While various people in the Democratic party have expressed the belief that President Joe Biden should be replaced as the 2024 presidential nominee, possibly by Vice President Kamala Harris, many Black and Latinx members have opposed these stances, demonstrating a divide in the party between minorities and the more socially/racially privileged.
Since Biden’s debate performance, many Black and Latinx lawmakers, donors and activists have rallied behind him, maintaining they are, “ridin’ with Biden” no matter what, in the words of one of the most senior Black Democrats in Congress, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina.
Others are concerned that if Biden were to be replaced, so would Harris, going against the will of many minorities in the party, who believe she is a vital leader and symbol of representation.
“I’m in these rooms; I see what they say in conversations,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, said during an Instagram livestream on Thursday night. “A lot of them are not just interested in removing the president. They are interested in removing the whole ticket.”
The sense of urgency among Black and Latinx lawmakers and activists to defend Biden and Harris emerges from a pattern within those who have been calling for the president to step down, as many of them have been predominantly white representatives and an elite class of donors who don’t necessarily back Harris or prioritize the concerns of minority voters.
“To not choose her is a slap in the face to Black women,” Melanie Campbell, chairwoman of the Power of the Ballot Action Fund, an advocacy organization focused on Black voter engagement, told The NY Times. “You are saying to Black women that what we represent is not good enough — not only to stay with the man we voted for, but the woman that most of us advocated for, to be the vice president. You take her down, then you lose the Black women’s vote.”
On Tuesday at the NAACP National Convention, the president received much enthusiasm from a crowd of roughly 4,000 as he condemned Trump’s debate comment about “Black jobs,” building Harris up.
“I know what a Black job is,” Biden said to roaring applause. “It’s the vice president of the United States.”
Meanwhile, a public letter of support organized by Black women with almost 3,000 signatures condemns the fighting within the Democratic Party and calls on Democrats to support the Biden-Harris ticket.
