The first 2024 presidential debate between and proved . Biden, who is now 81, often , frequently slurring his speech and stumbling over his words, making 78-year-old Trump, famous for his emotionally fueled, hard-to-follow rants, look collected and lucid by comparison.
While concerns over Biden’s age and mental faculties are nothing new, . A poll commissioned by the US news outlet CBS after the event found that 72% of all registered voters felt Biden did not have the “mental and cognitive health” to serve as US president. Roughly half of registered voters say the same of Trump.
Perhaps more concerningly, 46% of registered Democratic voters now believe Biden should not be running for another term in office at all. This marks a 10% jump since February.
The Democratic Party has already taken notice. Despite its top leaders closing ranks behind Biden, and the White House insisting that he was , speculation is rife about candidates who could possibly stand in . So, who could take over Biden’s campaign this late in the game?
Kamala Harris
Biden’s second-in-command, , is the most obvious choice for the next Democratic nominee. In 2020, she made history by becoming the first woman, the first Black person, and the first person of Indian origin to serve as a US vice president.
But Harris has independent from Biden during her time in the White House. In the early days of the Biden administration, she was tasked with leading the US response to mass immigration from Latin America. She has widely failed to curb migration, and Trump’s campaign has already used this against her.
Since 2023, Harris has been building up her profile as a voice for reproductive rights, even becoming the first vice president in history to visit an abortion clinic this March. Her gender identity and heritage might help her secure the support of more female, Black, and Southeast Asian voters. At the same time, her career as a prosecutor in California leaves her open to attacks from parts of the left, best summarized under the “Kamala is a cop” slogan which haunted her presidential bid in 2019.
An Ipsos poll this week put Harris just one percentage point behind Trump (Harris’ 42% to Trump’s 43%) in a potential matchup. However, the same poll put Trump and Biden in a dead heat, with each of them projected to claim 40% of the votes. Harris is 59 years old.
Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is 52 and a legislative powerhouse within the Democratic Party. She has enacted a slew of progressive policies in her home state, including more tax credits for low-income families, more protection for LGBTQ+ groups, some gun control measures, and securing funds to make Detroit-based car companies more environmentally friendly.
In 2020, she faced and put her on “trial” for alleged overreach regarding the COVID-19 lockdown measures in Michigan.
Just nine days after the plotters were arrested, Trump held a rally in Michigan, where he restated his criticism of Whitmer’s pandemic policies, causing his supporters to chant “lock her up.”
Whitmer is still popular in Michigan — a swing state — and is expected to run for president in 2028. Following the recent Trump-Biden debate, the news outlet Politico cited an unnamed source, claiming that Whitmer had complained Biden could no longer win in Michigan.
Whitmer dismissed this as false. “I am proud to support Joe Biden as our nominee and I am behind him 100% in the fight to defeat Donald Trump,” she said in a statement.
Gavin Newsom
California Governor was quick to defend Biden following the debate and dismiss calls that he should step down.
“You don’t turn your back [on your candidate] because of one performance. What kind of party does that?” Newsom told the US television channel MSNBC.
However, while Newsom seems determined to ignore speculation about replacing Biden, he seems to find frequent mention as a likely contender in Biden’s succession. The 56-year-old has a background in business and served as the mayor of San Francisco before being elected — then reelected — as the governor of California, America’s most populous and richest state.
But Newsom’s business ties and political career could be weaponized against him by the Trump campaign, especially over issues like widespread homelessness in the state and the surge of shoplifting in San Francisco.
JB Pritzker
Illinois Governor Jay Robert “JB” Pritzker was born into one of the richest families in the world. The 59-year-old is heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune and has a net worth of about $3.5 billion (€2.78 billion), as estimated by the Forbes business magazine.
Pritzker has long used his fortune to support the Democratic Party and his own campaign bids. In 2008, he discussed his political ambitions in an intercepted call with the now-disgraced ex-governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. Pritzker denies any wrongdoing in the matter.
The billionaire became governor of Illinois in 2018. He has since pushed for progressive policies on gun control, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, immigration, and minimum wage.
With the presidential race between Trump and Biden heating up, Pritzker harshly criticized the Republican candidate, slamming him as “a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist and a congenital liar.”
Pritzker has also described Trump as a “racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him.”
In his trademark puerile manner, Trump countered by calling Pritzker “sloppy” and “rotund,” and said the Illinois governor was “pathetic” in running his family business.
Pete Buttigieg
Current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was a relatively unremarkable political figure before running for president in 2020 and subsequenty securing a place in Biden’s administration. But his pre-politics career was all the more impressive: After graduating from Harvard, Buttigieg studied in Oxford, then worked for McKinsey consulting company. His eight-year career with the US Navy included six months in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer.
He became a mayor of South Bend, a small city in Indiana, in 2011, and launched a presidential bid in 2019, only to . He has been one of the first openly gay candidates to run for president.
At 42, he is also by far the youngest candidate on this list.
Josh Shapiro
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro boasts large approval ratings in his state — which will be a crucial battleground against Trump in November. He is seen as a bipartisan leader, in favor of cutting corporate taxes, as well as hiring more police officers. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shapiro questioned some of the mask and vaccine mandates. Those stances could alienate voters from more liberal communities
Another point of controversy could be Shapiro’s strong support for Israel. A growing portion of the electorate has been critical of Biden’s unwavering support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 38,000 civilians and brought the enclave to the brink of famine. Critics call for the US president to withdraw funding and military support from Israel in a bid to halt the killing.
Shapiro, meanwhile, has accused US colleges for failing to address Antisemitism . In May, he stated it was “past time” for the University of Pennsylvania to “disband the encampment” of student protesters. Previously, following a wave of similar student protests on US campuses, university students in Philadelphia had occupied college grounds to protest againt Israel’s war in Gaza.
Following the Trump-Biden debate, Shapiro acknowledged that Biden “had a bad night” while noting Donald Trump had been “a bad president.”
Michelle Obama
Former is the only candidate on this list who has never held political office — and the only one whom polls put far ahead of Trump should she choose to run.
This week’s Ipsos poll projected her winning 50% of votes to Trump’s 39%.
Michelle Obama has repeatedly said she has no interest in running for president. But if US politics have shown us anything in past weeks, it’s that no outcome is too unlikely to be dismissed out of hand.
Edited by: Maren Sass
The post US election: Who can replace Joe Biden as lead candidate? appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
