President Biden’s reelection campaign announcement is deflating some left-wing activists and progressive leaders, underscoring one of the many challenges facing the 80-year-old candidate as he looks to unite the Democratic Party ahead of the 2024 election.
Mr. Biden has so far avoided drawing a high-profile primary challenger, despite never having been seen as a favorite of progressive activists who want him to push a bolder liberal agenda.
Responding to his launch video, Marianne Williamson, the self-help guru and longshot Democratic primary challenger, said the president’s reelection message is “concerning” and said the nation wants more than his “incremental approach to governing.”
“His remark that he has fought so that everyone ‘is given a fair shot’ contradicts his refusal to fight for a higher minimum wage, permanentize the child tax credit, or side with railroad workers trying to negotiate for sick pay,” Ms. Williamson said.
“His saying that he ‘knows America’ doesn’t seem to include his knowing the 39% of Americans who report skipping meals to pay rent, the one in four Americans living with medical debt, or an entire generation concerned that the tepid efforts of his administration to fight the climate crisis will rob them of a habitable planet,” she said.
Mr. Biden overcame the reservations of progressives to defeat then-President Trump in the 2020 election. But some analysts still believe that the loathing for Mr. Trump did more to energize liberal voters than Mr. Biden did.
SEE ALSO: Biden launches 2024 bid, as voters weigh record against his age
The “Don’t Run Joe” campaign, meanwhile, issued a dire warning, saying Mr. Biden “is moving the Democratic Party toward a likely disaster in 2024.”
“As the Democratic standard bearer, Biden would represent the status quo at a time when ‘wrong track’ polling numbers are at an unprecedented high,” the group said in a statement.
The group warned that Mr. Trump lost in 2020 as “the embodiment of the status quo,” while Mr. Biden eked out a victory “thanks to massive progressive organizing in swing states.”
“Next year, candidate Biden would be in the position of defending an unpopular status quo,” they said. “His recent policy decisions, such as repeatedly boosting the fossil-fuel industry, have discouraged and alienated large numbers of grassroots Democrats, particularly young voters.”
They said Mr. Biden and Democrats fail to recognize that it is “not enough to try to ride in on the negative coattails of revulsion toward the GOP.”
“That strategy failed in 2016,” they said. “The Democratic nominee should offer bold progressive programs that can build winning electoral coalitions while providing an inspiring roadmap for the future.”
SEE ALSO: Seven in 10 Americans say Biden shouldn’t run again, poll shows
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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