A New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters released Monday found that 61% of Democrats think the party should nominate another candidate, not Joe Biden, for the presidency in 2024. Only 29% thought Biden should be the 2024 nominee.
The NYT poll has raised questions about the popularity of the president among his party’s members. A June Fox News poll showed that 18% of registered Democrat voters disapproved of Biden’s job as president, the highest number since he took office two years ago.
In Washington, Democrats are preparing, even hoping, for a post-Biden 2024 election. For many Democratic operatives and politicians, the 79-year-old served his purpose already–that is, if they even agree he accomplished that at all.
“Both polls appear to be the first of the 21st century to show more supporters of a president’s party opting for nominating a hypothetical someone else,” The Washington Post reported, referring to the NYT poll and a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.
Biden is caught between the progressive wing of his party, whom he endeavored to placate heading into the 2020 election, and the moderate wing who claims he has capitulated too much to the far-left. (RELATED: Jean-Pierre Responds To Poll Finding Majority Of Democrats Prefer Different Presidential Candidate In 2024)
“You’ll probably see moderates … cold shouldering Biden and progressives pushing him to do more,” Connor Farrell, a strategist and founder of the progressive consultancy Left Rising told The Hill.
Democrats feel angry, frustrated and dissatisfied. Jon Reinish from Mercury’s political strategy company also spoke to the outlet.
The good news? Democrats have resigned from Biden. Bad news is that their younger voters will decide if they are a better idea. https://t.co/66bmDZaJsK
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) July 11, 2022
Democratic Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger — a moderate within her party — gave a speech in July in which she failed to mention the president even once. And Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, a close personal friend of Biden’s, didn’t show up to an event Biden threw in Cleveland.
Many Democrats have become frustrated by the White House’s lack of action on abortion after the Dobbs-v. Jackson Women’s Health Center ruling.
“Frustration, anger rising among Democrats over caution on abortion,” read a Washington Post headline days after the decision. (RELATED: POLL: Even Democrats Think The Country Is Going In The Wrong Direction)
Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren claimed that the federal government should respond to the Dobbs decision by building abortion clinics on federal land, a proposal which the White House later dismissed. Although there are legal issues that make the plan impossible, it served as a reminder of the anger at Biden’s less measured approach to an issue many within his party consider urgent.
President Biden is hemorrhaging support, with only 26% of Democratic voters saying the party should renominate him in 2024, a New York Times/Siena College poll found. Voters nationwide gave him a meager 33% job approval rating. https://t.co/OMwNkcclrr
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 11, 2022
“There is a leadership vacuum right now, and he’s not filling it,” Democratic consultant Adam Jentleson said, according to the Washington Post. The president can be called upon as a leader in times of crisis. According to the outlet, Sam Baydoun is a Wayne County commissioner.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was one of the most prominent left-wing activists of Congressional Democrats. She directly criticized the president for his response to the Dobbs decision in Meet the Press.
” “This isn’t just a crisis in Roe. This is a crisis in our democracy.” Ocasio Cortez stated. “This is a crisis of legitimacy, and President Biden must address that.”
AOC on Meet the Press: “What I believe that the president and the Democratic Party needs to come to terms with is that this is not just a crisis of Roe, this is a crisis of our democracy … this is a crisis of legitimacy and President Biden must address that” pic.twitter.com/CGB3tBSPFx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 26, 2022
Biden is not only battling abysmal polling numbers among voters at large, but now his own party is turning against him. A Democrat being too friendly to Biden seems like a risky electoral strategy. Both the moderate and left-wing factions of the president are making enemies.
In the 2022 midterms, analyzing how many successful Democratic candidates seriously associated with the president and his agenda may serve as a verdict on the general success of Biden’s presidency. Then, coming up on the 2024 presidential election, the question will be whether Biden can scrap together enough support within his own party to be chosen again as the nominee.
