Is Michelle Obama running for president in 2024? No, that's not true: The former first lady has said in multiple interviews over the years that she will not run for president. Michelle Obama is not a candidate for president in 2024, according to the official list of candidates from the Federal Election Commission.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok in early February 2024. It opened with an image of Michelle Obama and the text:
RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES
BUT I WILL KEEP THE SAME
POLICY AS BIDEN, OPEN
BORDERS, EVICTIONS,
HOMELESSNESS AND
SENDING TAXPAYERS MONEY
TO ISRAEL, UKRAINE,
TAIWAN AND IMMIGRATION
2024
Here is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 14 16:24:43 2024 UTC)
Michelle Obama, the wife of former President Barack Obama, has not declared her candidacy for president in 2024 as of this writing. In fact, she has said on the record that she will not run for president, telling CNN (archived here) in 2016 that it would not be happening. From the CNN story:
'I will not run for president. No, nope, not going to do it,' Obama said.
She indicated a desire to be free from partisan controversy while still serving the public, saying she wanted to 'impact as many people as possible in an unbiased way.'
She also cited her children as a reason not to seek the office.
'They've handled it (the presidency) with grace and with poise, but enough is enough,' Obama said.
Had Michelle Obama declared her candidacy, it would be national and international news, but a Google search for the keywords, "michelle obama running for president" yields zero matching results for the topic (archived here).
Barack Obama's former senior adviser David Axelrod (archived here) said on CNN on February 11, 2024, that Michelle Obama was not interested in running for political office. The host told Axelrod her name was a consideration for replacing Biden on the 2024 presidential ticket, as the video shows here (archived here):
So, you know, she is not someone who likes politics. She doesn't like the tone and tenor of politics.
And I would be floored if she would be consent to that.
Michelle Obama is not on the list of registered 2024 presidential candidates, according to data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) posted by Ballotpedia, a nonprofit organization that provides "verifiable information on government officials and the offices they hold, political issues and public policy, elections, and candidates." The list was published on their website here (archived here) and was last updated on February 12, 2024.
A search of the FEC.gov website for candidate "Michelle Obama" (archived here) on February 14, 2024, yields zero results, as this screenshot shows:
(Source: FEC.gov website screenshot taken on Wed Feb 14 19:40:23 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories fact checks about claims related to Michelle Obama can be found here.
