(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) With the doors hardly having closed on midterm elections, second gentleman Doug Emhoff is insisting Democrats back his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris if sitting President Joe Biden does not run in 2024.
“If Democratic voters have barely started to consider Biden alternatives, the topic is increasingly consuming the would-be successors themselves, as well as their spouses,” Politico reported. “Doug Emhoff, the Second Gentleman, has told Democrats the party must rally around Harris should Biden not run.”
The article takes several shots at Republicans, particularly former President Donald Trump, and estimates who will be on the ballot for 2024.
According to the Post Millennial, other possible Democratic contenders for the 2024 presidency include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Harris’s approval rating currently sits just under 40%, while Biden comes in at 41% according to the most recent polling data.
The Politico report continues: “Such talk, however, causes eye-rolling in the West Wing, where officials believe Harris is on stronger footing now than she was in her first year but remain skeptical about her viability in 2024”
Several Democrats expressed doubts about Harris’s ability to lead, with one saying she wished “we had a stronger vice president” because Biden would “feel more confident that he has a good back-up.”
Democrat officials have been dodging the question, pointing to the party’s “big bench of very, very qualified people,” without naming anyone specific.
Doubts about the vice president abound, with many Democratic lawmakers hesitant to endorse anyone for the 2024 primaries so early.
“Those doubts are shared by most Democratic lawmakers,” Politico reported. “… Whose dread about 2024 extends from the specter of nominating an octogenarian with dismal approval ratings to the equally delicate dilemma of whether to nominate his more unpopular vice president or pass over the first [b]lack woman in the job.”
