The End of the 2024 Democratic Presidential Campaign: The Problem of Biden’s Unpopularity and His Importance to the American Dream
President Biden officially announced on Tuesday that he is running for a second term as president of the United States in the 2024 election.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. We still are. We are facing a question regarding the freedom that we have in the years to come. More rights or fewer,” Biden said in a 3-minute video announcing his run.
Biden is only 80 years old, making him the oldest person to serve as president, a point that has given the Democrats pause, wondering if he gives them the best chance at winning. The former vice president and senator doesn’t have to contend with a challenge for the nomination.
Half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said in a February NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll that they had a better chance with Biden than someone else. That was a reversal from shortly before the 2022 midterms when a majority said they though they would have a better shot with someone else.
That alternative, however, never emerged. Vice President Harris has had worse favorability ratings than Pete Buttigieg.
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement that Biden is “out of touch” and blamed him for inflation, crime rates and fentanyl trafficking.
Biden said his family encouraged him to run after he defeated Trump because of false claims of voter fraud.
Why is Mr. Biden faring so poorly? The causes of his weak ratings have been up for debate since they tanked in August 2021. The withdrawal from Afghanistan, the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus, a stalled legislative agenda and the beginnings of inflation were all seen as possible theories. Today, all of those explanations seem to be in retreat — the story line of support for Ukraine against Russia has supplanted Afghanistan; the trend line on inflation shows some promise; Covid deaths are at their lowest point in three years — but Mr. Biden remains unpopular.
Biden’s approval rating has fallen below Trump’s in the past. It nose-dived several months into his first year in office after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden’s video has a picture of Trump with Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis, and a picture of a female lawmaker from Georgia. All while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.”
Biden ended Tuesday’s campaign announcement with the phrase “let’s finish the job,” a line he first tested out in his State of the Union address this year.
During that speech in February, Biden repeated the phrase “building the middle class, capping the cost ofdiabetes, expanding Medicaid, acting on climate change, increasing taxes on billionaires, strengthen antitrust enforcement, getting more affordablehousing, funding universal pre-K, increasing Vocational job opportunities, pushing.”
Biden’s campaign team and the early stumbles of reelection: Where will we go next? How might the Republican presidential nominee look in his early years?
Biden has named two members of his campaign team: the campaign manager Julie Ch Chavez Rodriguez, who was White House point person with governors and mayors during Biden’s first term in office, and the principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks.
Jim Messina was a campaign manager for Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 and he said that that is likely to be the case if Trump is the GOP nominee.
At this stage, three basic possibilities remain. The overall political environment is unfavorable due to inflation and partisan polarization. If so, any president in these straits would have low approval ratings and struggle until voters felt their economic fortunes were improving.
If there is a possibility, it is that the early stumbles caused serious damage to the perception of Mr. Biden’s leadership competence because of his age. If he does not look like himself, he may not be able to restore the nation’s confidence.