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Biden's political standing fuels Democratic worry about 2024
Some Democrats have begun saying out loud what others are saying privately — that Joe Biden’s political standing is so weak less than a year into his presidency that he may not be able to win reelection in 2024 if he were to run again.
Politics
COLUMBUS, Ohio – It was supposed to be a moment of triumph for Joe Biden.
The Democratic president had just signed into law the most significant infrastructure package in generations. And he had done it by bringing Democrats and Republicans together, just as he promised during last year's campaign. But when Biden arrived in New Hampshire last week to promote the $1 trillion package at the foot of a crumbling bridge, not all of his VIP guests were in the mood to celebrate.
“Democrats are concerned,” former state House Speaker Steve Shurtleff, a longtime Biden supporter who attended the ceremony, told The Associated Press when asked about Biden’s political standing. “I’m concerned about where we may be in another couple of years when people really start to gear up and start making trips to New Hampshire.”
Shurtleff was openly saying what a growing number of Democrats have been whispering for months: Biden's political standing is so weak less than a year into his presidency that he may not be able to win reelection in 2024 if he were to run again. Such anxiety-fueled parlor games are common among Washington's political class, but this one has spread to the states and constituencies that will play a central role in the next presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris is facing her own political conundrum with polls suggesting she may be less popular than her unpopular boss. A dynamic leader who made history by becoming the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to step into her office, Harris has been given few opportunities by the Biden White House to shine.
She delivered her first solo speech to promote the new infrastructure law on Friday in Ohio's capital city, addressing a mostly empty union hall largely absent of political dignitaries at roughly the same time Biden was issuing the White House's annual turkey pardon in Washington.