BILLINGS — President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race earlier Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee. Paul Pope, a political science professor at MSU Billings, said much remains unclear about the nomination, but that Montana will be affected by the change.

With 15 years of experience as a political scientist, Pope called President Biden’s announcement unprecedented.

“We’ve never seen this before. This is a game changer. It shakes everything up,” Pope said. “Biden, unfortunately, even though he has a long history of serving this country since the ’70s, yes, he reached a point where his performance and his capabilities were clearly problematic.”

The Clintons have also expressed support for Harris’ nomination as the Democratic candidate, but Pope said that is not guaranteed until the Democratic National Convention.

“I mean, she’s a vice president. She’s got a good record. Obviously no one has a perfect record, but she’s got a good record. She’s polling well. So there’s a good chance she’ll win. But again, it’s not a guarantee,” Pope said.

According to Pope, Trump’s support base has remained relatively stable, despite the recent assassination attempt on his life.

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“I doubt there was any impact. In fact, Trump didn’t even get a significant boost in the polls,” Pope said. “Anyone that the Democrats put forward that is even slightly more exciting than Biden, more energetic, that’s going to hurt Trump. All of that is going to undermine Trump’s ability to win this race.”

It’s a decision that will have direct implications for racing in Montana.

“Whoever is at the top of the presidential ticket affects the lower ballots, the House of Representatives, the Senate, governors, race, sometimes even legislatures,” Pope said. “There could be Republicans who, purely hypothetically here, could be Republicans here who could vote for Republicans within the state, but then vote for the Democratic president because they don’t like Trump or vice versa.”

According to Pope, there is still uncertainty until there is an official Democratic nomination.

“Right now, this is the Wild West. We knew more about what was going to happen going forward with Biden on the ticket. We know what kind of open question it’s probably going to be, but we don’t know for sure that it’s going to be Kamala Harris,” Pope said. “I’m more concerned about what happens if Trump loses, because he has a large number of supporters on his side who have openly threatened violence if he loses, you know, regardless of the election results, you know, good, safe elections, which it will be.”