Biden and Harris notably absent from 2025 Democratic campaign events

Former President Joe Bidenwho holds the record for the most popular votes in a presidential election in U.S. history, and former Vice President Kamala Harris were at the helm of the Democratic Party in 2024, but were overwhelmingly absent from the 2025 election cycle in an off-season as other big-name Democrats mounted various campaigns to drum up support.

According to political pundits and lawmakers who spoke to Fox News Digital, their presence on the campaign trail likely won’t generate a warm welcome following the fallout from the 2024 race.

“The only thing you can probably get progressives and moderates within the Democratic Party to agree on is that the Biden/Harris administration didn’t get very high marks,” Julian Epstein, former senior counsel for Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox Digital on Monday. “I’m not sure why any candidate would want to go with any of the candidates who have been rejected in one way or another and who are widely seen as driving the party wild.”

The nation faces a few big races in 2025, with four receiving national attention: Virginia’s governor’s race, New Jersey’s governor’s race, New York City’s mayor’s race, and a special election in California to vote on a ballot measure that would redistrict the state’s congressional lines.

The only GOP gubernatorial candidates running in 2025 are relying on major Trump campaign tactics.

Former President Joe Biden (left) and former Vice President Kamala Harris overwhelmingly missed the 2025 election cycle in the offseason. (Wayne McNamee/Getty Images)

The trifecta in New Jersey, New York City and Virginia in particular have attracted a handful of prominent Democrats who are offering their formal endorsements to the candidates or traveling to those jurisdictions to help drum up support among local residents.

Former President barack obama, For example, she offered a formal video endorsement for New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger earlier in October, and is scheduled to attend two separate rallies for individual candidates on Saturday. Former Biden administration Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others also joined the gubernatorial candidates at various fundraising campaigns and events.

Meanwhile, Biden and Harris have been largely absent from the 2025 campaign.

“Of course the Democrats are running away from the disasters they created with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Republican Representative Andy Barr, who is running for US Senate from Kentucky, told Fox News Digital. “It will take years for the damage they have done to our economy, our borders, and our national security to be undone. Every Democrat on the ballot has that record. Kentuckians will reject it and stand with us to fully advance President Trump’s America First agenda.”

In New York City, the socialist mayoral candidate, Zahran Mamdani, is seeking to garner support from Democrats and left-wing party members. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Biden has not joined campaign events, with Fox News Digital also unable to find any public endorsements of the 2025 political candidates as of Tuesday.

Biden, in particular, revealed in May that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Biden has taken a step back from the public spotlight since his administration ended, but he did attend an event on Sunday, when he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Inspirational Leadership from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.

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“Friends, I can’t sugarcoat any of this. These are dark days,” Biden said during the event, adding that “our very democracy is at stake in my view.”

Biden received the largest number of votes in the history of the United States during the 2020 race, with 81,283,501 votes, beating Obama’s record in 2008 of about 69,498,516 votes, and Trump’s 2024 elections, which gave him 77,302,580 votes.

Former President Joe Biden received the most votes in US history during the 2020 race. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)

Meanwhile, Harris is on an ongoing writing tour to promote her new memoir, “107 Days,” which chronicles her experiences on the 2024 campaign trail, including when Biden decided to drop out of the race on July 21, 2024, and the party’s mad dash to rally around Harris as his replacement with just over 100 days until Election Day.

In New York City, the socialist mayoral candidate, Zahran Mamdani, is seeking to rally support and support from Democrats and left-wing members of the party, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Harris offered support for Mamdani’s candidacy for New York City leadership during her book tour, but she did not make endorsement campaign videos, join rallies or participate in other official campaign events like her party colleagues, Fox Digital found.

“Look, as far as I’m concerned, he’s the Democratic nominee and he should be supported,” Harris told MSNBC of Mamdani’s candidacy in a September interview, before offering stronger support days later while recounting a phone conversation she shared with the candidate.

Obama, Pelosi and other top Democrats have resisted immediate endorsement of Harris, citing the need to “win her over” and the “hiking the distance” excuse.

When asked about Harris not formally endorsing candidates in the three major 2025 elections, a spokesperson confirmed: “This is absolutely not true. I will do more research and get back to me when the facts are sorted out.”

When it was noted that Harris had made some positive comments about Mamdani but had yet to give him a more formal endorsement or appear with him, Spanberger or Sherrill, Harris’ team was similarly dismissive, citing fundraising emails and “events for Senate candidates,” despite there being no U.S. Senate candidates in the 2025 race.

Harris participated in a nearly two-minute recorded video message to young voters in July, as reported by the New York Post, in which she rallied young voters to get involved in politics and stay committed to “the fight,” but she did not mention specific campaigns.

“Continue to build your political power, continue to build community, continue to build coalitions, and continue to challenge the status quo,” Harris told the summit in the pre-recorded video.

“We were born from our love for our country,” she said. “Continue the struggle to build a country and a nation.” “This suits everyone. I look forward to continuing to fight alongside you. You should be careful.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris shared a nearly two-minute recorded video message to young voters in July. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

“The Democratic Party is a sinking ship of a party, and they’re going to be like the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean in the midterms,” Breelyn Holihand, a conservative podcast host and Gen Z political commentator, told Fox News Digital when asked about Biden and Harris’ absence from the 2025 races.

He added: “They have neither a leader nor a seat, and their loudest voices are Yasmine Crockett and Zahran Mamdani.” “They’ve spent millions studying why Gen Z guys are fleeing their party? I’ll give them the answer for free: Look in the mirror. They’ve gone so far left that they’ve fallen off a cliff. Anyone running wants to stay as far away from claiming to be a Democrat as possible — it’s their kryptonite,” he said.

The Democratic Party has been trying to find its footing since Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race amid growing concerns about his mental acuity, which had been simmering for years before reaching a boiling point after his disastrous debate against the then-former president. Donald Trump In June 2024. Party members began suggesting, before explicitly encouraging, that Biden withdraw from the race and pass the torch to a younger generation.

He eventually dropped out and endorsed Harris.

The exit from the race has thrown the Democratic Party into disarray as it works to build a presidential campaign with a new candidate at the top of the ticket just weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Harris have largely remained out of the 2025 election cycle fray after the 2024 presidential loss. (Saul Loeb-Paul/Getty Images)

Former Trump official and Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, Morgan Murphy, told Fox News Digital that Biden and Harris were “nothing more than two-dimensional media props, hired to hide how extreme Democrats are.”

“This Halloween, soft socialists in places like New Jersey and Virginia are dressing up as moderates. They even know that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are too toxic for voters in states they won in 2020 and 2024,” he added. “At this point, Democrats are suffering from a hangover. Four failed years of high inflation, open borders, and foreign policy disasters is something Democrats are trying to forget.”

Murphy argued that the Democratic Party has become “fully Marxist” and that “the only endorsements that matter to its growing left-wing base are from socialists like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Zahran Mandani.”

Fox News Digital contacted Biden’s office to inquire about the lack of official support for the 2025 candidates, considering that he was president less than a year ago and received the largest number of votes in the history of the United States, but it did not receive a response.

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High-risk trio My ruler The municipal elections have put various jurisdictions in a state of tension in the final week of the election cycle.

New Jersey is seen as a potential deep blue state that turns red after Trump’s inroads with voters during the 2024 cycle, as Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli crosses the liberal strongholds of the Garden State into conservative farmland to drum up a Republican surge at the polls.

Rep. Mickey Sherrill, Democrat of New Jersey, and Jack Ciattarelli, Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey. (Victor J. Blue/Getty Images; Mark Kozlarich/Getty Images)

Virginia State governors elections The film pits former Democratic lawmaker and CIA employee Spanberger against Marine veteran and current Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl Sears in a state considered purple and currently led by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger, right, is running against Virginia Governor Winsome Earl Sears, Republican, left, in the Virginia governor’s race. (Christine Zeiss/The Washington Post via Getty Images; Kevin Deitch/Getty Images)

The New York City mayoral race has gained widespread popularity because it currently puts the self-described socialist ahead, according to exit polls, against the state’s former Democratic governor and longtime Republican candidate and fixture in the city.

New York mayoral candidates New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, independent Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, and Democratic candidate Zahran Mamdani participate in a mayoral debate, on October 16, 2025, in New York. (Angelina Katsanis, Pool/Associated Press)

Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, is accused by conservatives and moderates of espousing communist ideologies, and is facing off against former Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — who remained in the race as an independent after Mamdani defeated him in the Democratic primary — as well as Republican challenger and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.

The trio of Democratic campaigns in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Biden and Harris not participating this cycle.

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Election Day 2025 will be held on Tuesday, and also includes the Boston mayoral election, the Seattle general election, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court election and more. The 2025 election is seen as a leadoff ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which historically result in the party holding the presidency losing seats in Congress.