Joe Biden’s poor debate performance on Thursday sparked panic among Democrats, who are now considering whether they can replace the 81-year-old president with a stronger candidate to fight Donald Trump.
The contenders to replace Biden start with his vice-president, Kamala Harris. Several Democratic governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, are also on activists’ lists — and have cultivated a national presence in recent months despite supporting Biden.
Democratic governors from traditionally Republican states, such as Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, are longer shots, as are transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, commerce secretary Gina Raimondo and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.
Kamala Harris
Vice-president
Harris would be a first choice for some Democratic party insiders to replace Biden. But the vice-president, 59, is not much more popular than Biden, leaving doubts that she could improve the party’s chances against Trump.
A former prosecutor and California attorney-general, Harris became the first woman of South Asian descent and only the second Black woman to be elected to the US Senate. In 2020, she became the first female vice-president.
But she made several public mis-steps early in her time in the Biden White House and gaffes that torpedoed her approval ratings. The latest FiveThirtyEight average of national opinion polls showed Harris had the approval of slightly over 39 per cent of voters, while just under 50 per cent disapproved. Those numbers are better than Biden’s.
Harris stood by Biden after his weak debate performance, rejecting calls that he should step aside. In an interview with CNN, she conceded the president had a “slow start” but a “strong finish”.
Gavin Newsom
Governor of California
As Democrats panicked about Biden’s candidacy on Thursday night, California governor Newsom — who attended the debate in Atlanta — assumed a familiar role as full-throated advocate for the president. “You don’t turn your back because of one performance,” Newsom said on MSNBC.
Newsom’s role as a Biden surrogate has been just one element of a yearlong effort to build a national profile and — many Democrats believe — position himself as a presidential candidate in 2028, or perhaps sooner. When concerns about Biden’s age grew last year, Republicans publicly accused Newsom of running a “shadow” campaign that would allow him to enter the race if the president were to pull out. Some Democrats quietly agreed.
The 56-year-old former San Francisco mayor does not water down his California liberalism in front of the country, and is vocal advocate for gun control, LGBT+ issues and abortion rights. During Trump’s presidency, Newsom declared California the leader of the “resistance” to his administration. His in-your-face feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — including a feisty debate on Fox News last year — proved that he enjoys the rough and tumble of politics.
Fellow Democrats say his biggest obstacle to national glory is not his liberalism, but California’s problems: a homelessness crisis, a multibillion-dollar budget deficit and a cost-of-living problem that voters partially blame on the governor.
He has until 2026, when his term ends, to turn things around — unless another irresistible opportunity presents itself before then.
Josh Shapiro
Governor of Pennsylvania
Josh Shapiro sailed to the governorship of the swing state of Pennsylvania in 2022, outpacing Biden’s slim 2020 margins in the state and trouncing a Trump-endorsed candidate by more than 14 percentage points.
The 51-year old politician, a fixture of Pennsylvania politics since the early 2000s, served four terms in the state’s House of Representatives and later two terms as commissioner of Montgomery County — formerly a swing district — where he enjoyed bipartisan approval.
He spent six years as the state’s attorney-general, drawing national attention for winning a $1bn settlement against Johnson & Johnson and other pharma groups for their role in the opioid epidemic. His re-election in 2020 garnered more votes than any politician in Pennsylvania’s history — even more than Biden, who was on the same ticket.
Though chided by environmental groups for his support for the state’s shale gas industry, and by some on the progressive left for his fervent support for Israel, his governorship has been broadly popular.
He drew national praise for his deft handling of a collapsed highway overpass in June 2023, surpassing expectations by bringing the road back into operation in just two weeks. According to a Franklin & Marshall College poll from April 2024, he has 54 per cent approval in the state, including approval from 29 per cent of registered Republicans.
Only in his first term as governor, Shapiro has expressed support for the sitting president, but has clashed with him in the past on environmental policy.
Gretchen Whitmer
Governor of Michigan
Long seen as a potential successor to Biden, Michigan governor Whitmer came to national attention during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she sparred with Trump’s White House over its lacklustre public health response. She later dominated national headlines in October 2020 when law enforcement officials uncovered a plot by a pro-Trump group to kidnap her. Whitmer blamed Trump’s incendiary rhetoric.
The former state senator and representative won the battleground state by 9.5 points in 2018. But she surprised pundits by leading a blue wave in 2022, when the 52-year-old trounced her Republican competitor by an 11-point margin, and helped Democrats recapture Michigan’s House and Senate for the first time in decades.
Whitmer has since passed a progressive wish list, including gun control legislation and a clean energy bill — stating that, despite being in a swing state, voters elected her “on that [progressive] agenda”. She also passed popular tax cuts on small businesses and retirees, and has overseen an upgrade in Michigan’s credit rating.
Whitmer has already hinted at her White House ambitions, saying in a speech once that she would see voters “in 2028“. She recently released a memoir. She has repeatedly expressed her support for Biden and reiterated her support again on X after the debate.
JB Pritzker
Governor of Illinois
As Biden and Trump took the stage last night, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker posted a string of posts on X supporting the president and attacking his Republican rival’s record. “President Biden will always protect reproductive rights . . .,” he wrote. “Remember — Donald Trump isn’t just friends with Vladimir Putin. He wants to BE Vladimir Putin.”
The outspoken governor has been an effective media surrogate for Biden. Now in his second term, some see Pritzker as a potential presidential contender himself.
The billionaire scion of the Pritzker family, which co-founded the Hyatt Hotel Corporation, has spent most of his career in and around politics. In addition to co-founding Pritzker Group Private Capital, an asset manager and venture capital firm, he served as chair of the Illinois Human Rights Commission under disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich and was national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.
First elected to office in 2018, Pritzker has pursued a progressive agenda: he has raised the Illinois minimum wage to $15, legalised recreational marijuana, guaranteed abortions and gender-affirming care, and banned assault weapons.
Seen as affable by some and ruthless by others, he has dominated the state’s internal politics — signing a redistricting that condensed four Republican seats into two, and spending campaign money to prop up unpopular radical pro-Trump candidates in order to smooth the way for Democrats.
Pritzker has not ruled out the possibility of a presidential run, where his personal fortune would help any fundraising difficulties. When asked, he has said the possibilities of Biden stepping out of the way are “remote”, and has reiterated his support for the president.
