If Joe Biden steps aside, who could replace him? | US News

Speculation about whether Joe Biden can win in November – or serve four more years – continues to swirl amid concerns about his age and fitness.

The president’s team sought to quell unrest within the Democratic Party following his debate performance last month – called an “absolute disaster” by one Democrat and a “slow-motion car accident” by another.

But your mistake at NATO conference has made new headlines.

Just a few days ago, Biden He insisted that he would remain in the race and said the matter should be put behind him, but it remains to be seen whether this line will be maintained.

The decision almost certainly falls to Biden himself, as well as those closest to him. But if he were to step aside, who could emerge as the favourite?

Vice President Kamala Harris

Biden’s campaign is “quietly assessing the viability of Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy against donald trump in a new head-to-head poll,” Sky News’ sister network NBC News reported.

HarrisAt 59, she is the first woman to serve as vice president, the culmination (so far) of a career of firsts and breakthroughs.

He was born in Oakland to immigrant parents, his father came from Jamaica to become a distinguished economist at Stanford University and his mother was a cancer researcher who emigrated from India.

Considered a pragmatic innovator, Harris rose from local prosecutor to attorney general of the state of California and then to United States senator, before being chosen as Biden’s running mate in 2020.

He has strong name recognition and the highest polls among Democrats who could be seriously considered as candidates, sources within the Biden campaign told the Reuters news agency.

He would also take over money raised by Biden’s campaign and inherit the campaign’s infrastructure, which would be helpful if he sought to run for president.

However, his personal approval ratings could prove to be a hindrance. A recent poll gave Harris a 29% favorability rating, with 49% rating her unfavorable and 22% saying they had no opinion of her or had not heard of her.

Gavin Newsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom, 56, is a established figure in the Democratic Party and among the names that are proposed as a possible successor, now or later.

However, he has repeatedly rejected calls to replace Biden and said he would not run for president against Harris.

He has experience in business, spanning restaurants and hotels, in his career before politics.

Newsom first came to national attention when, as mayor of San Francisco, he and other city officials began handing out same-sex marriage licenses, in direct violation of state law at the time.

His stock continued to rise, and in 2019, he won a landslide victory to reach his state’s highest office, becoming governor of California.

He is considered a strong voice within the party and a talented debater, but his critics point to a poor record on a number of key issues in his state.

This includes high homelessness, drug problems, immigration issues, law and safety, high taxes, and more.

Gretchen Whitmer

Gretchen Whitmer’s rapid rise over the past two decades — from law school graduate to Michigan governor — has established her as a prominent figure within the Democratic Party.

His status was solidified in 2022 with a decisive re-election and his party’s success in flipping both chambers of the state legislature, giving Democrats full control for the first time in nearly four decades.

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Whitmer has been pushing the issue of abortion access in her role as co-chair of Biden’s campaign, saying she is on the “right side” of the abortion fight despite her lackluster performance in the recent debate on the abortion issue. reproductive rights.

She blames Trump for fueling the political hatred that motivated a plot to kidnap and kill her that was foiled by the FBI in 2020.

When asked if she would consider becoming a candidate this year if Biden were to resign, she responded with a resounding “No.”

Read more:
President Biden’s various mistakes over the years
George Clooney pleads with Biden to drop his re-election bid

jose shapiro

“Do it all” is Josh Shapiro’s motto for how he wants to govern Pennsylvania.

The governor is a rising star in the Democratic Party and is seen as one of the few governors who have been building their national profiles and positioning themselves for a White House bid in 2028, before problems with Biden arose.

However, the 50-year-old son of a doctor and former state legislator, county commissioner and state attorney general has endorsed the president.

“Here’s the bottom line. Joe Biden had a bad night of debate, but Donald Trump was a bad president,” Shapiro said on CNN. He added that Democrats should “stop worrying” and “get to work.”

Michelle Obama

Well-known and popular since her time as first lady when her husband Barack Obama was president, there are many on the Democratic side who would love to see Michelle Obama as the party’s nominee.

Indeed, Trump supporters have become obsessed with the idea of ​​Michelle Obama running to replace Biden in an attempt to diminish the president’s political viability and stoke the Republican base.

An Ipsos poll found that she is the only hypothetical candidate to definitively defeat Trump head-to-head, and she also tops favorability charts among registered voters.

But would she be interested?

Earlier this year, his office told NBC News that he did not plan to run for office in 2024.

One of her aides pointed to her conversation last year with Oprah Winfrey to reflect her thinking and why she herself would probably never appear on a ballot.

“Politics is difficult,” he said in the Netflix special. “And the people who get into this… have to want it. It has to be in their soul, because it’s very important. It’s not in my soul.”