Democrats See Biden As Best Hope Against Republican Challengers

By Staff, Agencies

United States President Joe Biden has officially announced his re-election bid, ending months of waiting that has, at times, included speculation the 80-year-old leader could step aside in favor of a younger Democrat.

The announcement on Tuesday sends the former Delaware Senator and vice president from Scranton, Pennsylvania, on an accelerated path to win the Democratic party’s nomination ahead of the 2024 general election.

It is historically rare for sitting US presidents to face meaningful election challenges from within their party, and no mainstream candidates have said they will challenge Biden in the primary.

So far, the Democratic brass has also overcome concerns over Biden’s age and shown party unity for the most part, said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution.

“People may wish he was 60 years old, not 80 years old. But there’s nothing you could do about that. It just is what it is,” she said of Biden, who is currently the oldest president ever to hold the role.

“Democrats like the way he has governed and see him as competent and steady. And that is a big change from the last president,” she added.

Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the left-leaning New Democrat Network think tank, believes that Biden’s solid showing during his first term will be a potent draw for voters: “The bottom line is Joe Biden’s been a good president. He’s gonna have a strong case for re-election.”

Nevertheless, polls have shown lacklustre support for Biden in recent weeks, with a recent NBC News poll showing only 26 percent of Americans think the president should run again. The other 70 percent polled said he should not, with nearly half citing Biden’s age.

That poll also showed 51 percent of Democrats were against a Biden re-election campaign, similar to the findings of a recent AP-NORC poll which found 47 percent of Democrats did not want to see Biden run again.

Meanwhile, other polls indicate the potential for a tight race in the general election, whether Biden faces Trump or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, considered a top Republican challenger though he has yet to announce his candidacy.

A Wall Street Journal survey of 1,500 voters, published this month, shows DeSantis narrowly leading in a hypothetical matchup against Biden, with 48 percent of the vote to Biden’s 45.

The Democrat had better odds in a hypothetical face-off against Trump, who trailed behind Biden by three percentage points.