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President Biden is not currently getting the appreciation and enthusiasm incumbents usually receive when they are poised to win reelection. Polls indicate that the majority of Democrats want a different candidate in 2024, despite Biden all but announcing that he's running again. An AP-NORC poll from January showed only 37 percent of Democrats wanting him to run for reelection, including just 23 percent in the 18-44 demographic. As of August 2022, prominent Democrats like Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Jerry Nadler, as well as Senators Maggie Hassan and Diane Feinstein, have all avoided giving their vocal support to a Biden 2024 reelection bid.
This is a huge mistake. President Biden is our best option—and the most progressive and effective president of my lifetime.
Let's start with the promises kept. President Biden ran as a uniter who could work with reasonable Republicans, and proved this was true: He subsequently signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act that made certain that the federal government recognizes LGBTQ marriages, and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun control legislation in three decades.
Under Biden's leadership, nearly 11 million small businesses and 12 million jobs have been created. Wages have increased for workers with the largest increases coming for Black workers, young people, and low wage workers—all key demographics for Democrats. And after his predecessor showed an inability to bring manufacturing back, Biden had a hand in the creation of 800,000 manufacturing jobs.
Both parties have expressed frustration with China, but it was President Biden's CHIPS and Science Act that will boost production in the U.S. and bar firms that receive grants for expanding their operations and output in China.
Biden has also reestablished U.S. leadership in the world, strengthened NATO, and been tougher on Russia than any previous President, while keeping the U.S. out of a direct confrontation.
And while his student loan forgiveness may eventually fail, the Biden Administration has made the effort. Despite Republican disinformation that says this will benefit elites, economists believe the primary beneficiaries of student loan forgiveness will be lower and middle income households. According to the Wharton School, households earning less than $82,000 would receive 74 percent of the funds.
Some may be afraid of what an 81 year old Biden will look like against a younger Republican candidate. Many worry putting Biden on a debate stage would expose his weaknesses with speech. But these fears remind me of 2020, when Bernie Sanders, my own preferred candidate, was said to wipe the floor with Biden in their primary debate. While Bernie may have won, Biden held his own. And in the debates with Donald Trump, Biden's performance was solid, while Trump looked angry, entitled, and unpresidential.
Indeed, it's this matchup we're likely to see again—between two men in the same age bracket. The media may be determined to sell you Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the Republican candidate, but former President Donald Trump is still light years ahead of DeSantis in the polls.
And we know how a matchup between Trump and Biden will go, because we saw it in 2020.
Since then, Trump has not made any inroads with new voters, nor has he expanded his raucous base. Meanwhile, his legal troubles and the threat he poses to democracy only serve to turn off centrist voters more than ever before. Even with Biden's progressive policies, he is still a centrist at heart, and knows how to communicate to those voters.
Democrats have an opportunity to maintain Senate and White House control and even take back the House of Representatives in 2024—but only if they stick with Biden. House Republicans are more interested in legislating culture war issues than kitchen table ones. They have made protecting Donald Trump from accountability for potential wrongdoing a major item in their nebulous agenda, trying to convince the public that finally holding a powerful billionaire responsible for his actions is somehow in the best interest of middle and working class Americans.
The GOP is great for cable news hits and viral Twitter posts but not for running the country. Yet Democrats and their media allies are missing the opportunity to capitalize. Instead of leaning in on a Biden Administration that, while far from perfect, has been incredibly effective at times, many Democrats are insisting on chaos by demanding a new presidential candidate. They chose to focus on his oratorical gaffes and advanced age rather than his wins and willingness to fight.
I was not initially a Biden supporter. He has a checkered legislative history dating back to the 1970s. But Biden has turned out to be the most effective, progressive, and bold President of my lifetime.
Democrats have candidates of the future in people like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, and Vice President Kamala Harris. 2028 will have a strong primary with many options.
But the present is Joe Biden. Democrats need to embrace him and stop looking for immediate alternatives.
Correction: An earlier version of this piece mistakenly cited Senator Tim Kaine as a Democrat who dodged when asked whether he supported President Biden for reelection in 2024. Senator Kaine has vocally supported the President's reelection. We regret the error.
Dr. Jason Nichols is an award winning senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park and was the longtime editor-in-chief of Words Beats & Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
