Democrats Turn On Joe Biden As Pressure Grows To Not Run

Joe Biden is facing increasing pressure from his own party, with a new poll suggesting Democrats do not want him to run in the 2024 presidential election.

Fifty-four percent of Democratic primary voters want to see "another Democrat" enter the race for the party's 2024 nomination, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll of 1,584 U.S. adults published Thursday.

A slim lead of 46 percent of Democratic primary voters said they would prefer the incumbent president as the party's 2024 choice while 39 percent they would choose "someone else."

Only 28 percent said they would not like a new Democratic candidate to primary the president.

This means that support for Biden versus someone else has fallen by 4 points since October in a previous Yahoo News/ YouGov survey. In previous polls, support for the president had increased.

Newsweek contacted representatives for Biden by email to comment on this story.

The poll also found that Republicans are more united in support of former President Donald Trump, Biden's likely rival, with 56 percent backing him to 34 percent who would support "someone else." Some 54 percent of Republicans would also vote for Trump in a race with the other declared GOP candidates.

It is the latest in a series of blows that suggest declining support for the president within his party.

Democrats are almost split in half over Biden's handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. Fifty percent of Democrats approve of Biden's handling of the situation so far, but 46 percent disapprove, according to an Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of 1,239 American adults, conducted between November 2 and 6.

This marks a stark change from August when 57 percent supported the administration's handling of the Israel-Palestine conflict and 40 percent disapproved.

Meanwhile, after The New York Times and Siena College published a poll on November 5, showing that voters are backing Trump, by margins of four to 10 percentage points in five of six important election battleground states, one year before the 2024 election, a number of Democrats suggested Biden step aside.

David Axelrod, a political strategist who worked on Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns and served as a senior adviser in his administration, wrote in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, that, while "there also is risk associated with changing course now, as there is little time left for a primary campaign... there is a lot of leadership talent in the Democratic Party, poised to emerge.

"The stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore," he wrote, adding: "Only Joe Biden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it's in HIS best interest or the country's?"

Meanwhile, Bill Kristol, director of the Defending Democracy Together advocacy organization and a former Republican official, said Biden should pass the torch to the next generation.

Kristol posted: "It's time. President Biden has served our country well. I'm confident he'll do so for the next year. But it's time for an act of personal sacrifice and public spirit. It's time to pass the torch to the next generation. It's time for Biden to announce he won't run in 2024."

However, it is unlikely that Biden will be challenged unless he steps aside, given parties traditionally support an incumbent president. The president also enjoys a poll lead of 64 percent over his two declared primary challengers, self-help author Marianne Williamson (4 percent) and Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips (4 percent).

The Democrats, led by Biden, also won a series of competitive ballots on election day on November 7, including winning control of both the Virginia state's chambers of government and increasing their majority in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.