Biden is back on the road as Democrats worry about 2024 prospects

Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Saturday for a rally with union members in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the first major political event for the US president since he announced his re-election bid in April.

Biden’s team is looking forward to a homecoming welcome for the president, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, amid fears of a lack of enthusiasm for the 80-year-old president’s second term.

Biden faces no serious challenger for his party’s nomination in 2024. So far, the only two Democrats to launch primary campaigns against him are environmental advocate and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and self-help author Marianne Williamson, whom poll experts say has no real lead. for party nomination.

Yet national opinion polls show that combined, the two candidates command the support of more than 20 percent of Democratic voters, while Biden battles a persistently low approval rating. According to an average of national opinion polls by the FiveThirtyEight website, 40.6 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s job, while 54.9 percent disapprove.

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“There’s weakness out there for Biden, no doubt about it,” said Kyle Kondik of the non-partisan University of Virginia Center for Politics, pointing to several recent polls showing a majority of Democratic voters favoring Biden as the party’s nominee. Would prefer someone else. 2024.

“There is a risk to the party in having a competitive primary,” Kondik said. “But there is also a risk if Biden is just poised for the nomination, and is still in a vulnerable political position in the fall of an election year.”

Biden aides argue that having already defeated Donald Trump once, he is best positioned to take on his predecessor in 2024. However, several recent opinion polls — including one this week from The Economist and YouGov — show Biden and Trump in a statistical tie. An imaginary one-on-one competition.

Wayne Lesperance, a political-science professor and president of New England College in New Hampshire, a key early voting state in the Democratic primary race, said there was “real nervousness” among local party workers about Biden being the presumptive nominee.

Many have warned that Biden could face an embarrassing situation if he loses to Kennedy in both New Hampshire and Iowa, despite the Democratic National Committee’s efforts to change the calendar to go to South Carolina first. Kennedy suffers losses in both Hampshire and Iowa. Biden’s team has suggested he will not be on the ballot in Iowa and New Hampshire if he defies the calendar changes.

Kennedy – the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy – has supported conspiracy theories that have largely been dismissed by mainstream Democrats, including members of his own family. Analysts say his relatively high polling numbers — he has the support of 16 percent of grassroots Democrats, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average — are thanks to his famous family name, coupled with positive coverage from conservative media outlets.

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But they also acknowledge that at least some element of their support is a reflection of Democratic voters looking for an alternative to Biden.

“I don’t know if it goes so far as to say buyer’s remorse, but certainly there is concern that by sticking with Joe Biden, Democrats are putting themselves in danger of not winning the White House again?” Lesperance said. “There’s always a reference to age and ability. . . every time there’s a video of him stumbling or falling, it just feeds into that.

Biden tripped on a sandbag and fell to his knees on the stage at a graduation ceremony at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado earlier this month. The stumble fueled public attacks from Republicans and a private scuffle between Democrats, who are already jittery for another term for Biden, which would end in 2028, when he would be 86.

Ron DeSantis, 44, said, “We hope and wish Joe Biden a speedy recovery from any injuries, but we also wish the United States of America a speedy recovery from the injuries caused by Joe Biden and his policies.” ” — Florida’s Republican governor said in a campaign speech in New Hampshire after the collapse.

DeSantis is polling second behind Trump, 77, in an increasingly crowded field of Republicans vying to be his party’s nominee in 2024.

On Thursday, DeSantis rounded up California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom to enter the race and challenge Biden.

“Stop having cat legs around. Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe? Are you going to come in and do it?” DeSantis said to a laughing crowd, referring to Newsom. “Or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and chirp?”

Newsom, 55, is in his second term as governor of California, and is often cited as a future Democratic presidential nominee. After easily winning re-election in last November’s midterms, he instituted a new means of fundraising using leftover money from his 2022 campaign.

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Newsom has repeatedly stated that he is not running for president, and has supported Biden’s bid for a second term. This week, he appeared on Fox News for an interview with Trump aide Sean Hannity and praised Biden’s record in office.

But Newsom also said he would be willing to participate in a public debate against DeSantis, and hesitated a bit when pressed by Hannity about “how many times” his phone “ping(s) a day”, including People were calling for him to enter the 2024 race. ,

“I’m not answering,” Newsom replied.

Newsom is not the only Democratic governor named as a possible presidential candidate. Gretchen Whitmer, re-elected in 2022 by an 11-point margin in the swing state of Michigan, is also seen as a rising star in the party.

But Whitmer is the official co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign. While she set up her own fundraising vehicle — the “Fight Like Hell PAC” — this week, her advisers insist that money raised by the Political Action Committee be spent only to support Biden and other Democratic candidates. Maybe, not the campaign on a fictional Whitmer.

Analysts say Democrats’ continued unity behind Biden is partly explained by the party’s better-than-expected performance in last year’s midterms.

“He’s done a lot to not only clean up after Donald Trump, but also deliver on his campaign promises,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Boston-based Democratic operative. “I think we will see a change in the polls that Joe Biden, the White House and the surrogates will get out there and start telling more and more of that story.”

Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Saturday for a rally with union members in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the first major political event for the US president since he announced his re-election bid in April.

Biden’s team is looking forward to a homecoming welcome for the president, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, amid fears of a lack of enthusiasm for the 80-year-old president’s second term.

Biden faces no serious challenger for his party’s nomination in 2024. So far, the only two Democrats to launch primary campaigns against him are environmental advocate and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and self-help author Marianne Williamson, whom poll experts say has no real lead. for party nomination.

Yet national opinion polls show that combined, the two candidates command the support of more than 20 percent of Democratic voters, while Biden battles a persistently low approval rating. According to an average of national opinion polls by the FiveThirtyEight website, 40.6 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s job, while 54.9 percent disapprove.

You are viewing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is probably due to being offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

“There’s weakness out there for Biden, no doubt about it,” said Kyle Kondik of the non-partisan University of Virginia Center for Politics, pointing to several recent polls showing a majority of Democratic voters favoring Biden as the party’s nominee. Would prefer someone else. 2024.

“There is a risk to the party in having a competitive primary,” Kondik said. “But there is also a risk if Biden is just poised for the nomination, and is still in a vulnerable political position in the fall of an election year.”

Biden aides argue that having already defeated Donald Trump once, he is best positioned to take on his predecessor in 2024. However, several recent opinion polls — including one this week from The Economist and YouGov — show Biden and Trump in a statistical tie. An imaginary one-on-one competition.

Wayne Lesperance, a political-science professor and president of New England College in New Hampshire, a key early voting state in the Democratic primary race, said there was “real nervousness” among local party workers about Biden being the presumptive nominee.

Many have warned that Biden could face an embarrassing situation if he loses to Kennedy in both New Hampshire and Iowa, despite the Democratic National Committee’s efforts to change the calendar to go to South Carolina first. Kennedy suffers losses in both Hampshire and Iowa. Biden’s team has suggested he will not be on the ballot in Iowa and New Hampshire if he defies the calendar changes.

Kennedy – the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy – has supported conspiracy theories that have largely been dismissed by mainstream Democrats, including members of his own family. Analysts say his relatively high polling numbers — he has the support of 16 percent of grassroots Democrats, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average — are thanks to his famous family name, coupled with positive coverage from conservative media outlets.

You are viewing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is probably due to being offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

But they also acknowledge that at least some element of their support is a reflection of Democratic voters looking for an alternative to Biden.

“I don’t know if it goes so far as to say buyer’s remorse, but certainly there is concern that by sticking with Joe Biden, Democrats are putting themselves in danger of not winning the White House again?” Lesperance said. “There’s always a reference to age and ability. . . every time there’s a video of him stumbling or falling, it just feeds into that.

Biden tripped on a sandbag and fell to his knees on the stage at a graduation ceremony at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado earlier this month. The stumble fueled public attacks from Republicans and a private scuffle between Democrats, who are already jittery for another term for Biden, which would end in 2028, when he would be 86.

Ron DeSantis, 44, said, “We hope and wish Joe Biden a speedy recovery from any injuries, but we also wish the United States of America a speedy recovery from the injuries caused by Joe Biden and his policies.” ” — Florida’s Republican governor said in a campaign speech in New Hampshire after the collapse.

DeSantis is polling second behind Trump, 77, in an increasingly crowded field of Republicans vying to be his party’s nominee in 2024.

On Thursday, DeSantis rounded up California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom to enter the race and challenge Biden.

“Stop having cat legs around. Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe? Are you going to come in and do it?” DeSantis said to a laughing crowd, referring to Newsom. “Or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and chirp?”

Newsom, 55, is in his second term as governor of California, and is often cited as a future Democratic presidential nominee. After easily winning re-election in last November’s midterms, he instituted a new means of fundraising using leftover money from his 2022 campaign.

You are viewing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is probably due to being offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

Newsom has repeatedly stated that he is not running for president, and has supported Biden’s bid for a second term. This week, he appeared on Fox News for an interview with Trump aide Sean Hannity and praised Biden’s record in office.

But Newsom also said he would be willing to participate in a public debate against DeSantis, and hesitated a bit when pressed by Hannity about “how many times” his phone “ping(s) a day”, including People were calling for him to enter the 2024 race. ,

“I’m not answering,” Newsom replied.

Newsom is not the only Democratic governor named as a possible presidential candidate. Gretchen Whitmer, re-elected in 2022 by an 11-point margin in the swing state of Michigan, is also seen as a rising star in the party.

But Whitmer is the official co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign. While she set up her own fundraising vehicle — the “Fight Like Hell PAC” — this week, her advisers insist that money raised by the Political Action Committee be spent only to support Biden and other Democratic candidates. Maybe, not the campaign on a fictional Whitmer.

Analysts say Democrats’ continued unity behind Biden is partly explained by the party’s better-than-expected performance in last year’s midterms.

“He’s done a lot to not only clean up after Donald Trump, but also deliver on his campaign promises,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Boston-based Democratic operative. “I think we will see a change in the polls that Joe Biden, the White House and the surrogates will get out there and start telling more and more of that story.”