SAGINAW, Michigan – Considering your choices as this year quickly approaches presidential electionRochelle Jones thinks the two major party candidates should step aside.
“They just need someone who runs this country correctly, who doesn’t have any health problems, who cares about us,” the 39-year-old Michigan State University culinary worker said this week.
As president Joe Biden struggling to recover from a disastrous debate performance last month, he argued that the desire for him to leave the campaign is limited to “ elite.” But Jones’ sentiment reflects a more nuanced reality It’s unfolding in some of the most politically competitive states, from here in Michigan to Pennsylvania and Nevada.
In interviews this week, many voters said they still support Biden. But they also expressed concern that the lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy could cause many Democratic voters to stay home, handing the race to Republicans. donald trump. Some are also concerned about the impact that Biden’s continued candidacy would have on electoral races, at a time when control of the US House and Senate are also at stake.
While Biden has drawn the strongest support in recent days from Black elected officials, many Black voters in swing states said they were concerned. Jones, who is Black, said she will likely vote for Biden when necessary, but feels he needs to address inflation, an important issue for her.
The only unifying factor for most Democrats – both elites and regulars – is the threat of a second Trump term. Biden has long argued that voters will reject Trump when faced with a one-on-one contest, whatever their reservations about the incumbent.
Anxiety among ordinary voters emerges as Biden defends himself public and private pressure for him to renounce the Democratic nomination and allow the party to put forward a different candidate to face Trump in November. President of the Chamber Emeritus Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said only that “it’s up to the president to decide” whether he should stay in the race, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch called on Biden to withdraw from the election, becoming the first Senate Democrat to do so, and famous donor George Clooney also said Biden should not run.
“What I hear most from people of color is, ‘If not him, what’s the alternative?’” said Craig Tatum, a prominent black pastor and leader in Saginaw, Michigan. He said many people he spoke to found Biden’s performance troubling but remain committed to voting Democratic after seeing Trump’s presidency and character.
A demographic microcosm of Michigan overall, Saginaw County is the only Michigan bellwether to side with the winner in the last four presidential elections. The county’s namesake city, population 44,000, is about half black, while the surrounding areas are predominantly Republican.
Trump had a slight lead over Biden in two national voter polls conducted after the debate. One of the polls — conducted by SSRS for CNN — found that three-quarters of voters, including more than half of Democratic voters, said the party is more likely to win the presidency in November with a candidate other than Biden. About 7 in 10 voters — and 45% of Democrats — said this.
Biden’s physical and mental capacity is a reason to vote against him, according to the CNN/SSRS poll. And about 6 in 10 voters, including about a quarter of Democrats, said re-electing Biden as president in November would be a risky choice for the country, rather than a safe one, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. . That poll also found that Democrats were split on whether Biden should remain the candidate.
Ethan Williams, who teaches a summer education program in Saginaw, will turn 18 before the November election. He said he and his friends who watched the debate were shocked by what they saw.
“We weren’t thrilled, to say the least,” he said.
Williams said he found the recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, Trump’s criminal convictions and Trump’s second term manifesto, known as Project 2025, particularly alarming. He plans to vote for Biden despite his age, but may focus more in local and state disputes.
“In terms of the best chance of defeating Trump, it would have to be Biden,” he said. “But I don’t like that fact.”
Pamela Pugh, a longtime Saginaw resident running in the Democratic primary for a congressional district in Michigan, hesitated when asked whether Biden should be the Democratic nominee. She said low-poll candidates like her will need to rely on themselves to gain voter turnout and attract voters “who don’t believe those at the top of the ticket represent them.”
Pugh called Biden’s debate performance “beyond average” and emphasized that he has “work to do in our communities” to earn four more years in office.
Members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus and other black activists in the Democratic Party have emerged as some of Biden’s most energetic supporters, remaining the party’s pick and remaining on the ticket. In the 2020 Democratic primaries, black voters lifted Biden to victories in early primary states, with overwhelming support in South Carolina, on Super Tuesday and in Midwestern states like Michigan.
As long as black people and young people vote in large numbers, Biden will win, said Brian Humphrey, a 62-year-old black activist from Pennsylvania. But he worries about younger voters — like his granddaughters, one 18 and the other 19 — who lack enthusiasm for a man four times his age.
“I’m a little worried right now, to be honest,” Humphrey said. “You know, because of his age and things like that and my grandchildren telling me ‘he’s too old’ and ‘I’m not going to vote for that old man,’ you know, trying to convince them that he’s the better of the two candidates. “
For Alyse Sobosan, a school counselor in Las Vegas, the turmoil surrounding Biden’s debate performance is a distraction Democrats don’t need right now.
“This is hurting the campaign and the real issues,” she said. “That’s all anyone can talk about, so it makes sense to me if he resigns.”
Despite the ambivalence and anxiety among so many Democrats, Biden maintains support that ranges from enthusiastic to resigned.
James Johnson, a retired public school teacher in Pennsylvania, said Biden’s performance was “difficult to watch” but “in no way stopped my determination to vote for him and see him elected as the next president.”
Teresa Hoover, a Democrat who came to hear Biden speak on Sunday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, agreed.
“He was the chosen candidate and I think at this point we’re only a few months away, it’s kind of hard to change the subject,” Hoover said.
Despite all the consternation, the debate did not alter the fundamental reality that the candidates are both unpopular and Americans are not thrilled with their choices.
“I haven’t been able to watch the debate because I’m having a hard time with both candidates,” said Christian Garrett, 26, manager of a summer education program in Saginaw.
Garrett said he is unsure how he will vote, believing Trump is vindictive and Biden is incompetent to continue leading.
“That’s why I feel like this case has become a joke, because we as Americans have sat by and watched this unfold,” he said. “And it’s almost like we don’t have the power when in fact the power is in us.”
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Cooper reported from Phoenix and Levy from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
