PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden had a question for Democratic power brokers at a campaign-style rally on Friday: “Are you with me?”
The roars of approval and chants of “four more years!” during the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee indicated that they were all in for Biden 2024.
Despite lackluster approval ratings, an ongoing classified documents scandal and polls showing most voters would like the 80-year-old to retire, Biden faces no meaningful opposition to his leadership of the Democratic Party. and an unimpeded path to renomination next year, even before he officially declared his intention to seek it.
During the three-day rally of elected officials, activists, labor leaders, agents and donors over the weekend, any dissent or serious dissatisfaction with Biden was nearly impossible to find, even after hours at the bar. hotel, where alcohol and opinions flowed freely.
“If he wants to race, I think everyone will be 100% unified behind him. I mean, maybe 99.9999, but we’re the most unified we’ve been in a very long time,” Jon said. Bauman, member of the California DNC and president of a PAC that promotes Social Security.
“Eventually the party will have to move on to younger people with more control, and that’s natural, but now is not the time,” said Bauman, better known as rock and roll’s “Bowzer.” 1950s roll. Sha Na Na roll group.
There was no sign of young aspiring Democrats making behind-the-scenes moves to challenge Biden, nor much evidence of the kind of ideological conflict that has so often split the party in recent years.
Prominent supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, were among those cheering the loudest on stage next to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, waving newly printed signs – displaying an updated design introduced last year – which read “GO JOE” on one side and “KAMALA” on the other.
“We are very, very confident in what President Biden is doing and we will fully support his re-election,” said Judith Whitmer, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and former Sanders delegate who won an upset election a few years ago. . to become chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party.
Of course, presidents still lead their party establishment, which doesn’t necessarily reflect grassroots voters. But the first signs of real trouble for Biden would likely come from insiders, as was the case for former Democratic presidents like Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter who were ousted from the White House by friendly fire.
Both former presidents have faced Democratic primary threats, with Johnson opting out of re-election while Carter won a re-nomination, but struggled to re-solidify the party ahead of November’s general election, which he has lost.
Outside the DNC meeting, a mobile billboard hired by a small progressive group urged Biden not to show up, though the group acknowledged he was struggling to gain traction. Its political director, Sam Rosenthal, said he had spoken with “some DNC members” who privately agreed with their campaign but were “too intimidated to say so publicly”.
Just a year ago, Democratic insiders had no problem displaying their anxiety and dismay.
As inflation rose and Biden’s legislative agenda stagnated, up-and-coming Democrats like California Governor Gavin Newsom and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker seemed to circle the White House like vultures.
But Biden’s outlook has reversed dramatically, thanks to the passage of major bills like the Cut Inflation Act, improving economic news like the strong jobs report from the last week and better-than-expected midterm election results, which Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler called “proof in the pudding” of Biden’s political strength.
“A lot of people were pleasantly surprised,” Georgia Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams said of Biden.
It helps that Biden is a party creature. Unlike former President Barack Obama, who created his own political group outside of the DNC and only attended a few of the DNC’s biannual meetings during his eight years in office, Biden has until present attended all meetings in person.
Even DNC members who didn’t back Biden in the 2020 primary have used terms like “wired,” “locked down,” and “sewn up” to describe the White House’s hold on the party, which is now used to dictate how the 2024 primary will play out and where its next national convention will be held.
The president is sitting on enough political capital that he feels comfortable taking on New Hampshire and Iowa, excluding them from the presidential primary schedule in the biggest shake-up of the primary process in decades. On Saturday, the DNC ratified Biden’s proposal to make South Carolina first.
“It wasn’t the first time the Democratic establishment had debated whether or not Iowa should stay in the first window, and time and time again it was shot,” said Mo Elithee, a DNC member who participated in the rewriting of the calendar. “People said it was not possible. This president did.
Democrats in New Hampshire and Iowa protested but knew they had no hope of standing up to Biden — they couldn’t even hold a press conference at the DNC meeting — and took care not to criticize Biden or suggest he only promoted South Carolina because they did better there than in their states in 2020.
“I’m not asking you to vote against the president,” Joanne Dowdell of New Hampshire told the more than 400 other DNC members, “because it broke my heart to vote against his proposed timeline.”
