WASHINGTON — A dozen congressional Democrats on Friday joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling on President Joe Biden to step aside as the party’s nominee, bringing the total number of Capitol Hill Democrats who want someone else at the top of the ticket to nearly 35.
The new detractors include two close allies of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as well as a third senator.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, who is running for re-election in New Mexico this fall, became the third Senate Democrat to call on Biden to leave the race, joining Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont and Jon Tester, who is facing a tough re-election bid in Montana.
The latest announcements in the House come from some of the president’s core constituencies of support. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus — whose leaders campaigned with Biden this week in Nevada — to call on Biden to bow out.
Veasey and three other House Democrats — Rep. Jared Huffman, of California; Chuy Garcia, of Illinois; and Mark Pocan, of Wisconsin — praised Biden’s decades of public service but said in a joint statement that it is now time for the 81-year-old president to “pass the torch” to give Democrats the best chance of beating Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.
Garcia is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose chairwoman, Rep. Nanette Barragán, of California, also campaigned with Biden in Nevada this week and whose affiliated super PAC endorsed Biden on Friday. Other Hispanic Caucus members who earlier called for Biden to step aside are Reps. Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Mike Levin of California.
Meanwhile, Pocan is chairman of the Congressional Equality Caucus, formerly the LGBTQ+ Caucus, and a former co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose most high-profile members — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — have been urging Democrats not to dump Biden.
Huffman is also a progressive who is a close ally of Pelosi and represents a San Francisco Bay Area district next to hers.
Another close Bay Area ally of Pelosi, longtime Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., also joined the group of detractors Friday, releasing a letter that she sent to Biden on Thursday night. In it, Lofgren mentioned her work on the House Jan. 6 Committee, warning that Trump "remains as grave a threat to the Constitutional order and rule of law that he was on January 6, 2021 when he incited insurrection."
“We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign," Veasey, Garcia, Pocan and Huffman said of Biden in their joint statement. "These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change."
“We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House. Democrats have a deep and talented bench of younger leaders, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, who you have lifted up, empowered, and prepared for this moment,” the quartet continued. “Passing the torch would fundamentally change the trajectory of the campaign. It would reinvigorate the race and infuse Democrats with enthusiasm and momentum heading into our convention next month.”
Separately, Rep. Sean Casten, of Illinois, called on Biden to drop out in an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune published Friday. “As long as this election is ... litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,' I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation," he wrote.
And Rep. Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat who is one of Republicans' top targets in 2024, said Friday in a lengthy thread on X that "there's too much on the line" in 2024 for Biden to continue as the Democratic nominee.
On Friday afternoon, veteran Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., urged Biden to withdraw. She quickly endorsed Harris to replace him on the ballot and for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former House member, to be her vice presidential running mate.
McCollum was soon followed by Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., the former chair of the House select committee on the climate crisis, and first-term Reps. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., and Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., who flipped a GOP seat in the 2022 midterms and faces a tough re-election this fall.
The new batch of detractors means that more than 10% of House and Senate Democrats — 34 out of 264 — are calling for Biden to exit the race. The 12 who issued statements Friday represented the largest number of Democratic detractors in a single day since the June 27 debate debacle.
Biden, however, has repeatedly said he's not going anywhere, and that he has earned the nomination, backed by 14 million Democratic primary voters.
Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon conceded that it's been a "tough several weeks" for Biden since his debate performance and that there has been "some slippage in support." But she argued that Biden still has a path to defeating Trump and that he will be out on the campaign trail next week once he recovers from Covid.
“You have heard from the president directly time and again. He is in this race to win and he is our nominee and he’s going to be our president for a second term," she said.
In a statement later in the day, Biden campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg noted that many more Democrats are standing by Biden as the nominee.
“While the majority of the caucus and the diverse base of the party continues to stand with the President and his historic record of delivering for their communities, we’re clear-eyed that the urgency and stakes of beating Donald Trump means others feel differently," Ehrenberg said.
"Unlike Republicans, we’re a party that accepts — and even celebrates — differing opinions, but in the end, we will absolutely come together to beat Donald Trump this November.”
