Biden’s ability to be re-elected next year is already under question. Now, Democrats are faced with the prospect of an ever-growing list of third-party challengers who may run in 2024.
Major Democratic Party victories on Tuesday in the 2023 off-year elections gave Biden a much-needed boost after a slew of well-publicized polls suggested he was trailing former President Donald Trump — the commanding GOP nomination front-runner — in a 2024 rematch.
Team Biden was not pleased with Jill Stein’s announcement on Thursday that she would run for the White House again in 2016.
Many Democrats blame Stein’s campaign in 2016 for Trump winning the White House. Seven years ago, her vote totals in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were higher than Trump’s margins in each of those states over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
After Stein’s announcement, Joe Manchin, a moderate Democratic senator from West Virginia announced that he would not run for reelection in 2020. This news has shattered the hopes of his party to retain its Senate majority by 2024.
Manchin, who openly flirted at the idea of launching a presidential run as a third party, said in his video announcement that he would be traveling across the country in the next few months to “see if there is interest in creating an organization to mobilize and bring Americans together.”
Manchin has been linked to a bipartisan ticket, which the No Labels group is considering launching in spring.
Wayne Lesperance of New England College in New Hampshire, a veteran political scientist, said that Manchin could “create new problems for Team Biden’s reelection.”
“Manchin’s options are not good for the President. He can decide to run for the White House on his own. He could join the No Labels campaign to run. Team Biden will feel the impact even if he decides to travel to battlegrounds and encourage voters to support centrist or moderate campaigns,” Lesperance said.
Biden faces competition from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an environmentalist and high-profile vaccine critic, who is a descendant of the Kennedy political family, as well as Cornel W. West, a progressive and outspoken university scholar.
Recent polls show that Biden’s age is a growing concern for American voters. Many Americans, including many Democrats, don’t want President Obama to run for a second term. A few influential Democrats suggested that the 80 year-old should not enter the race in 2024 and instead pass the baton on to the next generation.
A pair of Democratic rivals are currently posing long-shot challenges to the president.
Dean Phillips, a three-term Democratic Rep. from Minnesota who launched his primary challenge to the president at the end of last month, argues that Biden will not be able to beat Trump in 2024. Phillips has plenty of ammunition after the recent polls that were released in the last week.
Marianne Williamson is also running for the White House, and she is a spiritual adviser, best-selling author, and a second-time candidate.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Biden’s 2024 reelection, said that the media and pundits have repeatedly written off Joe Biden, but they know he has always proven them wrong.
Chavez Rodriguez said that “voters in all 50 states proved the pundits incorrect on Tuesday.”
Biden, who was in Illinois to address the United Auto Workers on Thursday, took aim at the media’s coverage of recent surveys that suggested he would lose to Trump in hypothetical matchups in 2024.
Biden said, “Because of the fact that you don’t read polls.” “Ten polls. In eight of them I beat [Trump] there. Eight of them. Only two? CNN and New York Times Check it out. “Check it out.”
When asked if he thought he trailed Trump in key battlegrounds the president replied, “No, not at all.”
Manchin’s participation in a national ticket, which No Labels may launch, is not yet clear. Independent candidates such as Kennedy and West also face stiff obstacles to get on the ballot for the 2016 presidential election.
Some of these candidates may also theoretically receive more support from Trump in the event that there are multiple presidential candidates running for office in 2024.
Lesperance stated that “polling numbers indicate that voters are not happy with the prospect that another Trump-Biden race will take place. Add that to the candidatures of Jill Stein RFK Jr. and Cornell West and it is hard to conclude that President Trump’s prospects have become more difficult.” “Political headaches are aplenty.”
Biden, at least on the surface, is not fazed.
He said that the Democrats had another incredible night at a fundraiser in Chicago on Thursday.
The president said that he was referring to Trump and asserted “we haven’t stopped winning” while in reality “he hasn’t stopped losing”.
