Biden dropped out of the race. NY Democrats express thanks and relief.

New York Democrats lauded President Joe Biden for ending his reelection bid on Sunday, a dramatic move that upends the presidential race and threatens to reshape a handful of tight New York congressional races — which could determine the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he's a truly amazing human being,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-Brooklyn) posted on X Sunday. “His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first.”

The Democratic president threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, endorsing her to become the party’s new nominee to take on Republican rival Donald Trump in November. The candidate at the top of the ticket can have a dramatic impact on down-ballot races, so New York Democrats will now have to rally around Biden’s replacement if they want to help their party take back the House.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote in an open letter posted on social media. “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 to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Since Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump in June, his campaign has been plagued by concerns over his health, age and mental acuity. Polls showed Biden doing poorly in deep-blue New York even before the debate, and Democrats have worried privately and publicly that his continued candidacy would discourage Democratic turnout rather than drive it.

Some Democrats feared Biden would prove a liability for members of his party running in close congressional contests on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley and in Central New York. Those areas are home to a handful of battleground districts that helped Republicans win a razor-thin House majority in 2022.

In an interview with Gothamist, New York state Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs said he believes Biden made the right call.

"I am very proud of President Biden for putting not just the party but the country ahead of his personal desire to stand again for president," Jacobs said. "I think it was a noble act. He's always demonstrated greatness and no more so than now."

Prior to Biden’s announcement Sunday, most prominent New York Democrats did not urge the president to drop out – at least in public.

Multiple news outlets reported that Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) had privately warned Biden that remaining on the top of the ticket could harm Democrats’ chances of taking the House of Representatives this fall.

On Sunday, Schumer said Biden’s decision to end his campaign shows that he is “a true patriot and great American.”

One congressmember with his future at stake, Rep. Pat Ryan of the Hudson Valley, wrote an op-ed in the Poughkeepsie Journal earlier this month calling on Biden to end his campaign “for the good of the country.”

Ryan was the first New York congressmember to publicly request that Biden step aside. First elected to Congress in a 2022 special election, Ryan is facing a competitive challenge from Republican Alison Esposito, who lost a bid for lieutenant governor running alongside former Rep. Lee Zeldin last cycle.

While waves of congressional Democrats joined calls for Biden to drop out — 37 as of Sunday afternoon — Ryan remained the only one from New York to take the stand publicly.

But he’s far from the only Democrat whose race could hinge on turnout at the margins. Also in the Hudson Valley, former Rep. Mondaire Jones is trying to oust first-term Republican Rep. Mike Lawler. Biden won the district by 10 points in 2020, but just two years later, Lawler beat former Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney after redistricting shifted the area's boundaries.

Now, Jones faces a tight contest to take the district back for the Democrats.

Jones thanked Biden “for saving our democracy once before in the last presidential election,” in a social media statement on Sunday. “You deserve this much-needed rest, and know that your legacy is secure.”

Lawler was holding a town hall in East Fishkill, Dutchess County, when Biden announced his decision. The congressperson told Gothamist he shared the news with the crowd, which broke out into applause.

The Rockland County Republican said he does not expect Biden’s exit to have much effect on his race against Jones.

“Regardless of who’s at the top of the ticket, it’s the policies that are why the American people are so frustrated,” Lawler said. “From the economy to the border to what’s happening across the globe, these are the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. That doesn’t change with Joe Biden leaving.”

Three of the four congressional districts on Long Island are considered swing districts. In southern Nassau County, Democrat Laura Gillen is running in a rematch against first-term Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who beat her by less than 10,000 votes last time. Since Biden was elected, the district has been shifting to the right.

Biden’s withdrawal comes on the heels of the Republican National Convention, where former president Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance accepted nominations to the official GOP ticket. The president's decision has the potential to launch next month’s Democratic National Convention into chaos as the party scrambles to appoint a new nominee.

Less than three days before Biden’s announcement, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democrat running in a safe reelection race in the Bronx, expressed doubt that the process would go smoothly.

“I have not seen an alternative scenario that I do not feel sets us up for enormous peril,” she said in an Instagram Live early on Friday.

Also that day, Jeffries told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer that he was confident Democrats could win with Biden at the top of the ticket. But multiple outlets had reported that Jeffries, like Schumer, had privately pressured Biden to step aside in the weeks before his decision.

Speaking on MSNBC after Biden's announcement to exit the race on Sunday, Jeffries said Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in American history. He stopped short, however, of endorsing any candidate to replace him as the nominee.

"[Biden] has put people over politics and patriotism over personal position and this is another heroic act in a long running series of heroic acts by Joe Biden on behalf of the American people," Jeffries said.

By later Sunday evening, Ocasio-Cortez posted to social media that she was putting her full support behind Harris.

A June poll from Siena College found that Biden had just an eight-point lead over Trump in New York. That's a small margin in a state that hasn’t backed a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan won in a national landslide in 1984.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, both Democrats, lauded Biden in social media posts following his announcement Sunday.

“Joe Biden is an American hero, a true statesman, and he'll go down in history as one of the greatest champions of working families our nation has ever known,” Hochul posted on X.

The governor also threw her endorsement behind Harris later on Sunday, saying "she is the right candidate to unite our country and I am confident she will deliver for New Yorkers."

Murphy said Biden “will be remembered as one of the most successful and impactful presidencies in American history.”

In his letter Sunday, Biden, who has been recovering from COVID-19 in Delaware, said he would address the nation later this week.

“I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do — when we do it together,” he wrote. “We just have to remember we are the United States of America.”

This story has been updated with new information.