Will Dem Election Wins Solve Their Joe Biden Problem?
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Jake Lahut | November 10, 2024 | Daily Beast |
In 2020, Joe Biden rode the electability argument all the way to the White House, convincing his party he was the only Democrat who could defeat Donald Trump.
One year out from the 2024 election, Democrats have put significant electoralwins on the board despite Biden having the lowest approval rating of any post-World War II president heading into a re-election year except for Jimmy Carter in 1979. He trails Trump in most of the battleground states likely to decide the Electoral College.
Voters seem to be saying they like Democratic policies over what the Republicans have to offer—especially on abortion rights, as shown by Tuesday night’s results in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia. But when the pollsters come calling, they’re taking out their frustrations on Biden.That dissonance is fueling enduring fears in the party over Biden’s prospects against Trump—despite the president’s camp insisting that the better reflection of his standing is this week’s state-level Democratic success, not the polls showing his own abysmal approval ratings.
A variety of prominent Democrats told The Daily Beast they’re not worried about the president as their nominee—at least not this far out from next November.
“We’re not electing a pastor or a preacher. We’re electing a president,” Michael Blake, CEO of the Atlas Strategy Group, told The Daily Beast.
Blake, a former Democratic National Committee vice chair who ran Black voter outreach for the Obama 2012 campaign and was one of the former president’s early 2008 hires in Iowa, said he’s skeptical of Biden truly losing support among Black voters.