Most Democrats are closing ranks around President Joe Biden and denying reports of widespread panic in the party amid concerns about his reelection campaign’s prospects this November.
But some Democrats, such as party strategist Stefan Hankin, describe experiencing “existential dread” since 2016 because of former President Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor and successive Republican challenger. Other Democrats are encouraging the party to acknowledge concerns about Biden, including his age and the state of the race, as the campaign tries to underscore the importance of participation this cycle.
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Democratic “existential dread” emanates from Trump’s third presidential nomination, according to Hankin, president of Lincoln Park Strategies, a public opinion research firm.
“I’m expecting mostly panic from now until the election again,” Hankin told the Washington Examiner. “If Biden was up by a couple points in every single state, maybe there would be slightly less existential dread, but 2016 is not that long ago and the memory of it all.”
As such, this month’s debate between Biden and Trump will be a crucial moment for the incumbent, Hankin said.
“If Biden has a really bad night, then I think panic will sink in,” he added. “Everyone is going to get nervous on the fact that we could have a repeat of 2016 and Trump could be back in office.”
Regardless of national Democrats, their counterparts closer to the ground in battleground states across the country have suggestions for the party and Biden’s campaign before voters cast their ballots.
In Nevada, a state Biden won by only 2 percentage points in 2020, Chris Wicker, the former chairman of Reno’s Washoe County Democrats, declined to use the word “panic.” But he did convey how members of the party are “concerned” about the president’s chances, exacerbated by how “the shock of inflation lingers.”
“People in general don’t care about the causes and don’t know presidents have relatively little impact one way or the other,” Wicker told the Washington Examiner. “Nevertheless, it is a problem.”
“I would like to see Biden emphasize where we came from economically from January 2021 to the present. He should emphasize the bipartisan border bill that Trump killed,” he said. “Biden should remind people of the chaos during Trump, the slow COVID response, the turnover in senior administration positions, and get to the public some of the scary things that his handpicked officials now say after working with him.”
In Wisconsin, a state Biden must win to retain the Democratic “blue wall” that also includes Michigan and Pennsylvania, Angela Lang, executive director of the nonprofit organization Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, deployed the descriptor “frustrated.”
“There’s a few months left where anything can happen and plenty of time to ‘course-correct,’ but people are frustrated,” Lang told the Washington Examiner. “A lot of organizers have been talking about frustrations we’re hearing publicly, and folks are waiting for the campaign to shift based on our comments.”
“Folks always ask, ‘What has Biden done?’” she said. “I personally want to see more public events, not just invite only. I also think there’s a messaging problem between the administration’s accomplishments and how they impact people.”
But Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson, who represents southeast Wisconsin, including the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and voted “uninstructed” in April’s Democratic primary over Biden’s approach to the Israel–Hamas, disagreed. The senator contended that “the older tactics of just showing up are not working.”
“The Democratic Party isn’t a monolith. It’s divided over lots of little demographic groups,” Larson told the Washington Examiner. “Nobody speaks for one group entirely and it’s pretty split up. There’s not the same type of singular focus that there was four years ago of being able to fire a terrible president.”
“Everyone’s attention has shifted to their lives and to other things, and they don’t feel the threat the same way they did four years ago,” he said. “They need to actually show that they’re listening and not just show up. … If the election were held today, I don’t know how it would go.”
A Democrat with ties to the Biden administration who was granted anonymity in order to speak freely along with several others the Washington Examiner interviewed, amplified Lang’s frustration, adding party members were “unhappy” with the president’s decision to seek reelection in the first place. The source implied Biden launched his campaign because of dissatisfaction with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Joe is basically taking one for the team and saying, ‘I’m in the fourth quarter of my life. I’m going to run again, even though I didn’t want to, because she can’t do it,’” the Democrat told the Washington Examiner. “She’s not qualified for that job.”
Meanwhile, Charlie Comfort, an at-large member of Iowa‘s Oskaloosa City Council and vice president of its school board in the state’s southeast, interpreted “panic” as “urgency.”
“There is a sense of urgency that something needs to change strategy-wise and fast or November could be a blowout,” Comfort told the Washington Examiner. “I would also stop assuming that America will come home to the president in the fall because of the indictments and ethical questions of the former president. People in my area are desensitized to all of that now because of how much it’s been in the media.”
“A simple acknowledgment that the race is tight would go a long ways to getting people to realize they need to vote no matter how much we are disgusted with the two legitimate options,” he said. “I’ve had a number of people I know on both sides of the aisle shock me by telling me they are seriously considering RFK Jr., who I believe already has the signatures needed for ballot access in Iowa.”
But as this week’s disputed Wall Street Journal report about Biden’s performance in private meetings reiterates public concerns about his age, Democratic strategist Matt Angle urged his colleagues to “get a grip on themselves.”
“Donald Trump is a convicted felon who has destroyed any semblance of a normal Republican Party and turned it into a force to dismantle our democracy and turn it into a corrupt autocracy,” the founder and director of research and communications shop, the Lone Star Project, told the Washington Examiner. “Every ounce of energy should be spent on electing Democrats and overcoming whatever perceived weaknesses there are in any of our candidates from President Biden down.”
“It is a toxic combination of arrogance, self-indulgence, and naivete to complain about Biden five months before the election when fundamental liberties and American democracy itself are in such grave danger,” he said.
To that end, retiring Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) implored Biden and his campaign not to panic because “panicked candidates lose.”
“I don’t think there’s ever a good time to panic in a campaign,” Kildee told the Washington Examiner. “We’ve got work to do. But no aspect of [that] work includes people setting their hair on fire. I think it’s actually counterproductive because it just doesn’t do anything.”
“The same people who are panicking now are the people who were panicking in 2020,” he said. “There is a little bit of Chicken Little, kinda the sky is falling mentality. It’s an issue with a lot of Democratic activists, honestly, that everything is always falling apart. But you know what? We seem to be able to win elections. I’ve been through so many of them, I don’t find the utility in that kind of reaction.”
Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was also confident Biden could contrast himself with Trump because the former president is someone “who doesn’t respect anything.”
“[Biden’s] got a heck of a message, and then, yeah, maybe I do have faith in the American people that they will ultimately decide Trump is unqualified by any kind of measure to be president of the United States, including devotion to country and Constitution, which he does not have. He has devotion to Donald Trump,” Hoyer told the Washington Examiner.
“I believe [in] the American people and their wise judgment in 2020,” he said. “They knew who he was. And he’s gotten worse. And I think the American people care enough about their country not to put somebody like Donald Trump in charge.”
Other Democrats agreed, one strategist asserting Biden’s poll numbers were similar to former President Barack Obama’s before his own reelection campaign in 2012. Another argued, “There’s no more panic in this cycle than there was in 2020.”
“President Biden and his entire campaign have been working since day one to connect with different demographics early and to keep that contact throughout the race,” a third Democrat told the Washington Examiner. “Just because the campaign is doing everything they can to reach voters doesn’t mean they’re panicking. That’s just good strategy.”
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A fourth Democratic operative criticized election news coverage of the polls for “fanning the flames” about concerns regarding Biden’s standing.
“Breathless coverage of all these polls is making a mountain out of a molehill at a time when most voters aren’t even really tuned in to the election,” the source told the Washington Examiner. “Once the debates begin, the difference between President Biden and Donald Trump will become abundantly clear, and I’d expect the polls to reflect that later this summer.”
Christian Datoc, Marisa Schultz, and Mabinty Quarshie contributed to this report.
