At a BBQ-for-Biden-Harris event, some Democratic voters gathered recently for a quiet lunch in a Detroit church parking lot where a brisk Michigan wind brought polite applause.
At one table, members of the United Auto Workers, the nation’s powerful auto union, said electing President Biden was a planned task.
Then Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas grabbed the microphone. And suddenly, a disaffected group of voters came to life.
“Republicans are standing firm because of Roe v. Wade. They didn’t take away our rights overnight. They worked on it. For decades! We need that kind of determination!” Ms. Crockett boomed for a mostly Black crowd. “He wanted to say something like this: ‘You know what? Jim Crow life was better for all black people.’”
“Not! Not!” the man shouted. The crowd was silent, noisy.
Mrs. Crockett, a powerhouse campaigner, is not even the most talked about of the Democratic Party’s deep bench rising stars. As he and others continue to follow the campaign trail, the conundrum facing the party becomes clearer: There is plenty of political energy in the Democratic base, but it may not be there to re-elect Mr. Biden.
The dynamic is one of awkwardness. For months, Mr. Biden has relied on this group of charismatic Democrats to serve as his surrogate. After a disastrous debate performance, voters find it increasingly difficult to ignore the charismatic politician’s reign as the standard bearer he tries to publicly defend.
In the days since the debate, Ms. Crockett – a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer – has made a case for Mr. Biden that, although not inspired, feels more honest than what the president or his closest aides have come up with.
“If we’re looking for someone who’s going to come out and do a good dance for us, it’s probably not,” he said of Mr. Biden in a telephone interview. “If that’s what you need from your presidential candidate, then probably not. But if you’re looking for someone with a mind and a heart who sets policies that will change the lives of ordinary, everyday, middle-class people, yes.
Immediately after the debate, Governor Gavin Newsom of California was among the Democrats scrambling to turn attention away from the president’s poor performance and return the focus to Mr. Trump.
“I’m taking notes on all the lies. I’m out of paper,” the polished governor said of Mr. Trump with ease, quickly delivering the kind of clear and direct political punch that Mr. Biden failed to land during the 90-minute debate.
There was also Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who supported a successful ballot initiative to implement abortion protections and who has an approval rating of about 61 percent in the fractured political swing state, where a local militia is planning to kidnap her.
“When Democrats are in charge, women make their own decisions about their bodies!” Mrs. Whitmer shouted at a Pride parade in Detroit recently, eliciting loud cheers. He said on Monday that he would not run even if Mr. Biden quits.
But the person talking the most is Vice President Kamala Harris. For much of Mr. Biden’s first term, the White House sidelined Ms. Harris, considered him a liability. Over the past year, he has grown stronger as a speaker and campaigner and has become one of Mr. Biden’s most effective surrogates. Watching her campaign in Nevada earlier this year, I saw her appeal to younger voters, nonwhite voters and women. A CNN poll last week found Ms. Harris ahead of Mr. Biden in a matchup with Mr. Trump. Mrs. Crockett described himself as “a supporter and a stand-in for the vice president.”
The same CNN poll found that 75 percent of registered voters said they believed someone other than Mr. Biden would be better suited to defeat Mr. Trump. A majority of Democratic voters have long expressed similar views in polls. Other candidates could include Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, among many others.
Ms. Crockett said the debate has not changed her support. He said he would support Mr. Biden as long as he remains the party’s standard bearer. “The idea that 90 minutes remove literally 50 years of service and wild receipts,” she said. “This will end up being one of the most successful presidents when the history books are written, if we’re still allowed to have a history book.”
If Mr. Biden opts out of the race, Ms. Crockett said, she will support the Democrat who replaces him. “There’s no way to remove Joe Biden from the top of the ticket if Joe Biden says he’s not going,” he said. However, he added: “If there’s some reason the president says he’s going to go somewhere, then I’ll support anybody, because I think he should.”
A Texas congresswoman says she sees Trump’s second term presidency as an existential threat to democracy and that she is a black woman. “I can be honest and say, I don’t care if it’s a dish cloth on the ticket; I chose the plate dress,” he said. If Mr. Trump is elected, he predicted, he and other Black Americans will be prime targets of “the firing squad that will shoot them.”
Despite the strength of the Democratic field, replacing Mr. Biden at this time carries serious political risks, some of which are unknown. And Mr. Biden’s polls may be better. It’s certainly possible that he can overcome his terrible debate performance, though he hasn’t shown much of it yet.
Either way, it’s troubling to see Mr. Biden and his closest supporters — people who have served their country honorably — turn away from the reality that came before them. Mr. Biden made the case in a letter to congressional Democrats on Monday that he was the best Democrat to run against Mr. Trump, implicitly saying that no other candidate could do the job. The first lady, Jill Biden, made a similar case recently.
“Joe is just not the right person for the job,” said Dr. Biden told donors in the Hamptons shortly after the debate. “He’s just the man for the job.”
From Mr. Biden’s partner of nearly 50 years — someone my friend Michelle Cottle recently described as a “human shield” for the president — this kind of dedication is wonderful. But wishing away reality is not a winning strategy for American political parties tasked with fighting tyranny.
