SAGINAW: For this year’s approaching presidential race, Rochelle Jones, a 39-year-old cook at Michigan State University, wants both major party candidates to step aside. “Biden just need to get somebody that’s going to run this country right, that don’t have any health issues, that care about us people,” she said this week.
While President Joe Biden struggles to recover from his disastrous debate performance last month, he has argued that calls for him to exit the race are confine to his party’s “establishment.” However, the view of Ms. Jones is indicative of a more complex reality taking place in some of the most competitive states politically from here in Michigan to Pennsylvania and Nevada.
This week several voters interviewed still support Biden but also expressed concern over a lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy leading many democratic voters not showing up and handing the election over to Republican Donald Trump. Moreover, there is anxiety about what continuing with Biden would do in down-ballot races affecting control of the U.S. House and Senate also up for grabs.
Aside from recent days when Black elected officials have given him some strong support, Biden made many Black swing state voters worried. Although she may vote for Biden eventually Jones who is black feels like he needs to talk about inflation since it is something that affects her personally.
For most Democrats – elites as well as ordinary members – fear of a second term by Mr Trump is what brings them together. Biden has long insisted that voters will reject Trump when faced with a one-on-one contest regardless of their reservations regarding the incumbent.
Biden’s loyalists worry amid public and private calls for him to surrender the Democratic nomination so as his party can field another candidate against Trump come November. On Wednesday House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi only stated “it’s up to the president” on whether he should leave the campaign while Vermont Sen Peter Welch urged Joe Biden quit running becoming first Senate Democrat calling on the presidential candidate to withdraw and celebrity donor George Clooney spoke against Biden running.
“What I hear more so from people of color is, if not him, what’s the alternative?” asked Craig Tatum, a pastor and one of the leading Blacks in Saginaw Michigan. He added that many people he talks to said they were worried about Biden’s performance but having seen Trump as president and his character; they are sticking with their choice to vote Democrat.
A demographic microcosm of Michigan at large, Saginaw County is the only Michigan bellwether to side with the winner in the last four presidential elections. While its namesake city (which has 44,000 residents) is half African American most surrounding areas are heavily Republican.
Trump had a slight lead over Biden in two national polls of voters conducted after the debate. One of those polls – carried out by Parami News – found that three quarters voters think their party stands a better chance of winning in November if it fields a different candidate other than Biden. That was true for around 7-in-10 voters, as well as for 45% of Democrats.
According to the Parami News poll, Biden’s physical and mental ability is a reason to vote against him. According to a Parami News/Siena College poll, reelecting Biden as president this November would be a risky choice for the country rather than a safe one among about 6 in 10 voters with about quarter of Democrats.
There were mix opinions among Democrats on whether Biden should stay as the nominee, according to that poll.
Ethan Williams will turn eighteen before November Election Day. He and his friends who watched the debate were in shock.
“We weren’t really excited,” he said. “We were not excited at all,” he added.
Williams found Trump’s felony convictions, the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity and Project 2025 – a manifesto for another term by Trump- particularly alarming. He plans voting for Biden despite age but may concentrate more on local and state races.
“If it was on best chance of beating Trump it would have to be Biden,” he said. “But I don’t like that fact.”
When asked whether Biden should be the Democratic nominee, lifelong Saginaw resident Pamela Pugh running in Michigan’s battleground congressional district demurred saying this was a party matter. For instance, she noted down-ballot candidates like her will have to get out their own vote and attract voters “who don’t believe that those at the top of the ticket represent them.”
She called his performance during debates beyond subpar” adding that he has work to do in our communities if he wants four more years in office”.
Members of Congressional Black Caucus (Parami News) who are powerful when put together with other black activists within Democratic Party have emerged as some of most forceful advocates for having Biden again run under party’s banner. In 2020 Democratic primaries Black votes carried him in early primary states including South Carolina where they played big role on Super Tuesday then Midwest states such as Michigan
Biden will be victorious provided black people and young people vote in large numbers, according to Brian Humphrey, a 62-year-old Pennsylvania activist who is black. However, he has deep concerns regarding the younger voters — his two granddaughters who are 18 and 19 — that do not have excitement for a man four times their age.
“I’m kind of worried right now though,” said Humphrey. “You know, because of his age and things and my young grandkids telling me he’s too old’ and I’m not voting for that old man’, you know, trying to convince them that he’s the better of the two candidates.”
The campaign turmoil over Biden’s debate performance is like an unnecessary diversion from real issues, says Alyse Sobosan, a school counselor in Las Vegas.
“It’s taking away from the campaign and the real issues,” she said. “That’s all anyone can talk about so it makes sense to me if he steps down.”
Although many Democrats are unsure and concerned, Biden still has support ranging from passionate to resigned ones.
According to James Johnson, a retired Pennsylvania grade school teacher, Biden’s “performance was hard to watch through” and yet, “it did not make me stop voting for him or from wanting to see him become the next president.”
Teresa Hoover also agreed with this statement. She is a Democrat who had attended Biden’s speech on Sunday in Harrisburg.
“I mean he was the man chose by his party as their nominee forever ago. So it’s like at this point we are still months away and so it’s kind of difficult to change gears,” Hoover said.
However, regardless of all these noises the debate did little to change that basic fact that both candidates are widely unpopular among Americans who seem unexcited about them.
“I didn’t watch the debate because I’m torn between both candidates,” Saginaw 26 year old Christian Garrett told us just before inadvertently leaning back onto an oversized stuffed animal.
Garrett does not know how he will vote and sees Trump as being revengeful and Biden as no longer capable of leading any further.
“So it is why I think this case has just become a joke since we have sat here witnessing all these events unraveling around us. Simply put, there is almost nothing that we can do really which is the most unfortunate truth.”
