WASHINGTON (TND) — Vulnerable Democrats hoping to hang onto their seats in Trump-leaning districts and states are distancing themselves from President Joe Biden amid pressure on him to drop his reelection bid after his poor debate performance escalated doubt about whether he can beat former President Donald Trump.
Biden’s inability to forcefully combat Trump on the debate stage and rambling answers that at times became jumbled has reshaped the way the presidential matchup is being viewed and spurring Democratic concerns about a Republican trifecta in November as a result.
Most lawmakers have not weighed in on the issue but there is a growing sense of urgency and frustration emerging out of Congress with a few calls for Biden to step aside and predictions he will lose along with frustration for the campaign on its response to the debate.
The break is particularly apparent in the House, where three Democrats have called on Biden to back out of the race and several others have cast doubt on whether he can win after his poor showing in the debate.
“About 50 million Americans tuned in and watched that debate. I was one of them for about five very painful minutes. We all saw what we saw, you can’t undo that, and the truth I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump. I know that’s difficult, but I think the damage has been done by that debate,” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., told KATU in an interview.
Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat who represents a Maine district that voted for Trump with a seven-point margin in 2020, also said that he expects Trump to win.
“Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise,” Golden wrote in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News. “It also didn’t rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.”
Distancing themselves from the president is a familiar playbook for Democrats in swing or GOP-leaning districts and states that was also used during the 2022 midterms. Democratic candidates vastly overperformed compared to past midterms, flipping two Senate seats and Republicans only winning a slight majority in the House.
Polling conducted prior to the debate indicated that Democrats would already need to outperform Biden, particularly in swing states where Trump has held leads in places like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Surveys have also found the Democratic incumbents in some of those places are holding a healthy advantage but that could be more tenuous following the debate, adding pressure to down-ballot candidates to even further outperform Biden and risking turnout through a lack of enthusiasm about the president’s candidacy.
Senators up for reelection and candidates have been more reserved on whether Biden should drop out and its impact on their races but the path to keeping the slim Senate majority was already difficult for Democrats. Republicans are heading into Election Day with one essentially certain flip with Sen. Joe Manchin’s seat for West Virginia being open with the Democrat-turned-independent opting against running for reelection in a heavily Republican-leaning state.
Along with the loss of Manchin, Democrats are also defending more seats in Republican-leaning areas and in swing states. Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana are trying to hold onto seats in states that have gone for Trump by double digits.
Most of the Democrats in tightly contested races have stayed relatively quiet on the debate and its resulting fallout, with Brown saying in an interview with local media that he is “not a pundit” and focused on his race.
Republicans also have their eyes on several swing states with vulnerable incumbents or in open races like Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. They have gone on the offensive about Biden’s age and meandering debate performance and tried to tie Democrats to the problem.
“Democrats created this disaster by propping up Joe Biden for years despite his obvious mental decline. Now they’ve thrown the country into a national crisis. Every Democrat must answer whether they think Joe Biden can continue to serve as President of the United States—they owe their country an explanation,” NRSC Spokesman Philip Letsou said in a statement.
For Democrats, the only flip opportunities are longshots with the seats of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Rick Scott. Texas has not elected a Democrat in a statewide contest in nearly three decades and Florida’s electorate has become heavily Republican over the last few cycles, reelecting GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis by nearly 19% in the 2022 midterms.
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