OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
New polling data indicates that President Joe Biden is lagging behind former President Donald Trump in five battleground states, which is alarming and perplexing Democratic senators and poses a political challenge to the party’s Senate candidates seeking office in those states.
Democrats are concerned about Biden’s low polling results and what they mean for his electability in 2024, but they also maintain that Biden will be the party’s nominee absent a dramatic change in circumstances.
However, they concede that a lot of voters find Biden’s age (80) concerning.
“I hear immense praise for what he has done and how well he is doing on foreign policy and extremism at home. He’s doing everything right, is what I’m hearing. And yet there’s this lingering concern about electability,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said.
“The question about the polls concerns people,” added Blumenthal, who noted that Trump, 77, isn’t much younger than Biden.
Senate Democrats claim that to inspire young voters, Biden needs to develop a stronger and more progressive political message. Among voters between the ages of 18 and 29, he and Trump are now virtually tied.
In 2020, Biden received 60% of the vote in this group, compared to 36% for Trump, The Hill reported.
“I think the president needs to have a more forceful message, and there are issues in our democracy — like the creeping dark money corruption, and in our environment, like increasingly chaotic climate problems we’re having — that deserve a real fighting stance,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said.
“It’s useless to go to young people who understand what’s happening in climate and tell them, ‘Well, we passed the [Inflation Reduction Act],’” he said, referring to the bill Biden signed into law last year to make historic new investments in renewable energy technologies. “That’s been my pitch. You need to have a more forceful message and get it out there.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said, “We have work to do,” arguing that Biden “has a great story to tell that hasn’t been told yet, and that’s what campaigns are about.”
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin whined that Trump “is bulletproof, politically” when it comes to GOP voters.
Many Democratic lawmakers believed that after receiving state and federal indictments, Trump’s popularity among swing and independent voters would plummet.
Rather, a poll by The New York Times and Siena College indicates that Trump has surpassed Biden in five states that Biden won in 2020: Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Nevada.
Democrats are particularly concerned about the poll’s results, which show that 62 percent of registered voters believe Biden lacks the mental capacity to serve as president, and 71 percent believe he is too old to do so.
The Trump campaign declared former President Donald Trump the winner of the third GOP primary debate, which he did not attend, dismissing his rivals who were on stage as “cheap knockoffs.”
“Unless you’re a fan of cheap knockoffs or out-of-tune tribute bands, tonight’s GOP debate was a complete waste of time and money,” Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser said of the GOP debate in Miami.
“Voters want a return to the Country we had just three short years ago before Biden and the radical left began to destroy it, and voters believe President Trump is the only one who can make this a reality,” LaCivita said. “Simply put, voters want to Make America Great Again.”
“They are going nowhere, and at this point, every dollar sent to their campaigns or their SuperPACs may as well be going directly to Joe Biden. Donald J. Trump is going to be the next President of the United States,” LaCivita said. “It’s up to DeSantis and Haley to determine if they want a political future or not.”
