No, neither Joe Biden or Harris is being replaced on the ticket: Despite all sorts of conspiracy theories, it’s almost certain that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will once again be the Democratic ticket in 2024
Joe Biden Isn’t Getting Replaced
It happens on social media just about every time anything negative is reported in the media about President Biden: This must mean the Democrats are getting ready to shove Biden out of the way, in favor of Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michelle Obama or someone else. Otherwise, there’s no way “they” would let anything not-positive about the president appear in the media.
The fact that this happens so often indicates that, in fact, there’s no such prohibition on negative stories about Biden. And besides- there’s a whole media ecosystem that simultaneously argues that the media is too negative towards Biden. Also last week, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote that Biden should not run again in 2024.
At the same time, it is regularly argued that Biden must, or will, drop Vice President Kamala Harris from the ticket in 2024, if he wants to win. New York magazine last week made “The Case For Biden to Drop Kamala Harris,” while journalist Josh Barro argued last week that Biden should drop Harris and replace her on the ticket with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Even former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who like Harris is from the Bay Area, was asked by Anderson Cooper if she thinks Harris is the best running mate for the president, and she answered “He [Biden] thinks so, and that’s what matters. And by the way, she’s very politically astute. … People shouldn’t underestimate what Kamala Harris brings to the table.”
However, barring a health emergency or something else that would incapacitate either of them, there is next to no chance that the Democratic ticket in 2024 will consist of anyone other than Biden and Harris.
For one thing, they have been announced as the “Biden-Harris” campaign ever since they launched their re-election campaign, with numerous stories appearing in the media about the important role Harris will play and how the campaign sees her as a “secret weapon.”
Most recently, The Hill ran a story about how “Harris chatter leaves Biden allies seeking to shut down talk of replacing her.”
“It is the kind of chatter that is meant to undermine the president, his administration and his accomplishments,” strategist Karen Finney told The Hill. “He’s running for reelection, and he is running with the vice president, as they made it very clear in the announcement…all of the talk is really absurd and unproductive.”
Slate, meanwhile, argued this week that “the cake is baked,” and Biden and Harris will remain the ticket, as David Faris argued that speculation about the vice president being replaced is far from a rare phenomenon in Washington.
“Like most recommendations brought to us by op-ed columnists with too much time on their hands, casting Kamala Harris aside is a dreadful idea—not only because it has almost zero chance of actually happening, but because it would clearly cause more problems than it would solve,” Faris wrote.
There’s a good reason not to dump Harris, Faris says.
“It is hard to imagine a core Democratic constituency that Biden can less afford to deliberately alienate than Black women, who gave the president an 81-point margin in 2020, according to exit polls—especially at a time when pollsters keep warning that turnout among voters of color is one of the president’s worst potential problems.”
Meanwhile, noted political prognosticator Nate Silver wrote that while a Biden-Trump rematch is not “inevitable,” he was critical of prediction markets that showed what he concerned a stronger-than-necessary possibility of others being nominated or even winning.
“As of when I’m writing this on Monday morning, ElectionBettingOdds.
Author Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles over the years that focus on politics, technology, and the economy for over a decade. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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