle Obama’s Office Declares That She ‘Will Not Be Running For President’ In 2024 Election

The office of former First Lady Michelle Obama has declared that she has no plans to run for president in this year’s election.

On March 5, Obama’s office ended talks of her possible run for president in a bid to silence frequent speculation and wishful thinking about her taking the Democratic nomination from President Joe Biden.

“As former first lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” Crystal Carson, the communications director of the former first lady’s office, declared in a statement. “Mrs. Obama supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris‘ re-election campaign.”

This statement comes after Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy publicly encouraged the idea that Obama could replace Biden on the ballot.

Many Republicans and conservative commentators fueled speculation that Obama could come in at the last minute, possibly by the August Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“I do think we are seeing the corporate media starting to turn on Joe Biden,” Cruz said on his Verdict podcast in February.

“I believe there is a very significant chance the Democrat Party would pull the cord on Joe Biden, yank him out and replace him with Michelle Obama,” the Texas senator then stated.

Many commentators viewed her as the “best chance” for Democrats to preserve the White House in a potential matchup against former President Donald Trump.

Obama’s husband, former President Barack Obama, has backed Biden in his anticipated rematch against Trump, saying he’s “all in” for his former vice president.

“Politics is hard,” the former first lady told Oprah Winfrey during her Netflix special The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey back in 2023. “You’ve got to want it. It’s got to be in your soul because it is so important. It is not in my soul.”

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released on February 26, nearly 48% of the Democratic voters stated that they approve of the Democratic Party “finding another candidate to replace Joe Biden before the election in November,” compared to the 38% who did not.

However, only 33% of Democrats believed a ballot shakeup would happen. 

The pollster did not find any consensus among likely Democratic voters in regard to who should replace Biden, on the ballot in fall 2024, in the event he does not want to be re-elected. 

But Obama, who led the group, was granted 20% support among a list of options that included Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, “none of the above” and “not sure.”

The poll discovered that 27% of Democrats selected “none of the above.” 

Back in February, leading bookmakers found that Obama is the frontrunner to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee in the event that he steps down prior to the 2024 election. While the former first lady did not indicate an interest in a White House bid around this time, betting company Betfair currently offered odds of 8/1 (11%) on her as the most likely alternative to Biden. She initially started at 22/1.

On June 29, 2023, Michelle Obama criticized the Supreme Court ruling made which banned affirmative action in higher education.

She remembered how she had trouble fitting in at college since she was one of the only black students at Princeton. 

In January, the former first lady appeared on an episode of On Purpose With Jay Shetty, the podcast hosted by British podcaster Jay Shetty. During this episode, she listed the fears that keep her up at night, including the potential results of the 2024 election.