In addition to questions about whether President Joe Biden should remain in the 2024 race, unrest within the Democratic Party is growing as members debate whether Vice President Kamala Harris should be next in line for the job or whether a “mini primary” should be quickly launched before the party’s convention in August.
Harris attended a first campaign fundraiser Saturday in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and received an endorsement from the state’s top Democratic senator, Elizabeth Warren, who said ahead of the visit that if Biden were to step down, her vice president was “ready to step up.”
At the event, which organizers said raised $2 million and was attended by 1,000 guests, Mr.me Harris did not mention calls for Joe Biden to leave the race or for her to replace him, instead repeating one of her usual campaign lines. “We are going to win this election,” she said.
“Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in equality? Do we believe in the promise of America? Then are we willing to fight for it?” she asked a cheering crowd. “When we fight, we win.”
But place Mme Harris leading the way, which would be a historic moment for the party as the first woman, black person and person of South Asian descent as its presidential candidate, is far from certain. Senior officials, including Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, favor an open process, with some arguing it would give the Democratic nominee the strength needed to take on Republican Donald Trump.
“If you think there is a consensus among people who want Joe Biden out…that they will support Kamala, Vice President Harris, you are mistaken,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a widely debated social media post this week.
To leave or to stay
With the deliberations made public, Democrats are prolonging an extraordinary moment of uncertainty and upheaval.
Joe Biden, despite a week of campaigning, interviews and insisting he is the best candidate to face Trump in a rematch, has failed to quell the tumult. Skeptical Democrats doubt he can hold on to the White House after his failures in last month’s debate, and worry he will take with him the party’s hopes of control of Congress.
On Saturday, Representative Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, added his name to the list of about 30 Democrats in Congress who say it is time for Mr. Biden to pass the torch.
Other lawmakers are expected to speak in the coming days. Donors have expressed concerns.
From his beach house in Delaware, Mr. Biden, 81, is isolating himself after contracting COVID-19, but also politically with a small circle of family and close advisers. White House physician Kevin O’Connor said Saturday that the Democrat’s symptoms were improving, but he remained plagued by a dry cough and hoarseness.
The president’s team insisted he was ready to resume campaigning next week to counter what he called the “dark vision” presented by Trump.
“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement Friday.
But outside the beach house enclave, debates and passions are heating up.
The idea of a “mini primary” raised
Very few Democratic lawmakers pushing for the president’s ouster have mentioned Kamala Harris in their statements.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a Pelosi ally who has called on the leader to step down, said on MSNBC Friday that holding a sort of “mini primary” that would include the current vice president made sense.
Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont have both called on Joe Biden to drop out of the race and said they would support an open nominating process at the convention.
Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to move to anyone other than Mr.me Harris, and logistically unfeasible with a virtual nominating vote scheduled for early next month, before the Democratic convention opens in Chicago on Aug. 19.
The impasse over Biden’s political future has become increasingly untenable for the party and its leaders, a month before this convention which should be a unifying moment to choose their incumbent president to face Donald Trump.
It’s unclear what else, if anything, the president could do to reverse the trend and win back Democratic lawmakers and voters who are wary of his ability to defeat his opponent and serve another term.
The president has held a series of virtual conversations with various caucuses over the past week, some of which have ended badly.