2024 Election: Biden Says Pressure on Him Comes from Democratic Party Elites

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — Considering his choices in this year’s fast-approaching general election, presidential electionRochelle Jones believes both major party candidates should step down.

“They just need to find somebody who’s going to run this country properly, who doesn’t have any health issues, who cares about us, the people,” the 39-year-old Michigan State University kitchen worker said this week.

As president Joe Biden As he struggles to recover from a disastrous performance in last month’s debate, he argued that desires for him to leave the campaign are limited to those within his party. elite. » But Jones’ sentiment reflects a nuanced reality takes place in some of the most politically competitive states, from Michigan to Pennsylvania to Nevada.

In interviews this week, many voters said they still support Biden. But they also expressed concern that a lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy could prompt many Democratic voters to stay home, handing victory to Republicans. Donald TrumpSome are also concerned about the impact Biden’s continued candidacy could have on local elections, at a time when control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate is also at stake.

Although Biden has received the strongest support from Black elected officials in recent days, many Black voters in key states have said they are worried. Jones, who is Black, said she will likely vote for Biden when the time comes, but she believes he needs to address inflation, an issue she cares about.

The unifying factor for most Democrats, elite and non-elite alike, is the threat of a second Trump term. Biden has long argued that voters will reject Trump if faced with a one-on-one race, regardless of their reservations about the incumbent.

Base voters’ concern comes as Biden pushes back public and private pressure to give up the Democratic nomination and allow the party to field another candidate to face Trump in November. Speaker Emeritus of the House Nancy Pelosi On Wednesday, he simply said that “it’s up to the president” whether to stay in the race, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch called on Biden to withdraw from the race, becoming the first Senate Democrat to do so, and a celebrity donor. George Clooney He also said Biden should not run.

“What I hear most often from people of color is, ‘If not him, what’s the alternative?’” said Craig Tatum, a pastor and prominent Black leader in Saginaw, Michigan. He said many people he spoke with found Biden’s performance troubling but remain committed to voting Democratic after seeing Trump’s presidency and character.

A demographic microcosm of Michigan as a whole, Saginaw County is the only Michigan bellwether to have backed the winner of the last four presidential elections. The namesake city, with a population of 44,000, is half black, while surrounding areas are overwhelmingly Republican.

Trump held a slight lead over Biden in two national polls of voters conducted after the debate. One of the polls, conducted by SSRS for CNN, found that three-quarters of voters, including more than half of Democratic voters, said the party had a better chance of winning the presidency in November with a candidate other than Biden. About 7 in 10 voters, and 45% of Democrats, said that.

Biden’s physical and mental abilities are a reason to vote against him, according to the CNN/SSRS poll. And about 6 in 10 voters, including about a quarter of Democrats, said re-electing Biden as president in November would be a risky choice for the country rather than a safe one, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. That poll also found Democrats split on whether Biden should remain a candidate.

Ethan Williams, who teaches in a summer program in Saginaw, will turn 18 before the November election. He said he and his friends who watched the debate were shocked by what they saw.

“We weren’t very enthusiastic, to say the least,” he said.

Williams said the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, Trump’s felony convictions and Trump’s second-term manifesto known as Project 2025 were particularly alarming. He plans to vote for Biden despite his age, but may focus more on local and state elections.

“In terms of the chances of beating Trump, it would be Biden,” he said. “But I don’t like that fact.”

Pamela Pugh, a longtime Saginaw resident who is running in the Democratic primary for a key Michigan congressional district, demurred when asked whether Biden should be the Democratic nominee. She said second-tier candidates like her will have to rely on themselves to drive turnout and attract voters “who don’t believe that the people at the front of the line represent them.”

Pugh called Biden’s debate performance “beyond mediocre” and stressed that he had “work to do in our communities” to earn four more years in office.

Members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus and other Black Democratic Party activists have emerged as some of Biden’s strongest supporters to remain the party’s choice and keep his spot on the ticket. In the 2020 Democratic primaries, Black voters carried Biden to victories in early primary states, with overwhelming support in South Carolina, on Super Tuesday and in Midwestern states like Michigan.

As long as blacks and young people turn out in large numbers, Biden will win, said Brian Humphrey, a 62-year-old black activist from Pennsylvania. But he worries about younger voters, like his granddaughters, 18 and 19, who are unexcited by a man four times their age.

“I’m a little worried right now, to be honest,” Humphrey said. “You know, because of his age and all that, and my young grandchildren are telling me, ‘He’s too old,’ and ‘I’m not voting for that old man,’ you know, I’m trying to convince them that he’s the better of the two candidates.”

For Alyse Sobosan, a school counselor in Las Vegas, the commotion over Biden’s debate performance is a distraction Democrats don’t need right now.

“It’s distracting from the campaign and the real issues,” she said. “That’s all there is to talk about, so it makes sense to me that he should step down.”

Despite the ambivalence and anxiety of many Democrats, Biden maintains support that ranges from enthusiasm to resignation.

James Johnson, a retired Pennsylvania public school teacher, said Biden’s performance was “difficult to watch” but “in no way diminished my resolve to vote for him and see him elected as the next president.”

Teresa Hoover, a Democrat who attended Biden’s speech Sunday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, agreed.

“He was the chosen candidate and I think at this point, we’re only a few months away, it’s a little hard to shift gears,” Hoover said.

Despite all the consternation, the debate did not change the fundamental reality that the candidates are both unpopular and Americans are not enthusiastic about their choices.

“I couldn’t bring myself to watch the debate because I have a hard time with both candidates,” said Christian Garrett, 26, director of a summer education program in Saginaw.

Garrett said he was unsure how he would vote, believing Trump was vindictive and Biden was incompetent to continue leading.

“That’s why I feel like this has become a joke, because we Americans have stood by and watched this unfold,” he said. “It’s almost as if we don’t have the power, when in reality the power lies within us.”

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Cooper reported from Phoenix and Levy from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.