Four months into President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election bid, key Democratic governors – whose names are often floated in talks about other Democrats who could run for president – are continuing to throw their full support behind the incumbent president, even as polls show many voters are not as enthusiastic.
Over the weekend, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz praised the president’s record when asked if he believed Biden was the best candidate for Democrats in 2024, calling him “one of the most highly effective presidents we’ve ever seen,” on NBC’s Meet the Press.
The question was in response to comments from Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who has made headlines over the last few weeks as he openly calls for Biden to “pass the torch,” citing poll numbers among other things.
Phillips is calling on other Democrats – specifically “a moderate governor” – to challenge Biden for the party’s nomination in 2024. When asked on Meet the Press the previous Sunday if he was referring to Walz, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and or Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Phllips said “you just said a few names I think would be great.”
Walz on Sunday shot down the idea that he and his two fellow midwest Democratic governors have any doubts on Biden’s bid, saying he “spent last weekend on Mackinac Island with Tony Evers and Gretchen Whitmer, talking about how we’re going to make sure that we win this for Joe Biden.”
“I do believe the president is the best one. I believe he has delivered and his record shows that and anything other than that, it is simply distraction,” Walz said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another name frequently tossed around when pundits and analysts talk about Democrats who could run for the White House, insisted he believed Biden was fit for another term in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in June.
When Hannity pressed Newsom about how often he gets told privately he needs to run in 2024, the California governor said he wasn’t going to answer that but continued to express his full support for Biden.
A New York Times and Siena College poll conducted in late July found that while 64% of Democratic primary voters said they would cast a ballot for Biden, half respondents said he should not be the party’s 2024 presidential candidate – regardless of whether or not they would vote for him.
The same poll found 54% of respondents view Biden unfavorably with 55% saying the same about current 2024 GOP frontrunner and former President Donald Trump.
Of those who said they want someone different than Biden, the most common reason cited was the president’s age.
An NBC News poll conducted in mid April, before Biden officially announced his re-election bid, found the majority of Americans did not want Biden or Trump to run again. 70% percent said Biden should not run while 60% said Trump should not.
