The lack of enthusiasm Democratic officials in Michigan are projecting for Biden is a signal that the state apparatus may soon exhibit a similar lethargy.
The biggest of all the questions Joe Biden’s dismal debate performance and the reaction to it raised was whether the Democratic Party was capable of taking a large, collective risk, or was it, too, so weak and fractious that it would ultimately succumb to paralysis. So far, fractiousness and paralysis have prevailed. But Michigan’s most prominent Democrats may be challenging that status quo.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that when Biden descends on the state next week to deliver a campaign address focused on the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” most of the party’s most local luminaries won’t be there with him:
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is co-chair of Biden’s campaign, will be out of the state. Sen. Gary Peters, a steadfast supporter of Biden, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is vying for Michigan’s open Senate seat, will also be absent from the event. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, whom Biden actively courted during last year’s strikes and who met with him and other union leaders Wednesday, is traveling for a conference.
“Meanwhile,” the dispatch continued, “Rep. Hillary Scholten, who is seeking reelection in a battleground district in western Michigan, joined a growing list of national Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside for another candidate.” Indeed, as of this writing, four new members of the House Democratic Caucus came out with statements calling on Biden to cede the Democratic presidential nomination after the close of a Thursday night presidential press conference that was billed as an opportunity for the president to reassure his fellow Democrats.
And yet, at the moment, only 17 congressional Democrats have called for Biden to step aside. The president and his inner circle could easily dismiss the significance of such a modest uprising. The united front posed by Michigan’s Democratic elite, however coy they’re being about it, is different. The lack of enthusiasm these officials are projecting for Biden’s candidacy is a signal that the state party apparatus may soon exhibit a similar lethargy. At the very least, local Democrats in a must-win state will take their cues. It’s hard to envision a path to the presidency for Biden that doesn’t include Michigan’s electoral votes, and the Democratic Party’s most prominent officials are implying — for now, at least — that the president will have to carry that burden on his own.
The problem Michigan’s Democrats face is that Biden and his allies are probably correct to assume that if the president sticks it out to the convention, all his detractors will come crawling back. The logic of the general election will probably fulfill the wisdom of that calculation. But the damage the party is doing to Biden’s brand, not just among persuadable independents but the Democratic base, cannot be undone. Whitmer, Peters, and Slotkin — to say nothing of the rest of the Democratic Party establishment — probably know that. But does the president?