candidacy 2024
Age! US Democrats and their voters are already discussing alternatives to Joe Biden
Sniffed: Support for US President Joe Biden for another candidacy is rather low in his own camp.
© Mandel Ngan / AFP
Joe Biden is determined to run for another term in the White House. Most of his party and its voters are not enthusiastic about the idea. Two names are particularly popular as alternatives.
When Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump as US President in January 2021, it seemed a foregone conclusion. The then 78-year-old man from Delaware, who by no means always seemed vital, would not serve the full term and resign half of the time. Vice-President Kamala Harris, 22 years his junior, would then take over the business and enter the next election campaign as the incumbent. Corresponding speculations were not contradicted. But instead of rising to become the hopeful for the 2024 election, the fate of so many vice presidents befell Harris and she was completely forgotten. Meanwhile, Joe Biden let it be known that he would run again and that he was sure of his party’s support. But on this point the President is clearly wrong.
One published last Tuesday Survey commissioned by the broadcaster CNN In fact, 75 percent of Democratic voters surveyed believe that someone other than Biden should run as the party’s presidential nominee. Last winter, only a good half of those surveyed saw it that way. Also in an early July survey conducted for the “New York Times”. At 64 percent, a clear majority of democratic voters spoke out against another Biden candidacy. Added to this are the poor approval ratings. Only 39.3 percent of Americans are currently satisfied with their president – a worse figure than that of their predecessor Trump at the same time as his presidency.
Who should do it if not Joe Biden?
His old age has become Biden’s greatest handicap. In particular, younger potential voters for the Democrats find the President simply too old. “He will soon be 80, he has all these health problems and now he also had Covid,” the ARD Tagesschau quoted a woman as saying in a street survey in Washington. “I don’t think he’s the politician he used to be.” Biden repeatedly attracts attention with minor faux pas that cast doubt on his mental and physical condition. Word-finding and concentration disorders or a fall from a bicycle remain in the public memory. Biden sometimes seems like the personified reason for the already loud calls for an age limit for US presidents.
The problem of the Democrats: Nobody is pushing themselves as a really good alternative. Nevertheless, the discussion is open. And the names floating around among the party’s voters are unsurprising: Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are the most popular. According to a poll for the pay channel News Nation, 31 percent of Democrats would prefer the vice president as a candidate, Newsom would come up with 17 percent. Not exactly values that indicate that the democratic camp could enthusiastically gather behind either person.
Sanders? Too old. Buttigieg? Too colourless
Bernie Sanders, who is also 80 years old, achieved 13 percent in the survey. Followed by Biden’s acting Minister of Transport Pete Buttigieg with ten percent, who is 40 years young and is considered a beacon of hope, but has so far remained quite colorless. Also named are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 32, the pugnacious New York member of the House of Representatives who, however, stands in the way of her uncompromising nature, Gretchen Whitmer, 50, Governor of Michigan, and JB Pritzker, 57, Governor of Illinois – all under ten percent of the votes .
What does not make the problem for the Democrats any smaller: Biden not only wants to run again, according to further surveys he would also be the most promising opponent of Donald Trump, should the two old men actually duel again. As of now, the institutes are predicting a close race for this case – sometimes with Trump at an advantage, sometimes with Biden ahead. Unlike the Democrats, however, the Republicans also have a clear alternative to Trump. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been on the agenda for some time now, as he’s considered a kind of “Trump with a brain”. And at the age of 43 he would also fulfill the wish for a much younger president. The Democrats have a lot of work to do.
Sources: CNN; “New York Times”; FiveThirtyEight; “Newsweek”, “The Hills”; DPA news agency