President Joe Biden posed a question to Democratic power brokers at a campaign-style rally on Friday: “Are you with me?”
Roars of approval and “Four more years!” The Democratic National Committee winter meeting indicated they are all set for Biden 2024.
Despite low approval ratings, an ongoing classified documents scandal and polls showing a majority of voters want the 80-year-old retired, Biden faces zero meaningful opposition to his leadership of the Democratic Party and is up for reelection next year. An unobstructed route, even before officially announcing its intention to seek it.
During a three-day gathering of elected officials, activists, union leaders, operatives and donors this weekend, it was nearly impossible to find serious dissent or dissent with Biden, even after hours at the hotel bar too, where alcohol and opinion flowed freely.
“If he wants to run, I think everybody will be 100 percent integrated behind him. I mean, maybe 99.9999, but the most integrated we’ve been in a very long time,” said John Bauman, a California DNC member and a PAC The chairman of which promotes Social Security.
“Eventually, the party will have to move to younger people in more control, and that’s natural, but it doesn’t feel like it yet,” said Baumann, who has been described as a “bozer” by 1950s-style rock and roll. is referred to as. Roll Group Sha Na Na.
There was no sign of younger Democratic candidates trailing behind to challenge Biden, nor was there any evidence of the kind of ideological struggle that has so often divided the party in recent years.
Prominent supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, were among the loudest cheering next to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, waving newly printed signs — showcasing an updated design introduced last year Huay – which read “Jaao Joy” on one side and “Kamala” on the other.
“We feel very confident in what President Biden is doing, and we’re going to fully support his re-election,” said Judith Whitmer, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and former representative for Sanders. To become the chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party.
Of course, the president always drives his party’s establishment, which doesn’t necessarily reflect rank-and-file voters. But the first signs of real trouble for Biden will likely come from insiders, as was the case with former Democratic presidents like Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter, who were forced out of the White House by friendly fire.
Both previous presidents faced Democratic primary threats, with Johnson opting not to seek re-election, while Carter won re-nomination but struggled to consolidate the party before the November general election, which he lost.
Outside the DNC meeting, a mobile billboard rented by a small progressive group urged Biden not to run, though the group acknowledged it was struggling to gain traction. Its political director, Sam Rosenthal, said he had spoken to “some DNC members” who privately agreed with his campaign but were “too afraid to say so publicly.”
Just a year ago, Democratic insiders had no problem showing their anxiety and disarray.
As inflation soared and Biden’s legislative agenda stalled, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Up-and-coming Democrats like Pritzker seemed to be circling the White House like vultures.
But Biden’s prospects changed dramatically, thanks to the passage of major bills like the Inflation Reduction Act, improving economic news like last week’s strong jobs report, and better-than-expected results of the midterm elections, which Ben Wickler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, called it “proof in the pudding” of Biden’s political strength.
Georgia Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams said of Biden, “A lot of people have been pleasantly surprised.”
It helps that Biden is a creature of the party. Unlike former President Barack Obama, who started his own political group outside the DNC and attended only a few of the DNC’s biennial meetings during his eight years in office, Biden has so far attended every in-person meeting .
Even DNC members who did not support Biden in the 2020 primaries used words like “wired,” “locked” and “silved up” to describe the White House’s grip on the party, which is now are using it to determine how the 2024 primaries will shape up. and where its next national convention will be held.
The president has so much political capital that he feels comfortable contesting New Hampshire and Iowa, removing them from the front of the presidential primary calendar in the biggest blow to the primary process in decades. On Saturday, the DNC approved Biden’s proposal to make South Carolina first.
“This was not the first time the Democratic establishment has pondered whether Iowa should remain in the early window, and repeatedly, it has been shot down,” said DNC member Mo Alithey, who was involved in the calendar rewrite. “People said it couldn’t be done. This president got it done.
Democrats from New Hampshire and Iowa protested, but knew they had no hope of standing against Biden – they couldn’t even hold a press conference at the DNC meeting – and were careful not to criticize Biden Or suggest that he only promoted South Carolina because he did better there in 2020 than in his home states.
“I’m not asking you to vote against the president,” Joan Dowdell of New Hampshire told more than 400 other DNC members, “because voting against his proposed calendar breaks my heart.”