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U.S. President Joe Biden, 80, said on Apr. 10 (local time) that he is once again planning to stand for election as President in 2024, NBC News reported.

Speaking in an interview with the co-host of the “TODAY” show Al Roker, Biden said, "I plan on running [...] but we're not prepared to announce it yet.”

Though he declared his intention to be the Democratic candidate for the 2024 elections, he has yet to announce it formally.

He is expected to run for election along with current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Reuters.

Decision to run not secret

Biden has consistently expressed his plans to run for a second term, such as during a private conversation with U.S. civil rights leader Al Sharpton at the White House in September 2022, CNBC reported.

The White House has long stated that he planned to re-run but has not disclosed a campaign timeline yet, according to the New York Times.

Biden could potentially delay his announcement, as he only commenced his 2020 campaign in April 2019 when other candidates were already in the presidential race.

He is currently the oldest U.S. president. If he were to win the 2024 election, he will be 86 years old when he finishes his second term.

Considerations

Top advisers of White House are in the midst of finalising Biden’s re-election campaign, according to unnamed sources cited by NBC News.

Certain considerations went into the decision-making process, the first one being that there remains no major competitor from the Democrats, though a few have already jumped into the race.

Secondly, ex-U.S. President Donald Trump -- who has also declared his intention to run -- was recently indicted, becoming the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges.

Another consideration was the emerging divisions with congressional Republicans over U.S. spending and Biden’s US$6.8 trillion (S$9.06 trillion) budget.

Divided opinions?

According to a poll conducted by Monmouth University, nearly half of the respondents expressed that they preferred if Biden did not run for a second term.

However, they did not have any other candidates in mind as the Democrats’ nominee.

Another poll carried out by the Associated Press saw that merely 37 per cent of Democrats wanted Biden to seek re-election.

On the other hand, Democratic insiders reportedly backed the current president's re-election bid, and House Democrats have also welcomed his decision even without any official announcement being made.

Trump vs Biden again (maybe)

With Biden planning to re-run in 2024, he will likely once again be up against his former competitor.

Trump, 76, intends to retake the U.S. presidency after losing to Biden in 2020.

Then, he first refused to concede the elections before claiming without evidence that it was “rigged”.

The former president will first have to be nominated by his party, the Republicans, as their presidential candidate. Both him and Biden remain unpopular to their opposing parties as well as among Americans, Washington Post reported.

Democrats, however, continued to view Trump as the “best possible opponent” for Biden due to their similar ages and the legal issues that the former currently faces, according to Wall Street Journal.

Domestic front

The presidential race in 2024 will also be a build-up from Biden’s State of the Union address in February 2023, during which he focused largely on domestic and economic priorities.

The address also came a few months after a midterm election where the Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives while the Democrats retained control of the Senate.

Biden will have to navigate polarised domestic waters in his upcoming re-election campaign.

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Top image via Getty Images/Kent Nishimura