The number of Democrats running away from President Biden is turning into a stampede.
With inflation at a 41-year high and the economy teetering on recession, Mr. Biden is likely to encounter more of what happened when he visited Ohio in mid-July: Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee for Senate, didn’t appear with him.
Mr. Ryan said he had a scheduling conflict and wanted to spend time instead with “normal Ohioans.”
In Georgia, Sen. Raphael G. Warnock is distancing himself from the president in his bid for a full term against Republican rival Herschel Walker, whose campaign is criticizing the “Biden-Warnock agenda.”
“This is still a national race,” said Gail Gitcho, a senior adviser to Mr. Walker. “The burden is on Raphael Warnock and the extremely close ties he has to Joe Biden in this environment. Herschel has put him on the defensive.”
Mr. Warnock has bemoaned “demagogues trying to divide us.”
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“I’m focused on the job I’m doing,” Mr. Warnock said when asked about Mr. Biden’s performance. “When that means standing with this person or that person, it’s based on what it does for Georgia.”
In Oregon, Democratic House candidate Andrea Salinas recently told supporters that Mr. Biden’s plummeting job approval ratings are making her race more difficult in a district that has been rated as 54% Democratic. She said House Democratic campaign officials told her that “because of our president’s sliding ratings right now, we should handicap ourselves about 3%.”
“So, this district really is closer to 51%,” Ms. Salinas said in a video obtained by Fox News Digital.
Rep. Kim Schrier, Washington Democrat, boasted in a campaign ad this summer that she was “taking on the Biden administration” over a gas tax holiday. She was facing Republican opponents in an all-party primary Tuesday in the suburban Seattle district.
The Senate campaign of Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman didn’t respond when asked whether he plans to appear on the same stage with Mr. Biden before the November elections.
Republicans say Mr. Biden, with approval ratings below 40%, won’t be in demand on the campaign trail this fall. Still, they say his absence won’t change Democratic candidates’ disadvantage, given voters’ anxiety over the economy.
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“Democrats are tied at the hip with Biden, as they enabled him to turn a recovery into a recession,” said Republican National Committee spokesperson Emma Vaughn. “Americans know that Democrats rubber-stamped Biden’s $1.9 trillion boondoggle [in COVID-19 pandemic relief], and dodging Biden on the trail will not change that.”
The president’s party usually takes a beating in midterm elections, and the economic downturn is compounding Mr. Biden’s problems.
Republicans say the election season will mirror the midterms of 1994, when President Clinton was shunned in swing districts after the failure of the “Hillarycare” health care plan, and in 2010, when Obamacare led to stormy town hall meetings in congressional districts and the rise of the tea party.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr. Biden is “excited” to meet with voters again once he recovers from COVID-19, but she offered no timetable for presidential visits to states.
A scheduled trip to Michigan on Tuesday was canceled after the president tested positive a second time for COVID-19.
Democrats say the president has provided their candidates with a strong campaign platform.
“Thanks to President Biden, House Democrats delivered funding for new roads and bridges in their communities, we’re bringing CHIPS manufacturing home to boost our national security, and we’re defending freedom and justice for the American people,” said Chris Taylor, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “MAGA Republicans are dead set on making Americans sicker by ending Medicare in five years, poorer by raising taxes on working people, and less free with a nationwide abortion ban that rips women of their freedom to make decisions about their own reproductive health.”
Ms. Jean-Pierre pointed to the Senate’s $433 billion climate and energy package as another boost for Democrats. The bill is headed for approval this week. The White House says it will lower families’ utility bills, prescription drug prices and other costs.
“We have a plan to fight inflation,” she said. “We are ready to help middle-class families. Republicans are opposing that. This is our chance to really start to lower inflation.”
Weighing on Democrats’ midterm calculations, however, are worries about Mr. Biden’s plan to run for reelection in 2024. Polls show a majority of Democrats don’t want the president to seek a second term.
Congressional Democrats are increasingly dodging the question of whether they will support Mr. Biden for reelection. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who helped revive Mr. Biden’s domestic agenda last week, won’t commit to supporting the president in 2024.
“If Joe Biden runs again and he is the Democratic nominee, depending on who the Republican nominee is, we will just have to wait and see,” Mr. Manchin told former CNN host Chris Cuomo in a podcast.
A poll in New Hampshire last week found that Mr. Biden was narrowly trailing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg among the state’s Democrats as the preferred presidential candidate in 2024. Mr. Buttigieg received 17% support and Mr. Biden received 16% in the University of New Hampshire survey.
The poll found that 74% of Democrats in the early-primary state don’t want Mr. Biden.
Ms. Jean-Pierre shrugged off such surveys.
“The president intends to run in 2024,” she said. “We are a long ways away from that. We’re going to continue to deliver the best way we can.”
Republicans intend to keep hammering away on inflation and the economic downturn under Mr. Biden in swing districts and key Senate races.
The conservative Club for Growth launched a TV ad last week on “the Biden recession” that will run in three states with competitive Senate races: Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina.
“Since taking office, the Biden administration has laughed at the very real concerns facing our economy by downplaying the hardships American families are experiencing and by shifting blame and overtly lying,” said Club for Growth President David McIntosh. “Make no mistake: America is now in Biden’s recession regardless of what the administration tries to say.”
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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