The waves of panic that coursed through the Democratic Party in the wake of President Joe Biden’s alarming debate performance left party leaders and officials scrambling this weekend to answer two distinct questions:
Will Biden drag the entire ticket, especially in critical House and Senate races?
If he’s not the head of the ticket, who would it be?
“There is no real succession plan,” a senior Democratic adviser to the Biden campaign told CNN this Saturday (29). “That’s what makes all of this not only painful but also very problematic.”
New polls are being conducted by Democrats throughout the weekend and into early next week in an effort to get a deeper picture of the extent of the political fallout, especially in key races that will determine whether the party can regain the House majority. and maintain his position in narrow control of the Senate.
A second longtime adviser said the only way Biden would consider stepping aside — a move that remains an open question — would be if he were presented with serious data showing he would likely not only lose his re-election bid but also put in jeopardy. risk the House and Senate and competitive local races across the country.
Biden’s campaign has long had polls that show Democrats would still support lower-polling candidates even if they didn’t vote for Biden. If the president’s debate setback made some of these voters much less inclined to vote — giving Donald Trump and Republicans a turnout advantage — Biden could be faced with a harsher reality.
“The party is in President Biden’s hands – for better or worse,” a Democratic senator told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He deserves our respect and space to make any decision.”
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