Biden formula halted red wave and could be replicated in 2024, White House says
Katherine Doyle
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The White House said President Joe Biden’s policies made a persuasive case for voters in the November elections last year, suggesting the tactic could be replicated in a 2024 reelection bid.
Biden’s press secretary said Democrats leaned on the president’s efforts to slow Republicans’ gains in Congress, delivering surprising victories for the caucus and keeping losses to a minimum.
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“He’s the one that laid out the policy for senators and congressional members to really have a midterms that did not lead to a red wave,” Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday. “We were told it was going to be more than 60 seats, and it’s not that at all.”
Asked to respond to new surveys that show voters questioning whether Biden is competent, effective, and trustworthy ahead of a possible reelection bid, Jean-Pierre demurred.
“If you look at what candidates, senators, and congressional members ran on, it was the successes,” she said, reiterating Biden’s “very clear” intent to run for reelection.
The message from Democrats during the midterm elections “was what we were able to deliver,” Jean-Pierre added. “They used exactly what the president was able to do in order to get that success.”
Still, Jean-Pierre conceded that Biden “has always said there’s always more work to do.”
“Will we continue to need to talk directly to the American people? Absolutely,” she added.
Biden is expected to lean on his accomplishments to make the case for another bid during his remarks at the State of the Union address on Tuesday.
In remarks that forecast Biden’s reelection campaign last week, outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain swiped at naysayers who he said had “written [the now-president] off for dead in the winter of 2019 and for dead again in the winter of 2020 and for dead again in the winter of 2021 and for dead again the first week of November 2022.”
Surveys suggest that Biden may be losing ground with voters.
New polling from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed a drop in the president’s support in recent months, concentrated among younger voters.
Thirty-seven percent of Democratic voters said they thought Biden should seek a second term, down from 52% in the lead-up to the November elections last year.
The results indicate that Biden’s message may be fading at a time when he faces new opposition in Congress that is expected to run aground his legislative ambitions over the next two years.
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Biden also faces a stronger-than-expected challenge from former President Donald Trump, a candidate for the Republican nomination since last year.
Trump leads Biden narrowly in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 48% to 45%.
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