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After President Joe Biden's disastrous debate against former President Donald Trump, I was not sure he'd survive as nominee. Frankly, I didn't care much, knowing there is a deep bench of able candidates, starting with Vice President Kamala Harris. I would have been all in if the president swiftly stepped aside and passed the torch to Harris. And while I wouldn't advise passing her over, if they did, I'd still be all in, given the unique threat to democracy and the rule of law presented by Donald Trump and Project 2025.
But the president toughed it out while opposition to him got "outflanked," by their own admission. President Biden delivered an impressive press conference, answering in-depth questions without a teleprompter or notes and giving a fiery and clear speech about the threat posed by Trump and his bold, populist plan for the first 100 days of his second term. Meanwhile, those opposed to him dripped out letters and leaned on a couple of celebrities but never coalesced around an alternative or even a plan to get to an alternative.
The clock has now run out, and with Trump selecting extremist Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, Democrats cannot afford to extend the infighting. A recent YouGov poll of swing states finds Biden tied or behind in key states where Senate Democratic candidates are crushing it.
It isn't because there are that many ticket splitters—people who will vote for Trump and a Democratic senator. It is because the number of "undecided" or "other" voters among Democrats and independents is more significant in the presidential contest than it is in nearly all the Senate contests. Enthusiasm among Democrats is down everywhere. This suggests a trove of Democratic presidential votes are out there, but they may still be holding out hope for another nominee.
One might argue that Democrats should indulge them and give them the nominee they crave. The problem is that their 'preferred' candidate is not clear. Harris doesn't run much better than President Biden in polling. In some polls she gets more votes from currently unenthused Democrats, but Trump ends up getting even more out of the undecided lot. Similarly, there is no clear evidence that any other Democrat excites these voters.
The best the Democrats can do, and must do immediately, is strongly unify around Biden and drive up enthusiasm among these Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. They must reduce those voters' "undecided" and "other" numbers for president and bring those voters back in line with the party of their preferred Senate candidates.
The argument to rally around Biden doesn't need to be about just voting against Trump. The president laid out a clear vision for the first 100 days of his second term. He addressed everything from codifying Roe v. Wade and returning abortion rights to women to expanding Social Security and Medicare. Some of these go beyond standard Democratic fare, too, like discharging medical debt so families don't remain poor just because someone got cancer, and reining in out-of-control rents.
In short, there is much to sell about Biden's candidacy before you even get to Donald Trump. But then there is Donald Trump and his new VP candidate (what happened to his old VP, by the way?).
Trump and Vance strongly support extreme abortion restrictions, abandoning our allies and allowing authoritarianism to spread throughout Europe. They support consolidating all power under the president and shunning the entire system of checks and balances. They both propose radically overhauling our way of life to even throw out elections. Biden may not be the perfect candidate. But he is the only candidate standing in their way.
The last hope to advance plans for working families and stop Trump and Vance's march toward dictatorship is for Democrats and independent voters to unite behind the president. The best way to encourage them is for all those who wanted President Biden to step aside—from George Clooney to members of Congress—to get back in the fold and strongly march out there to save democracy. Above all others, they must communicate the stakes and lead the way towards Biden for those still ambivalent. Those who soured on keeping Biden as the nominee will not hear the Biden campaign's case. But they will hear those had tried their best to replace him.
Despite my misgivings after the debate, I'm now "ridin' with Biden." All those who care for America should, too. This is still an eminently winnable race with Biden at the top of the ticket. But time is running out. It's time to get to work.
Eric Schmeltzer is a Los Angeles-based political consultant who served as press secretary to Rep. Jerry Nadler and former-Gov. Howard Dean.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
