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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - President Joe Biden’s Sunday announcement that he is ending his reelection bid brought praise and criticism from Georgia political leaders.

Atlanta’s current mayor - Andre Dickens - and the mayor he preceded - Keisha Lance Bottoms - are both supporters of Biden.

Bottoms had been serving as an adviser to Biden’s reelection effort:

Biden’s announcement came Sunday, only weeks before the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and just days after Republicans solidified their support of former President Donald Trump at the GOP convention in Milwaukee.

Biden also ended his reelection bid despite a recent letter from several state Democratic party chairs, including U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, urging him to stay in the race.

After Biden’s announcement, Williams endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

Jason Carter, one of former President Jimmy Carter’s grandchildren, also endorsed Harris.

Biden has said previously that Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver his eulogy.

Democratic Georgia state Rep. Phil Olaleye says President Biden’s decision to withdraw came as a complete surprise, but he said Democrats have a strong candidate in Harris.

“I have the utmost confidence in Vice President Kamala Harris,” he said.

Atlanta NAACP President Gerald Griggs believes Black voters are now left wondering who will be at the top of their ticket.

“We are almost 100 days away from the election and I think their minds are in limbo,” he said. “We don’t have a clear picture of who will be the two individuals running.”

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, the longtime Democratic congressman from metro Atlanta’s fourth district, said, “I have been ride-or-die loyal to President Biden, who has led our nation out of the dark days of the COVID pandemic, the January 6th Insurrection, and the worst economy since the Great Recession.

“Under his leadership, America has reclaimed her position as leader of the free world, our economy is the strongest in the world, and our nation is poised for future growth and prosperity,” Johnson said. “I thank President Biden for his leadership and service to our nation, and I pledge my support to Vice President Kamala Harris. Together, we will defeat Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda, and elect Kamala Harris to finish the job that Biden/Harris started.”

Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both endorsed Harris following Biden’s announcement. Warnock is seen as a possible vice presidential pick for Harris.

Biden’s opposition also shared their reactions to his announcement.

Marci McCarthy is the DeKalb County GOP Chair. She just got back from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“This is a very big dilemma for the Democratic Party right now. It looks like they’re in total chaos,” McCarthy said. “Their convention could be contested; they don’t have a clear nominee at all.”

Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) released the following statement after Biden announced that he will not seek reelection:

“Democrat party bosses lied to 14 million voters that President Biden was fit to serve another term,” said Carter, a Republican who represents Georgia’s coast. “Now that Biden has stepped aside, those same party bosses are conspiring to anoint a new candidate, whose legacy as ‘Border Czar’ is stained with the blood of thousands of Americans who have died due to the fentanyl and criminals who have come across our wide-open southern border, including Laken Riley right here in Georgia.

“This is the least democratic nomination process in American history,” Buddy Carter said. “Washington Democrats will be held accountable for steamrolling and misleading the American people come November.”

Georgia Tea Party Chair Debbie Dooley said, “If Joe Biden is so mentally incapacitated that he can’t continue his Presidential Campaign, he needs to also step down as President or be REMOVED ASAP. As President, he has made America a laughingstock to the world. No way this man needs to be in charge of the nuclear codes, directing policy, etc.”

After Trump’s keynote speech on the RNC’s final night, Biden appealed for party unity to take on Trump. He also worked to hold off pressure from Democrats at the highest levels for him to bow out of the 2024 election to make way for a new nominee and avoid widespread losses.

But on Sunday, Biden posted this announcement on social media. Later, in another social media post, Biden endorsed Harris to become the 47th president of the United States.

Eventually, Biden bowed to tremendous pressure from within his own party, a downfall that began after his disastrous debate performance — at least, for Democrats — against Trump in Atlanta.

During the debate, Biden often appeared confused and disoriented and had trouble completing thoughts and sentences.

The following weeks saw Biden hold a major news conference; conduct two national network interviews and several others; make a national TV appearance after an attempted assassination against Trump and go into self-isolation after a COVID-19 diagnosis.

Biden is the first sitting president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to end his reelection bid, and the first in U.S. history to end his reelection campaign after winning virtually all of his party’s primaries.

In 2020, Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992 to carry Georgia — or any other deep Southern state — in a presidential election.

Had Biden stayed in the race, he and Trump would have been the first two presidential candidates to have faced each other in consecutive elections since 1956, when GOP President Dwight D. Eisenhower again defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson in a repeat of the 1952 election.

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