‘Overjoyed.’ ‘Desperate.’ ‘Too Late.’ Democrats react to Biden’s exit

MIAMI — For Democratic voters who have spent much of the summer brooding about President Joe Biden’s fitness for office, his decision Sunday not to seek reelection came as a relief. Now, they figured, their political party might stand a chance in November — though many still expressed deep doubts.

“I’m overjoyed, absolutely overjoyed,” Mark Oliver Rylance, 67, a Democrat from Columbus, Ohio, said about Biden’s announcement. Just the previous weekend, Rylance participated in a demonstration outside of the Ohio Democratic Party convention calling for Biden to step aside.

“If Biden had stayed in, we would have lost absolutely everything,” he added, echoing the feelings of many Democrats. “We would have lost the House, would have lost the Senate, and it could very well have been a landslide.”

The delicate subjects of whether Biden, 81, was fit for another term and how long he might stay in the race after his disastrous debate performance last month had found their way into conversations at dinner parties, neighborhood parks and church gatherings. The end of Biden’s candidacy Sunday shifted some Democrats’ emotions from profound anxiety to hopeful determination, even if what comes next for their party remains unclear.

There was also plenty of resignation to the idea that no Democrat might be able to pull off a victory against former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the ticket drew quick support from some voters eager to chart a path forward. But, underscoring the party’s tumult, others were certain that Harris, whose own presidential campaign four years ago fizzled, would face ugly attacks and rejection.

“I’m ready to have a woman president,” said Michael Wood, 50, who lives in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Germantown in Philadelphia. “I don’t think the country is ready.”

In South Miami, Florida, Carolina Camps, a 78-year-old Democrat, said many older women on the board of her nonpartisan organization of Cuban American women had remained supportive of Biden, despite his age.

“We understand that he might be frail, but we still think he had good acuity for the job,” she said. She compared Biden to Yoda from Star Wars, “a wise, old man with dignity and principle.”

Amy Stelly, a 66-year-old urban planner and community activist in New Orleans, said that although she had supported Biden, she said she feared that his candidacy would not appeal to young voters. Stelly, who is Black, said she would be “elated” if Harris became the nominee.

“She is educated and the kind of clear thinker we need for these difficult times,” Stelly said. “I also think she would mop Trump up in a debate.”

Already, many Democrats were musing over whom Harris might pick as a running mate. And there was little consensus.

In Michigan, a critical swing state, David Mittleman, a 67-year-old lawyer from East Lansing who has long been active in Democratic politics, suggested Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

In Traverse City, Michigan, Cameron Stefanski, 31, said he would be excited if Harris selected Whitmer or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has a home in Michigan.

But Stefanski also said he expected Harris might choose someone such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, “just to bring in that moderate vote.”

Either way, he added, the party needed to unify behind a strategy, and soon.

“When we have a plan and stick to it, like we did in 2020, that’s how Joe Biden won,” Stefanski said. “People have to come together and have a plan and execute.”

Several Democratic voters said Biden had waited too long to withdraw.

In Los Angeles, Massiel Cabrera, 39, said she and others on her family group chat were trying to reassure one of her sisters who was “panicking a little bit, saying that now she thinks Trump might win because it’s too late.”

“And we’re saying, ‘No, you know, there’s still time,’” said Cabrera, a freelance copywriter. “Honestly, at this point, I’m pretty desperate, and I would vote for anybody the party puts in.”

Dima Nazzal, a 47-year-old engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was at a video game parlor in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon when she received a news notification and then a flood of text messages about Biden’s decision. For her, there was no rush of optimism.

“I wish the Democratic Party had started this work a year ago, at least,” said Nazzal, who tends to vote for Democrats.

She said Biden’s endorsement of Harris seemed like the only move to make, given the time crunch.

“I don’t think they will win,” she said — although perhaps, she added, now their defeat will “not be a landslide anymore.”

Others had even bleaker predictions.

“It’s too late,” said Osborn Murray, 58, a retired Army officer who lost a Democratic primary for the Georgia Senate in the Atlanta area this year. Referring to the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13, he added, “The election was lost when Trump survived that attack. He came out like a gladiator with his fist up in the air and an American flag behind him.”

Biden had to endorse his vice president, Murray said, or he would have faced a party “revolt.”

But, “as a candidate, you have to prove yourself to the masses,” he said, referring to Harris. “What can you do when nobody likes you?”

Although Democrats must now pick a new nominee in a short period of time, several party members said that at least they could shed the uncertainty that had plagued the party since the debate.

“I just needed to know what we were going to do,” said Kevyn Creech, chair of the Democratic Party in Wake County, North Carolina, who said the party’s internal strife dominated the conversation at a dinner for state Democrats on Saturday night.

Creech, whose Democratic-leaning county could play a pivotal role in North Carolina because of an influx of newcomers since the coronavirus pandemic, said volunteers would not sugarcoat the oddity of the situation when talking to voters.

“We’re going to be upfront with people: ‘Yeah, it’s weird,’” Creech said. “When we’re talking to folks, we’ll acknowledge their feelings and then say, ‘But the next step for you as a voter is clear.’”

The significance of Biden’s decision — that he stepped aside for what many Democrats saw as the greater good — was not lost on the party’s voters, several of whom described the turmoil since the debate as unbearable.

In San Francisco, Armand Domalewski, a 34-year-old data analyst who last month protested Trump’s appearance at a fundraiser in the city, said he was “shell-shocked” by how much had happened in the race since then. Now, he felt a solemn sense of gratitude toward Biden.

“I didn’t think I’d feel the historical gravity of the moment this profoundly,” he said.

Still, Domalewski cautioned his fellow Democrats against predicting what will happen next.

“Everything is changing so much, so fast,” he said. “Anyone who’s confident that nothing will change between now and November has to be crazy.”

© 2024 The New York Times Company