US President Joe Biden is expected to formally announce his reelection campaign next week, according to a report.
While Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris have always made public Biden's intention to seek reelection, no formal word has come so far.
While it is very common and almost a norm for a sitting president to seek reelection, Biden's case is complicated by concerns over his age. He was already the oldest to be elected as the President of the United States and he will be 86 at the end of his second term if he is reelected. There are concerns if he would be mentally and physically sharp for the demanding job of the presidency. His age and gaffes are already a subject to Republican ridicule.
Here we explain what reports say of Biden's reelection bid, how things stand in the Democratic nomination race, and what are the concerns over reelection bid.
Biden to likely announce reelection bid next week
President Joe Biden will announce his reelection bid next week through a campaign video, according to CNN.
CNN reported that the announcement could come as soon as Tuesday. However, the timing could change if some unforeseen developments happen, noted the report.
"Biden’s small circle of close-knit advisers and allies are preparing for a video announcement Tuesday that would coincide with the anniversary of Biden’s 2019 campaign announcement, according to four sources familiar with the matter," reported CNN on Thursday.
Though it's now that reports have mentioned a definitive date for the announcement, it has been reported for some time that the Democratic campaigners and Biden supporters in the party have been active for the reelection bid behind the scenes for some time.
CNN reported, "Biden’s aides have been quietly putting an infrastructure in place for a reelection campaign for months. The effort has been led at the White House by deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and senior adviser Anita Dunn.
"Rather than allowing weeks or months to pass, the decision to announce his plans next week, advisers said, was in part a recognition of how much work is facing the Biden campaign to mobilize and energize voters to turn around the malaise that some Democrats feel about his candidacy."
Does Biden have challengers for Democratic nomination?
In the United States, aspiring presidents first have to secure the nomination within their own parties. Once they secure the nomination within their parties, then they contest the actual presidential election with the candidate of the other party.
In the 2020 presidential election, the Democratic contenders included Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke, among others. In the end, Biden secured the nomination and named Harris as his running mate.
However, Biden does not have any serious challenger to nomination in the upcoming presidential elections.
Robert F Kennedy Jr and author Marianne Williamson have announced their bids so far but they are not seen as serious contenders for the presidency.
Biden is understood to have broad support in the Democratic Party for re-election.
Earlier in January, CNN reported, "It was also a clear shift [the interest of Democrats in Biden's re-run] that only served to bolster the view inside the West Wing that, after a year defined by intra-party questions about just about everything Biden did, the party has coalesced around one final White House run.
"Officially, there isn’t a campaign yet. And Biden has yet to personally interview any candidates for top roles. But as he nears a final decision on running for reelection, Biden has given every indication to those around him he is preparing to launch another bid for president."
US mid-term polls bolstered Biden's standing
As the 2022 mid-term elections turned into a Joe Biden vs Donald Trump contest, the Democratic Party's victory also boltered Biden's standing and weakened Trump's.
CNN's Harry Entend noted, "Biden is in his best position in a while to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024...Perhaps the best indication of Biden’s strength is that he has no obvious potential 2024 primary opponent at this point. Now, as an incumbent, he was unlikely to ever have a slew of challengers. You could have imagined, though, that at least one major Democrat would have challenged Biden had the Democrats done poorly in the midterms. Instead, the opposite has happened. Major potential foes such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom have said explicitly that they will not run against Biden."
The Washington Examiner noted that the mid-term results would propel Biden into 2024 reelection cycle in a position better than Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, both of whom went on to serve second terms.
The Examiner further noted, "Biden was the big Democratic winner. He was able to hold together the anti-Trump coalition enough to stave off defeat in a number of competitive races. His campaign travel schedule, anti-MAGA [Make America Great Again] messaging, and predictions that the race would swing back toward the Democrats in the end appear to be vindicated. He looks stronger than Clinton or Obama did the day after their first midterm elections, and they both won a second term."
Resistance among Democratic voters
While the Democratic Party has no challenger to Biden at the moment, a recent survey suggested that party voters want a fresher face in 2024.
A poll published in March found that only little over a third of Democratic Party voters want Biden in a second term.
The Associated Press reported in March that only 37 per cent of Democrats wanted Biden to seek a second term, according to a poll by AP and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The percentage was down from 52 per cent in the weeks before last year's mid-term elections in which Democrats defeated the Republican Party's expected Red Wave.
The White House cast Biden's perceived weakness within his own party as an exaggerated narrative that he has repeatedly proven wrong.
"We're aware pundits' attitude toward President Biden is unchanged from before he earned the nomination faster than anyone since 2004, won the most votes in American history, built the strongest legislative record in generations and led the best midterm outcome for a new Democratic president in 60 years. Based on comparing the accuracy of our predictions versus theirs, we are happy for this dynamic to continue," said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates, as per AP.
Low approval ratings, grim polls a concern
Despite no visible challenger to his reelection bid, Biden faces low approval ratings and poll findings.
Polling and election news site FiveThirtyEight reports that Biden currently has just 42.4 per cent approval rating, which is just over Trump had at this point in his presidency.
At this time in presidency, Obama had the rating of 46.5 per cent, Bush of 71.4, and Clinton of 45.8, according to FiveThirtyEight. These are the presidents that won second terms.
Politico reports that Biden faces issues not just among Republican and Independents, but also among traditional Democratic voters.
"A deep dive into the numbers reveals Biden isn’t just struggling with independents and near-unanimous disapproval among Republicans. He’s also soft among Democrats and left-leaning demographic groups, a weakness that suggests a diminished enthusiasm for his candidacy — though something that could be papered over by partisan voting patterns in the general election," reports Politico.
Black Americans, a key bloc for Biden, is also not that supportive, notes Politico.
"Moreover, Biden is struggling with key subgroups of the Democratic base. He won around 9-in-10 Black voters in 2020, but only 59 percent of Black respondents to the Pew Research Center poll said they approve of how Biden is handling his job as president," says the Politico report.
