Could Biden be replaced as election candidate? The Democrats waiting in the wings

As the US election rumbles ever closer, i takes a look at the Democrats waiting in the wings (Photo: AP/Getty)

It’s a been a tough week for US President Joe Biden.

Forced to defend himself against questions about his age and mental acuity, the President inadvertently mixed up two world leaders, referring to Egyptian leader Abdul Fattah al-Sisi as the “president of Mexico”.

This came just days after mixing up the names of the French president and former German chancellor with their predecessors, despite them being long dead.

As a result, US voters and Democratic Party officials are becoming increasingly concerned about his performance, and his approval rankings. According to a poll conducted by AP last year, three-quarters of the American public think Mr Biden is too old to serve another term, including 69 per cent of Democrats.

So could he be replaced, and if so by whom? As the election rumbles ever closer, i takes a look at the Democrats waiting in the wings.

Biden’s recent gaffes

The latest of Mr Biden’s gaffes marks the third time in a week where he has mixed up global leaders.

“I think as you know initially, the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in,” he said, when asked to comment on the latest in the Israel-Gaza war, managing to conflate Egyptian leader Abdul Fattah al-Sisi with the president of Mexico.

On Wednesday, he mistakenly referred to a conversation he had with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2021 as having taken place with the late Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017.

On Sunday he mixed up the French President Emmanuel Macron with the late Francois Mitterrand, who was in power from 1981 to 1995 and died in 1996.

Robert K Hur, special counsel on the classified files investigation that were discovered in a Washington office space, said the president was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

He assessed him as having “hazy” and “faulty” recall, with “significant limitations”, that included clearly remembering defining milestones in his own life, such as the death of his son Beau.

However, it is worth noting Mr Biden’s likely opponent in the 2024 race, Donald Trump is only three years younger, and has a history of making similar mistakes on the campaign trail.

Recently Mr Trump appeared to conflate his opponent in the Republican nomination race, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, ex-Democratic speaker of the House.

Attending campaign rally in January, Mr Trump said Ms Haley was in charge of security at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, during the notorious siege.

Ms Haley has said both Mr Trump and Mr Biden are “grumpy old men” in a campaign ad.

Who could replace him as Democratic candidate?

Kamala Harris

The incumbent vice president more than twenty years junior to Mr Biden would be an obvious choice, and the first female president of the United States.

But Ms Harris continues to face the challenge of getting Americans on board to support her, and she is more unpopular than the President she serves.

According to a poll conducted by Five Thirty Eight Project, as of 19 January, 53.5 per cent of Americans disapproved of the Vice President, and just 37.5 percent approved.

There are rumours she is biding her time for the 2028 election.

While attending a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in September, she told reporters “Joe Biden is going to be fine” so a quick succession “is not going to come to fruition”.

However, when pressed on whether she would step up to the role should it be necessary, she said: “Let us also understand that every vice president — every vice president — understands that when they take the oath they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president.

“I’m no different.”

Pete Buttigieg

The Transport Secretary could be a strong contender for the top job.

The first openly gay candidate from a major party placed in the top tier of Democratic primary candidates, before winning the Iowa caucuses and subsequently bowing out in March 2020.

Prior to this, his only political experience had been as the centrist mayor of South Bend, Indiana between 2012 and January this year.

Before then, he had served as a US Navy intelligence officer and in the Afghan war.

He was the first millennial to run for the White House, and would have been the youngest president to take office had he succeeded in his campaign.

Last month, a Granite State poll taken by the University of New Hampshire during that state’s primaries showed he had a 69 per cent approval rating among Democrats compared with 49 per cent for Mr Biden.

But last month Mr Buttigieg told Punchbowl news he doesn’t have “any plans to do any job besides the one I’ve got. It’s taking 110 per cent of my attention and energy,” he said, responding to the question of whether he might run for president in 2024, or compete for Michigan Senate seat that will become available next year.

Gavin Newsom

The Democratic governor of California is said to be prepping for a massive 2028 election campaign.

In November, he made a financial donation to a Democratic mayoral candidate in Charleston, South Carolina, 2,800 miles from his home in Sacramento, in a move to raise his profile on the nationally. He also invested $10m (£8.2m) into a new political action committee designed to spread the Democratic party’s message in Republican-held states.

But he has publicly denied that he has sights on Biden’s job – this year anyway.

“I’m rooting for our president and I have great confidence in his leadership,” he told Fox News earlier this year.

Gretchen Whitmer

Regarded as a rising star in the party, Ms Whitmer served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 and in the Michigan Senate from 2006 to 2015.

She won second terms as governor in the November 2022 midterms, defeating Trump-backed Republican Tudor Dixon by more than ten points.

She was first elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2000 and made headlines after delivering a speech on abortion rights in 2013, where she revealed that she had been sexually assaulted as a young woman.

JB Pritzker

The billionaire Governor of Illinois is widely regarded as serious White House contender, and is currently accelerating development at a Think Big America, a nonprofit committee that fights abortion restrictions and political extremism.

He is a vocal supporter of Mr Biden and in recent months has stepped up his advocacy for the Democratic Party. At an event for Wisconsin Democrats he argued that Mr Biden’s age should be valued as an asset.

His communications director Christina Amestoy told NBC News: “The governor is extremely happy being governor right now. … He’s looking at what’s at stake. He sees himself as having a role.”

Josh Shapiro

The Governor of Pennsylvania grew up in that state, and after graduating and putting himself through law school was elected Chairman of the Board of Commissioners in Pennsylvania’s third-largest country Montgomery.

Met with an $10 million budget deficit, he took steps to combat the heroin epidemic that was sweeping the state, and helped usher in the legislation that enabled the first LGBTQ+ couples in Pennsylvania marry.

Ro Khanna

A staunch supporter of Mr Biden, the Indian-American congressman was recently supporting the President in Columbia, South Carolina, the home of Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Halley – and the location of next pivotal GOP primary on 24 February.

He told MSNBC that he would be going out to states including Michigan and Nevada to make the case for President Biden, warning “the country will go backwards if Trump is elected.”

In an interview with CNN last month, Ms Khanna said Mr Biden “has delivered for working and middle-class Americans. Donald Trump’s economy, lost jobs, was just tax cuts for the very wealthy,” he said.

He previously served as the deputy assistant secretary in the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama from August 8, 2009, to August 2011.

Cory Booker

The former mayor of Newark and junior senator from New Jersey announced his intention to run in the presidential election of 2020, but failed to qualify for the sixth Democratic debate.

He is known for his social media engagement and participation in public events, and has earned a reputation has a hands-on mayor.

In 2012 he saved a woman from a house fire and suffered second-degree burns on his hands and smoke inhalation.

He was dubbed “super-mayor,” by the Toronto Sun, and made many appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show—including one with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who donated $100 million to the Newark’s education fund.