Washington Examiner, July 2024
Democrats hoping to replace President Joe Biden as their party’s nominee after last week’s debate may be running out of time, money, and options. Not only are Democrats poised to nominate their standard-bearer through a virtual roll call as early as this month before their August convention, even if the party could coalesce around a replacement mere months before November’s election, it would encounter fundraising and organizing disadvantages compared to former President Donald Trump. Days after last week’s debate, the responses of Biden, the campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and other party leaders have not provided comfort to all their rank and file. Biden should “take himself out of the race,” according to former Democratic strategist Christopher Hahn, a onetime aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “Thursday night was not just a bad debate; it reaffirmed what undecided voters fear most about the president,” Hahn told the Washington Examiner. “I believe that there are many other Democrats that will have a better chance at defeating Trump.”
But the likes of Northeastern University political science professor and Chairman Costas Panagopoulos contend replacing Biden is “complicated, both structurally and politically.” “First, Democrats would need a viable alternative projected to fare better than Biden against Trump in November,” Panagopoulos told the Washington Examiner. “At the moment, such an option is not apparent. Polls in the coming weeks may shuffle the deck of Democratic contenders, but that has not happened yet.”
