NEW YORK — The Democratic Party has been in crisis for more than two weeks. And yet there is no sign that the threat to Joe Biden’s re-election is nearing its end as the president digs his heels in and a growing chorus of Democratic officials, donors and strategists call on him to resign.
Donors and top backers are rejecting Biden, morale inside and outside the campaign is fraying, and some top Democrats are weighing whether to take action against the beleaguered president. One Biden allies privately described a cycle of alternating hope and despair in the style of the movie “Groundhog Day.”
The extraordinary debate within the party continues, 15 days after Biden’s disastrous debate performancewith the president Thursday press conference do little to quell fears about his prospects against Republican Donald Trump. Another five Democratic members of Congress called on Biden to resign in the hours following the president’s high-profile press conference, bringing to nearly 20 the total number of Democratic U.S. representatives and senators who have publicly urged Biden to withdraw from the race.
Biden’s acknowledgement Thursday that delegates were free to vote their conscience at the party’s convention in August — or in a virtual roll call vote that could take place much sooner — sparked a new wave of urgent conversations among Democratic officials on Friday.
“I am one of those delegates who is really reconsidering whether they are going to cast their vote for President Biden,” said Joe Salazar, a Democratic National Committee member from Colorado.
Biden insists he will not resign. And indeed, other representatives say they stand firmly behind the president.
The president’s team is aggressively pushing back against a new crop of data shared by Democratic officials in recent days, claiming he now has a significant disadvantage in his bid to defeat Trump in November. In fact, fear is pervasive among donors and strategists working on House and Senate Races that Biden’s weak position could undermine the party’s position even in Democratic states.
Hours after his campaign released a new strategy memo announcing a renewed focus on three crucial Midwestern states — the so-called “Blue Wall” that has long been a must-win for Democrats — one of the campaign’s field organizers in Wisconsin resigned.
The lower-level staffer’s departure, announced during an internal staff conference call on Thursday, was immediately attributed to frustration after the debate, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details of the private conversation. A Biden campaign spokesman confirmed the staffer’s departure.
While one person leaving a campaign of over 1,000 people is not evidence of a larger exodus, other signs of trouble continued to emerge.
One lawmaker, Rep. Mike Levin of California, directly told Biden on Friday that he should resign in a virtual call hosted for members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
The conversation began with Biden asking for feedback on how to appeal to the Hispanic vote and what campaign events he should attend in the coming months. When the conversation opened for questions, Levin raised his hand to give Biden a shout-out about his Southern California district, where voters have told him the president shouldn’t be at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket.
According to two of the sources, Levin then encouraged the president to listen to voters and resign.
“I have deep respect for President Biden’s more than five decades of public service and incredible appreciation for the work we have done together over the past three and a half years,” the lawmaker said in a statement. “But I believe the time has come for President Biden to pass the torch.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to his caucus on Friday describing a private meeting he had with Biden the night before. Notably, the short letter did not include any words of support for the president.
“In my conversation with President Biden, I immediately expressed the full breadth of insight, candid perspectives, and conclusions about the path forward that the group has shared together in recent times,” Jeffries wrote.
A private debate is raging, particularly among the party’s donors. There is no consensus on whether Vice President Kamala Harris should inherit the nomination if Biden ultimately leaves office, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen donors who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Some donors believe Biden still offers the best chance to beat Trump, despite widespread doubts among Democratic voters in polls about his age and willingness to vote.
That’s even as fundraisers are being canceled and some major donors are refusing to fund Democratic campaigns until Biden is no longer the nominee. Others are pouring money into political action committees aimed at supporting low-level candidates who have openly called for Biden to step aside.
Others would favor an open convention with hundreds of delegates gathering in Chicago next month to select the nominee from a pool of top candidates that also includes California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
But Harris, the first woman, Black woman, and person of Asian descent to be vice president, enjoys deep loyalty from key Democratic constituencies. Even if donors were to convince someone to run in a potential open primary, that candidate would be in a position to challenge and try to ignore someone who has achieved those historic firsts.
The Biden-Harris campaign implicitly undermines Harris’s chances of protecting Biden’s.
Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon released a memo on Thursday in which she acknowledged there is “increased fear” within the party, though she suggested that the movement against the president, “while real, does not represent a major change in the state of the race.”
And O’Malley Dillon wrote that there is “no indication that other Democratic candidates would do a better job than the president against Trump.”
Salazar, the Colorado DNC member, declined to say whether there was an organized effort among delegates to rally behind another presidential candidate when asked. But he criticized DNC leadership in Washington for refusing to answer key logistical questions about how or when delegates could nominate a Biden replacement if they wanted to.
Biden’s nomination could be sealed in a matter of days thanks to a virtual roll call that would have made him the nominee well before the convention opens on Aug. 19. The DNC originally set up the virtual roll call to sidestep a ballot requirement in Ohio that could have kept Biden off the ballot there.
Ohio has since changed the law. But despite numerous questions from The Associated Press and other media, the DNC has not said whether it will hold the virtual roll call or when it will hold it.
According to Salazar, the virtual vote to nominate Biden as president could take place as early as July 19, though a DNC spokesperson said the vote could not take place before July 21.
Meanwhile, Trump’s fundraising is ramping up. And the presumptive Republican nominee has only just begun spending money on television ads, while Biden has poured tens of millions of dollars into advertising in the warring states in recent months.
Biden’s allies are hoping for a delay in the coming days with the Republican National Convention opens Monday in Milwaukee.
Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the Republican Party is prepared to win this fall regardless of whether Biden drops out of the race or not.
“I think if Kamala Harris runs, she’s going to run on the exact same platform as Joe Biden, and it’s a failed platform based on failed policies that have really hurt American families,” he said. “The Democratic Party is in complete disarray.”
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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Will Weissert, Brian Slodysko, Mike Balsamo and Colleen Long in Washington contributed.