Michelle Obama’s Office Responds to 2024 Rumors

Former U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama participate in the unveiling of their official portraits during a ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington on Feb. 12, 2018. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s office has responded to years of speculation that she might entertain a 2024 presidential bid amid polls showing that President Joe Biden’s popularity and approval rating are flagging ahead of the November contest.

In a statement to news outlets on March 5, Ms. Obama’s office said she had no interest in the prospect, noting that she has said before that she doesn’t want to return to the White House.

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

The office reiterated that she also “supports” President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s reelection campaign. No other comment was given.

Last year, Ms. Obama told Oprah Winfrey on a Netflix show that she doesn’t want to partake in politics—at least directly—and won’t run for office.

“Politics is hard,” she said at the time. “And the people who get into it ... you’ve got to want it. It’s got to be in your soul, because it is so important. It is not in my soul.”

And in 2022, she told the BBC, “I detest it,” referring to questions about running for office. “No, I am not going to run.”

Some Republican lawmakers and media commentators have suggested that because of President Biden’s age and apparent declining popularity, Ms. Obama could be the one to replace him.

In January, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said in an interview that Ms. Obama “owns Joe Biden’s policies.”

“She owns the Biden administration,” she said. “She owns the failure. She owns the Green New Deal. She owns the inflation. She owns the wide-open border.”

Ms. Greene also said at the time that she'd heard “very bad rumors” about the president and his health, suggesting Democrats could replace him over those concerns.

‘Get Ready for Michelle Obama’

Former 2024 Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in February likewise predicted the former first lady would replace President Biden in 2024, writing on social media platform X: “Biden will not be the Democratic nominee. Get ready for Michelle Obama.”

“If race and gender are your basis for selecting someone for a job, and the identity of your party is tied to that temple of identity politics, then they will risk looking hypocritical if they sideline her after they sideline Biden,” Mr. Ramaswamy told Fox News.

“And I do think Michelle Obama offers them a convenient path out of that problem, somebody who checks the boxes that they need to have checked per their own ideology, while also selecting an alternative to Biden that they may view as more palatable in a general election,” he added.

Mr. Ramaswamy made the remark after a special counsel released a report stating that President Biden’s memory was “poor” and “hazy.” Later, the White House dismissed the report, saying it was wrong about his memory.

In a recent poll from Rasmussen Reports, about 47 percent of voters polled said they believed that the Democratic Party would try to find a replacement for President Biden. Of that number, 22 percent said they believed it’s “very likely” he'll be replaced. Twenty percent said they thought Ms. Obama could be the party’s nominee.

Recently, there have been anonymously sourced reports, including one from NBC News, that said she will soon help campaign for President Biden’s reelection.

“President and Michelle Obama were enormously helpful in the fight to beat Donald Trump and elect President Biden and Vice President Harris the first time, and we are grateful to have their voice and their support in the fight for the fate of our democracy this November,” Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said late last year in a statement.

A poll conducted by The Center Square in November 2023 found that Democratic voters favored President Biden against any of the declared candidates who were seeking the party’s nomination and every hypothetical candidate provided in the poll except Ms. Obama.

It found that at the time, Democrats would back Ms. Obama by 45 percent compared with President Biden’s 43 percent if a hypothetical primary election were held.