To many observers it was a question not of whether but of when President Joseph Biden would bow out of the presidential race.
He did so Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, days after announcing he was ill with COVID-19 and three weeks after a debate performance so troubling it led to immediate calls for him to step aside.
Even with his endorsement of Harris, Biden’s departure leaves a gaping gap at the top of the Democratic ticket four months before the election.
It might also be the Democratic Party’s only chance at winning, said Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at UC San Diego.
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“This is not what anyone in the Democratic party planned or wanted three, six or 12 months ago,” Kousser said.
The crux was last month’s presidential debate, where Biden at times struggled to speak in a coherent manner. “After that time, I think Democrats collectively decided that their only chance to move forward was with another candidate. This is not plan A or plan B,” he said. “But it gives Democrats hope of winning what they see as a historically crucial election.”
It also puts Democrats in a potentially precarious spot, said Carl Luna, a professor emeritus of political science at San Diego Mesa College.
“Now the ball is firmly in the Democrats’ court. What do they do with this moment? It’s an opportunity to rejuvenate the campaign and rally behind a standard-bearer who can take on Donald Trump in the fall. Or it could become a divisive event — which makes it that much easier for Donald Trump to win,” he said.
“Kamala Harris was in San Diego in 2016. debating opponents as she ran for U.S. Senate. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)Along with Harris, there is a broad field of other potential contenders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
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Tom Shepard, a longtime San Diego political consultant who has worked for candidates in both parties, called Sunday’s announcement “an honorable decision by Biden and a necessary one for the Democratic Party to be competitive in November.” But to stay competitive, he said, the Democrats will have to iron out what he called “fundamental problems” with Harris’s candidacy.
“The Democratic Party, for all of its strengths, has over the last several decades kind of developed a perspective that is based on identity politics, and the reason that Kamala Harris was on the Democratic ticket as vice president is, at least in part, a symptom of that approach,” Shepard said.
In San Diego County, where 60 percent of voters chose Biden in 2020 and 37 percent voted for Trump, and throughout California, where the president won 63 percent of the vote, a number of local and state elected officials praised his decision.
“Joe Biden has always put the country first and he did so again today, after more than 50 years of tremendous service,” Rep. Adam Schiff, the party’s nominee for Senate, wrote. He added: “The stakes are high, and we must focus all our energy on electing Kamala Harris and defeating Donald Trump.
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria called Biden “a leader, patriot and true public servant who has always put the good of our country first” and said he agreed with the president’s decision to endorse Harris.
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“She is ready to lead our country as our next President,” he wrote. “I supported her during her first Presidential campaign, and I am 1000% backing her during this one.”
County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican representing parts of North County, also took to X with a much different viewpoint. He contends Biden is “unable to fulfill his duties.”
In another post, he added, “The reality is, if Biden were up in the polls he would remain in the race. This isn’t about Biden’s cognitive decline which we’ve known for years. It’s about lagging poll numbers.”
“We’ve had 4 years of Democratic chaos — at the border, in business, overseas, in our schools and on our streets. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris led all of it,” he wrote on X.
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Among analysts, Biden’s departure is a political Rorschach test, with Democrats seeing it as the perfect opening to reinvigorate their party and align behind a younger candidate and Republicans seeing this as yet another step toward Trump’s inevitable victory.
Dan Rottenstreich, a prominent San Diego Democratic political consultant, said Biden’s withdrawal would ripple down the ballot in November and presented Democrats a perfect opportunity to refocus their energies.
“It’s a ten-pound weight off the shoulders of every Democrat running in a swing seat in California,” he said. “Joe Biden is easily the most effective Democratic President of our lifetimes, but the political debate was no longer where it needed to be — on the disaster and danger Donald Trump is for America.”
Having a woman at the top of the presidential ticket could, he said, “elevate abortion rights even further, which in almost all of pro-choice California would be welcome news.”
With Biden out, every prediction about the presidential race until now is also out the window, he said.
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“It’s a brand new race now,” Rottenstreich said. “Democrats have a huge opportunity to reenergize the base, drive up Democratic turnout and unite the electorate against Donald Trump’s far-right agenda.”
Kousser, the UCSD professor, said the shake-up could pose a challenge for Trump, depending on whether the Democrats unite around a nominee.
“Donald Trump felt very comfortable running against Joe Biden,” he said. “I think the Republican Party clearly likes that matchup better than any other matchup. And this throws things wide open. I think if one candidate can generate momentum and keep it, I think the Democrats have a better chance at … threatening Donald Trump’s path to victory than they had just a few hours ago.”
Linda Lopez-Alvarez, the chair of the Escondido Republican Women headquarters, said she expected Biden’s departure, as did others at last week’s Republican National Convention, which she attended. Another sentiment she shared was gratitude — for Trump’s survival after a July 13 assassination attempt.
“I think everybody has the same consensus. We’re grateful that Donald Trump survived that attempt. I mean, that was by the grace of God,” she said.
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Lopez-Alvarez said she expects Democrats will nominate Harris. “They’re in a pickle right now. Because we’re so close to the election. So that’s what they’re going to rally around,” she said. “I do believe Trump will win by a landslide.”
In the next four weeks, before the Democratic National Convention in August, Biden’s party will have to decide if it will coalesce around Harris or pick another star.
Luna said Biden’s departure, just after the Republican convention, “will focus things until mid-August on Democrats and take a lot of the oxygen out of the Trump campaign, because they’re not sure exactly who to run against.”
Kousser said that while a rapid whittling down of the candidate pool will be unusual, compared to the much longer runways of other elections, it’s not a first.
“While this will be absolutely a compressed process compared to everything we’ve seen in the modern era, this is not unprecedented. This is a return to the way that presidential candidates were determined for a century in American politics,” Kousser said.
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Staff writers Gary Robbins, Emily Alvarenga and Michael Smolens contributed to this report.
The city of San Diego has filed a lawsuit against the federal government that alleges the construction of a razor wire fence near the U.S.-Mexico border constitutes trespassing on city property and has caused environmental harm to the land.
The complaint filed Monday in San Diego federal court states that razor wire fencing being constructed by U.S. Marines in the Marron Valley area has harmed protected plant and wildlife habitats and that the presence of federal personnel there represents unpermitted trespassing.
The lawsuit, which names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Defense among its defendants, says that city officials first discovered the presence of Marines and federal employees in the area in December.
The fencing under construction has blocked city officials from accessing the property to assess and manage the land, and the construction efforts have” caused and will continue to cause property damage and adverse environmental impacts,” according to the lawsuit.
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The suit seeks an injunction ordering the defendants to cease and desist from any further trespass or construction in the area.
“The city of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to disregard the law and damage city property,” City Attorney Heather Ferbert said in a statement. “We are taking decisive action to protect sensitive habitats, uphold environmental commitments and ensure that the rights and resources of our community are respected.”
Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song – San Diego Union-Tribune
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SUNG-MUN SONG
Position(s): Third base, second base
Bats / Throws: Left / Right
2026 opening day age: 29
Height / Weight: 6-foot / 194 pounds
How acquired: Signed as a free agent in December 2025
Contract status: A four-year, $15 million deal will see Song make $2.5 million in 2026, $3 million in 2027, $3.5 million in 2028 and $4 million in 2029 if he does not opt out of last year; Half of his $1 million signing bonus is due in January 2026 and the other half in 2027; There is a $7 million mutual option for 2030.
.214 — Song’s isolated power in 2025, a career high as he prepared for a jump to the majors. Isolated power measures a player’s raw power (extra bases per at-bat) and Song had a .190 OPS in 2018, in his third year as a pro in Korea, before it dropped to .101 in 2019 and then a career-low .095 in 2023. Hitting 19 homers pushed Song’s isolated power to .178 in 2024 and then a career-high 26 homers push it even higher in 2025.
TRENDING
Idle — Drafted by the Heroes in 2014, Song debuted in the KBO the following year but didn’t become a regular until 2019. A drop-off in production — he had an .884 OPS in 78 games in 2018 and a .597 OPS in 103 games in 2019 — was followed by losing the 2020 season and a chunk of the 2021 season to military service obligations. Then three straight sub-.700 OPS seasons forced Song to rethink his approach to professional baseball, especially in the face of the likes of Ha-Seong Kim,Jung Hoo Lee and Hyeseong Kim generating big-league buzz. Song started with weight training and nutrition. A hitting coach also helped him with balance, pull-side power and the ability to catch up with the sort of fastballs that seem to dog Korean players when they arrive in the States. It all added up to a breakthrough year in which Song paired 19 homers, 104 RBIs and 21 steals with a .340/.409/.518 batting line. To prove it was no fluke, Song followed up his 2024 season with another strong effort that solidified his wish to try his hand in the majors. The ensuing, four-year, $15 million deal that Song signed with the Padres in December cost his new employer a $3 million posting fee to be paid to the Kiwoom Heroes.
2026 OUTLOOK
Like Kim before him, Song appears to be joining the Padres as a utility player with the hope that he blossoms into more as he gets comfortable in a new country and league. Song had experience in Korea at third base (500 starts), second base (149 starts) and first base (38 starts). Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller even mentioned outfield reps in passing as he assessed how Song could help the Padres in 2026.
Former KBO player Sung-Mun Song shakes hands with Padres vice president of amateur and international scouting Pete DeYoung after signing a contract with the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Saturday. (Photo by Armond Feffer/San Diego Padres)
Drivers traveling through the city of Poway may have noticed a dramatic change to the landscape. Since September, more than 1,400 trees — many of them eucalyptus — have been removed as part of the city’s hazardous mitigation grant project aimed at reducing wildfire risk and improving public safety.
Poway is spending roughly $3 million on the effort, which focuses on removing trees that are dead, dying or considered dangerous. Much of the cost is being reimbursed by FEMA. Officials say the project is designed to make emergency evacuation routes safer while improving the overall health of trees along major roadways, rights-of-way and open spaces.
“I was relieved that there were some efforts being put into improving our resiliency to wildfire in our community,” said Poway Fire Chief Brian Mitchell.
Mitchell said spacing out trees can slow the spread of a wildfire and prevent roads from becoming blocked during an emergency.
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“That certainly has the potential to block our first responders from accessing somebody’s house in the middle of an emergency,” Mitchell said.
City leaders also point to storm safety as a key reason for removing hazardous trees under controlled conditions rather than risking falling limbs or entire trees during severe weather.
“I don’t want to be driving down that street and just a random limb just happened to collapse, you know, just hit me,” said Poway resident Dawn Davis.
Davis said she also worries about the threat the trees pose to nearby homes.
“I don’t want anybody’s homes here to be damaged, either by them or fire,” Davis said.
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A Poway spokeswoman said a certified arborist evaluated nearly 6,800 trees in Poway. About 2,800 invasive trees were recommended for removal.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.
