President Biden insists he’ll run for re-election in 2024. He has to say that. Otherwise, he’d become a lame duck.
There are lots of reasons why he might not. The Hill catalogs them: He’ll be 82 years old, his agenda is stalled on Capitol Hill, his approval ratings are tanking, and his popularity is being dragged down by a continuing pandemic (never mind it’s due in part to obstinate Republican opposition to anything that might stop it, although to be fair, the virus itself is the main culprit).
The Hill also catalogs the Democrats who likely would run if Biden doesn’t:
- Kamala Harris
- Pete Buttigieg
- Elizabeth Warren
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Cory Booker
- Gavin Newsom
- Amy Klobuchar
- Stacey Abrams
- Roy Cooper
- Mitch Landrieu
For details, read article here. Whether they’re plausible candidates is a different question.
On the Republican side, if Trump doesn’t run, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will. He’s been the public face of Republican resistance to defeating Covid-19 and saving lives. Expanding his policies nationwide would be a nightmare. Just two days ago, Florida broke its all-time single-day record for new Covid-19 infections. Read that story here. He’s also the governor who sent a heavily armed police SWAT team smashing into the home of a whistleblower who reveal his administration was lying about Covid-19 case data (read about that here).
Trump or DeSantis, it doesn’t matter; Democrats have to nominate someone voters will accept and vote for. The country can’t afford a Trump or DeSantis win in 2024.