Michelle Obama rules out running for president

Michelle Obama will not run for president, her office has said, quashing speculation that she will be parachuted in to replace Joe Biden on the 2024 ballot.

Commentators from the Left and Right suggested the former first lady could try to save the Democrats as the incumbent battles questions about his age and weak support in the polls.

But on Tuesday Mrs Obama’s office said she would not be making a bid for the White House.

“As former first lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” said Crystal Carson, director of communications for her office.

She told NBC News: “Mrs Obama supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s re-election campaign.”

‘It’s going to be a new puppet’

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican candidate, previously argued the Democrats would not let the 81-year-old Mr Biden run and on 20 occasions suggested Mrs Obama could make a presidential bid.

“It’s going to be a new puppet – Gavin Newsom, Michelle Obama, you name it,” Mr Ramaswamy said.

Other Right-wing politicians to have promoted the idea include Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Senator Ted Cruz.

Democrats worried about Mr Biden have also raised the proposition. When special counsel Robert Hur released a report which called Mr Biden an “elderly man with a poor memory”, Mrs Obama’s name began trending on X, formerly Twitter.

She was also the top choice among Democrats to replace Mr Biden on the 2024 ticket, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released last month.

But the 60-year-old has for years said there is “zero chance” she would run for president.

“There are so many ways to improve this country and build a better world, and I keep doing plenty of them, from working with young people to helping families lead healthier lives,” she said in 2019.

“But sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office will never be one of them. It’s just not for me,” she said.

‘It is not in my soul’

In a Netflix special released last year, she said politics is “hard... and the people who get into it… It’s got to be in your soul, because it is so important. It is not in my soul.”

In a 2022 BBC interview, she also said she “detests” questions about running for president.

Sources told NBC News Mrs Obama plans to help the Biden campaign as the race hots up this autumn, in a similar manner to 2020.

Her involvement is likely to be minor in comparison to her husband, Barack Obama.

Kevin Munoz, the Biden campaign spokesman, said Mrs Obama was “enormously helpful in the fight to beat Donald Trump” in 2020.