As President Joe Biden announced a bid for a second term this week, the nation took a giant step towards a possible replay of the 2020 election, pitting Biden against former President Donald Trump.
And it’s safe to say that matchup does not excite a lot of Americans.
Current polls show a clear majority of voters don’t want Biden or Trump to run for a second term.
And yet, that may be your main choice on Nov. 5, 2024.
Democrats in Congress weren’t running away from Biden, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — who battled Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020 — swiftly expressed his support.
“He is the man for this job,” U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, said of Biden.
But both candidates face distinct hurdles for 2024.
A recent NBC poll showed 70% of those surveyed did not want Biden to run again. Some voters think he’s too old. Others just want a fresh face.
Meanwhile, a Marist College poll out this week had 68% of Independents saying they would not vote for Trump.
That’s certainly not a winning formula in a race for President.
Biden’s advantage in a matchup with Trump may be the same one that helped him win in 2020 — as many voters see him as the best choice to keep Trump out of the White House.
While Biden wasn’t saying Trump’s name, some of his announcement lines seemed to be all about Trump.
“Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy,” Biden said. “I believe this is ours.”
While Biden faces a clear path to his party’s nomination, Trump might have to deal with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and other GOP hopefuls. And the former President sounded a bit insulted this week that Republicans wanted him to hold debates with his GOP challengers.
“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,” Trump complained.
While Biden talks about the major bills he’s signed in his first term — like the bipartisan infrastructure law — Trump spends much of his time still talking about 2020, throwing out his never-ending false claims that the election was ‘rigged and stolen.’
Gov. Brian Kemp has already warned his party that the GOP won’t win the White House with a campaign that looks back at 2020 — but that’s going to be part of Trump’s stump speech until further notice.
You may not like the idea of a rematch — but that could be the main choice in 2024. Buckle up, America.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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