Senate Democrats are President Biden’s bulwark in the Democratic Party and are sticking with him firmly, despite his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta.
Senate Democrats believe Biden, even with his shaky performance, is a stronger general election candidate than Vice President Harris, who would have a good shot at the nomination if Biden withdraws from the race.
And Democratic senators have privately acknowledged for months that there’s no way to replace Biden on the ticket unless the president himself agrees to step down. He’s built up a massive lead in pledged delegates who are obligated to support him at the convention in Chicago.
Democratic lawmakers worry that even if Biden were to drop his reelection campaign, the battle to replace him as the party’s nominee would be a messy affair and only divide their party, hurting them in the general election.
“Joe Biden might have had a bad evening, but we don’t want four bad years under Donald Trump. On the issues, I thought Biden handled them well,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) told reporters at the Capitol on Friday.
“Obviously we were all looking forward to a more — I guess — energetic approach,” Cardin conceded.
“But from the substance, I think the American people recognize they have a choice between a person who understands the importance of our democratic system, understands the importance of the issues that he has pursued over the last four years, his record … versus a person on the other side who continues to make things up and wouldn’t respond to simple questions,” he said of the contrast between Biden and former President Trump.
“To me it’s a clear choice that we need to make sure President Biden is reelected as president of the United States,” he said.
Biden served in the Senate for 36 years before leaving to serve as former President Obama’s vice president. He also served as president of the Senate for eight years as vice president, building up a deep well of support within the Senate Democratic Conference.
Senate Democrats will serve as superdelegates at the Chicago convention, and they’re signaling early that they have no intention of swapping horses in the middle of the presidential race.
The party’s nominee must win a majority of nearly 4,000 delegates in Chicago, and officeholders and party officials who make up more than 700 superdelegates would vote if no candidate is able to meet that threshold.
One of the strongest statements bucking up Biden after his disappointing night came from Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).
Fetterman noted that pundits also wrote off his 2022 Senate campaign after he bungled his lone debate against celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz, mixing up words and failing to complete his thoughts at key moments.
“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate. No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record,” he posted on the social platform X.
He mocked “polling geniuses” who predicted after that he would lose by 2 points only to later swallow their predictions when he wound up winning by more than 5 points.
Fetterman offered a blunt piece of advice to Democrats and media pundits fueling chatter about finding a last-minute alternative to Biden.
“Chill the f‑‑‑ out,” he said.
A New York Times editorial published Friday calling for Biden to drop out of the race had little impact on his Senate allies.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who represents a battleground state that Biden won narrowly in 2020, said he should “absolutely not” abandon his campaign.
“I can tell you that there have been more than a few Sundays when I wish I had preached a better sermon,” Warnock, a pastor, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“But after the sermon was over, it was my job to embody the message, to show up for the people that I serve,” he said. “And that’s what Joe Biden has been doing his entire life.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also waved off Biden’s poor debate performance and pivoted to Trump’s support for overhauling the federal government and its implications on abortion and LGBTQ rights.
“I’m about substance, not style. After last night’s debate, I’m more panicked than ever at Trump’s agenda. So I made a short video explaining Trump’s detailed plan — Project 2025 — to destroy democracy, criminalize abortion, and target and harass gay and transgender people,” he posted on X.
The vocal support from key Democratic senators contrasted from the alarmed response that some House Democrats voiced anonymously to media outlets.
One House Democrat who requested anonymity told Fox News that a sense of “panic” had set in by the end of the debate.
“Now, with the foundation, where do we go? Obviously, there are conversations that I believe need to be had at all levels, with the realization of, this is not just about the presidency, this is about downballot [effects],” the source said.
Senate Democrats, however, have insisted privately for months that Biden would be the nominee and there was no chance of changing up the ticket after he racked up nearly 3,894 pledged delegates in this year’s Democratic caucuses and primaries.
“The general sense of folks is that we’ve hitched our wagon to Biden, that he’s delivered a lot in partnership. It may not be Biden himself, but it’s his team. Right? And we’re already into the primaries,” a Democratic senator who requested anonymity told The Hill earlier this year.
A Democratic aide dismissed talk about finding a plan B nominee for the general election as “fanciful” and chided anonymous Democrats who have vented their private anxieties to the media.
“Generally, you shouldn’t follow people and you shouldn’t listen to people who are just panicking,” the source said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has repeatedly deflected questions about Biden’s age and fitness for the job, insisting the president will win reelection based on the strength of his record and how his positions on abortion and other issues compare with Trump’s.
Schumer defended Biden immediately after the debate by looking past the president’s mangled answers and putting them in the broader context of the upcoming election.
“Tonight’s debate made the choice clear: Four more years of progress, or four more years of attacks on our fundamental rights and our democracy. We’ve got to get out the vote for @JoeBiden, @KamalaHarris, and a Democratic Senate and House!” Schumer posted on X.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients called Schumer on Friday to check in with the Democratic leader to make sure the president still had his Senate support intact.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, signaled Friday that Senate Democrats will stand by Biden as long as he decides to stay in the race, and that it would be up to him alone whether to continue his bid for a second term.
“I thought President Biden started off not with the enthusiasm, etc., necessary but it’s a difference between a bad initial debate and a very bad presidency, which Donald Trump can claim — and also a much worse presidency going forward,” Reed told a reporter from a Rhode Island media outlet in a Friday interview.
Asked about Biden stepping aside, Reed said: “That’s the president’s decision.”
“Look at a record of achievement over the last four years and two of them which had a Republican House,” he said, touting Biden’s enactment of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law, historic investments in renewable energy and a $280 billion investment in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research.
“It’s his decision what he wants to do going forward,” Reed said of Biden.
Al Weaver contributed.