Biden campaign says ‘no indication’ any other Democrat could do better against Trump
WASHINGTON — Pushing back at Democratic detractors, President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign said Thursday there is “no indication” any other potential Democratic nominee would perform better than Biden in the November election against Donald Trump.
In a campaign memo titled “The Path Ahead,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Rodriguez Chavez seek to reassure Democrats increasingly concerned Biden can’t beat Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
“In addition to what we believe is a clear pathway ahead for us, there is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” they wrote in the memo.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Thursday found Vice President Kamala Harris beating Trump 49%-47% nationally among registered voters in a hypothetical matchup – outperforming Biden, who the poll found tied with Trump at 46% apiece.
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But O’Malley Dillon and Rodriguez Chavez, in the memo, disputed the accuracy of such "hypothetical polling."
“Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter,” they wrote. “The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.”
Other oft-mentioned Democratic alternatives to Biden include Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. Each have said they still support Biden following his disastrous June 27 debate against Trump that set off panic among Democrats.
The Biden campaign in the memo, not surprisingly, points to winning the so-called “Blue Wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – the battleground states where Biden is running most competitively in polls – as the “clearest pathway” to beating Trump.
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Winning all three would virtually assure a Biden victory, as long as he doesn't lose additional states he won in 2020 beyond the swing states of Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, where Trump has widened his leads.
But O’Malley Dillon and Rodriguez Chavez added they believe “the sunbelt states are not out of reach,” referring to Arizona, Nevada and Georgia plus North Carolina, a state that Trump narrowly won in 2020. Despite the Biden campaign's efforts in North Carolina, however, polls shows Trump ahead in the Tar Heel State.
Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden campaign insists no replacement could do better in 2024 race
