Several Democrats running in battleground congressional districts this term have abandoned Biden, highlighting growing concerns that the incumbent could be at a disadvantage in lower-ranked races following his shaky performance at a debate in Atlanta last week.
Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Grusenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) have both made it clear they are not confident in Biden’s victory, while Democrat Adam Frisch, who is running to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), said the president should step aside.
Their comments come amid growing speculation that more members of the party will call for Biden to step down in the aftermath of last week’s debate. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Biden had spoken with several allies as he considered a run, but the White House has disputed that report.
“There are people on the front lines who have been trying to distance themselves from Biden one way or another,” said one House Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.
“The question is, do Democrats need to distance themselves even further by saying they should have someone else at the top of their ticket,” the senator added. “If that’s what they have to do, we’re in real trouble. He’s already a low-tier candidate, especially in these states. It’s a question of how bad it can get for them.”
Since his disastrous debate defeat against Donald Trump, the president and his campaign have been unable to assuage Democratic fears about his candidacy, including long-standing concerns about his age and mental health.
A few days after the CNN event, Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said: The memo was published He is trying to sound confident about his current status as a presidential candidate while also trying to ease the fears of his opponents.
But it did little to ease Democratic fears, as a series of polls suggested Democrats may have reason to be concerned. A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted Wednesday showed Trump widening his lead over Biden among likely voters, 49% to 43%.
And another poll The Wall Street Journal published The poll released Wednesday showed Trump widening his lead over Biden from 2 points to 6 points, up from 2 points in a similar poll conducted in February.
For Democrats, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
He already faces a tough Senate, with Republicans increasingly expected to take control of the chamber in November, and post-debate polls have shown Biden trailing in key battleground states he needs to win a second term.
Those dynamics are putting increasing pressure on party leaders to shore up House races, wrest control of the House and check Republican power if Trump returns to the White House.They could well prompt donors to start shifting money as party members calculate where they can best invest their money in a tumultuous election cycle.
That won’t be easy.
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election forecasting organization, has 39 House seats at stake for Democrats, while Republicans have 30. Overall, The Hill/Decision Desk HQ election forecasts currently project a 66 percent chance that Republicans will keep the House in November.
Several senior Democrats in and outside of Congress have already begun stepping up pressure on Biden to back down.
“I would urge him not to run, not only on behalf of the party but the country, because there’s too much at stake,” former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) told The Hill on Monday when asked how he would handle the issue if he were still in Congress.
Ryan’s comments prompted him to publicly call on Biden to withdraw in an op-ed. The former congressman told The Hill that he was “really disappointed that people aren’t speaking out more,” and argued that leaving Biden as the Democratic nominee “risks winning the House.”
On Wednesday, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) became the second House Democrat to call on Biden to drop out of the race. While Grijalva represents a safe Democratic district, other House members running in more competitive races have also called for him to distance himself from the incumbent.
“Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise.” Golden wrote in an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News.“It also didn’t upset me as much as it did other people because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months. I’m not going to vote for him, but Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.”
Golden represents Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which Trump won by 7 points in 2020. The Democratic candidate is currently expected to win the district, according to The Hill/Decision Desk election projections.
Frisch, who is running for an open seat in Colorado’s Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District, was one of the first candidates to urge Biden to drop out.
“I thank President Biden for his years of service, but the path ahead requires a new generation of leadership to move our country forward,” Frisch said Tuesday.
Adding to the Democratic Party’s woes, election forecaster Sabato’s crystal ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Changed rating In two states, Michigan changed from “Lean Democrat” to “Close,” and the more reliably Democratic state of Minnesota changed from “Strong” to “Lean Democrat.” Between the two states, Democrats hold at least four battleground districts.
Most lawmakers have not taken a clear stance on Biden’s future, and while they are careful not to get ahead of the Biden team, they acknowledge that Biden has a turbulent road ahead after the debate.
Still, some say they would be open to alternatives if they were available.
“I think it’s fair to say the vice president makes a very compelling case for why Donald Trump is a threat and is unfit to be president, particularly on democracy and voting and voting rights and reproductive freedom. These are going to be very important debates in this election,” one Democratic congressman said when asked if he would feel comfortable if Vice President Kamala Harris was at the top of the list of candidates.
