What now? It’s a question a lot of Democrats are going to be asking themselves over the next few days as the widely expected — but no less shocking — news of President Joe Biden’s departure from the 2024 presidential campaign truly sinks in. On one level, that question already has been answered with Biden’s decision to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden said in a post to X , shortly after his historic announcement.
“Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat [former President Donald] Trump.” But there’s the broader question of whether Democrats, who have spent the last three weeks gripped in an existential debate over Biden’s political future, will fall into line that easily. Maybe.
Maybe not, one veteran observer said. “Harris will have a lot of people screaming for her to receive the baton,” Western Massachusetts political consultant Matt L. Barron told MassLive Sunday.
Harris polls about the same as Biden against Trump, and better than other potential Democrats, according to Forbes . And Harris didn’t “run a great [presidential] campaign in 2020,” Barron continued, hinting at longstanding misgivings about the California Democrat. “And her vice presidential tenure hasn’t been that great.
There’s been a lot of staff turnover. That’s her baggage. It’s not what she’s going to inherit from Biden.
