Michelle Obama is making it crystal clear — she’s not eyeing a return to the White House with a surprise presidential bid, according to her office.
“As former first Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” Crystal Carson, the director of communications for Obama’s office, said in a statement provided to ITK on Tuesday.
Obama “supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign,” Carson said.
The statement, first reported by NBC News, rejects any chance of Obama attempting a return to the White House as president. It comes after Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, publicly floated the evidence-free idea that the former first lady could replace Biden on the ballot in November.
Biden has faced low polling numbers and concerns among some voters about his age.
Obama — who earlier this year said she was “terrified about what could possibly happen” in the November election — was the top choice among Democrats to replace Biden on the 2024 ticket, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released last month.
Commentators have also touted Obama as the “best chance” for Democrats to retain the White House in a potential matchup against former President Trump.
But the 60-year-old ex-executive mansion resident has repeatedly squashed speculation that she could seek to occupy the Oval Office.
In 2019, Obama said there was “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,” Obama, who founded the voter registration and engagement organization When We All Vote in 2018, said at the time.
“But sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office will never be one of them. It’s just not for me,” she said.
