By ending his bid for a second term, President Biden did something Donald Trump could never do — he put his country’s interests over his personal ambitions. Biden showed Americans what real patriotism looks like.
Biden’s selfless act has thoroughly discombobulated Republicans, who reacted like kids at a birthday bash suddenly deprived of their pinata. Trump, who enjoys kicking people when they are down, huffed that Biden is America’s worst president ever.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also descended into partisan hackery, insisting absurdly that Biden resign immediately. Nutty conspiracy theories took wing across MAGA world, including the claim that the “deep state” engineered Biden’s ouster from the race.
Having invested heavily in tearing down Biden, Republicans are irate that his departure takes their preferred target away and resets the presidential race.
Trailing in the polls and wounded by his wobbly performance in the June 27 debate, Biden reluctantly acknowledged that public anxieties about his age and diminished capacity were sinking his reelection chances — and boosting Trump’s.
His 11th-hour exit, less than a month before the Democratic nominating convention opens in Chicago, solves that problem. But it leaves his party with little time to audition an impressive field of potential replacements, including Vice President Kamala Harris, and pick the one with the best chance of beating Trump.
Rather than risk an open convention, Democrats are stampeding to Harris, whom Biden has endorsed. Reportedly, she’s already nailed down the support of a majority of the nearly 4,000 Biden delegates attending the convention.
Harris brings some important assets to the ticket: She’s relatively young (59), enjoys enthusiastic Black support and relates better with young voters than Biden. She also does well with suburban women and has been an effective White House point person on abortion, a major Republican liability.
Harris makes Trump look like the oldster in the race with fading mental acuity — witness his endless, meandering acceptance speech in Milwaukee.
Yet Harris also faces some formidable challenges. Like Biden, her approval numbers are low. And the veep is still something of a cipher as far as her core political convictions and philosophy are concerned.
In her desultory run for the 2020 nomination, Harris curried favor with progressive activists, distancing herself from her record as a prosecutor, attacking Biden from the left and struggling to explain her health care position.
Her public image is that of a generic liberal Democrat from uber-progressive California. It’s fair to ask: Will Harris be able to help Democrats corral swing voters in the critical battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin? Her previous support for a fracking ban won’t go down well in shale-rich Pennsylvania.
Harris likely will inherit Biden’s $240 million campaign war chest. But as vice president, she’ll also be the incumbent and will need a deft touch to parry Republican attempts to make the contest a referendum on the Biden record rather than Trump.
If Harris wins, it will be sweet vindication for Biden. If she loses, it will tarnish his political legacy and prompt Democrats to ask why he didn’t quit the race earlier, leaving time for a robust primary contest.
In 2020, Biden billed himself as a “bridge” to a new generation of Democratic leaders. That led many Democrats (including me) to conclude that he aimed to eject Trump, serve a single term and then make way for younger leaders.
That would have cleared the way for the generational transition that today’s Washington gerontocracy urgently needs. Fortunately, the party has plenty of talent, especially among governors who usually make the best presidential timber.
Rising stars include Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Jared Polis of Colorado, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Gavin Newsom of California and Andy Beshear of Kentucky. Although still in their first terms, Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Wes Moore of Maryland also are getting rave reviews.
In Biden’s cabinet, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (and former Rhode Island governor) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have been standouts. In the Senate, Arizona’s Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, is generating a lot of buzz.
All these names are in contention now for the ticket’s vice president slot. But Democrats likely would be in better shape today had these and other figures been afforded the chance to compete for the 2024 nomination.
In addition to showcasing new faces, the party needs new ideas to help Democrats start winning back working Americans. They can’t afford to keep hemorrhaging non-college voters, who will make up about two-thirds of the electorate in November.
Basic math dictates that the Democrats will have to do better with working-class voters — not only whites but also Blacks and especially Hispanics, who have lately become more receptive to Trump and his party — if they want to rebuild their competitiveness outside urban areas and build lasting governing majorities.
Unfortunately, this was the road not taken by the Biden White House, which instead forged an alliance with the progressive left in 2021. Can Harris now rise to the working class challenge?
“As Trump Republicans bet on expanding their outreach to the working class, Harris will depend on a more educated and upscale portion of the electorate,” says William Galston of the Brookings Institution. “She will have substantial appeal to Black voters (especially women) and white liberals, but her prospects of reversing the Democrats’ declining support among Hispanics are at best uncertain.”
In any event, Democrats owe a debt of gratitude to President Biden. In the dark days of 2020, when they needed an experienced national leader to unite the party and the country against Trump’s political vandalism, the old pro from Delaware stepped forward.
That’s something that can never be taken away from Joe Biden, regardless of what happens in November.
Will Marshall is president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute.