President Biden has been dogged by low approval ratings in
recent years and also with some concerns with voters regarding
his age.
Some Democrats are saying, well,
hey, could we possibly run someone else who may have
a better shot at defeating former President Donald
Trump? So who could potentially step up to be a
alternative should Biden leave the race?
Business Insider identified 7 potential alternatives.
My name is John Dorman,
and I'm a senior politics reporter at Business Insider.
A potential alternative to Biden could be New Jersey Senator
Cory Booker.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey is really one of
the more interesting figures in the Democratic Party.
He really rose to fame when he ran for mayor
of Newark.
I was a young lawyer,
but thinking I was going to,
you know, just continue to represent people who couldn't afford
lawyers in a tough neighbourhood in the inner city.
But the community there, community leaders,
really pushed me to get into politics.
He was running against in a trench.
Democratic machine, anyone? He had an interesting profile.
He grew up in suburban New Jersey,
outside of Newark. He went to Stanford University,
he went to Yale Law School.
He was really seen as the future of the party
really early on about a lot of figures.
He was New Jerseys first black senator and he served
there since then.
The power of connection is always what sort of fires
me up.
Cory Booker ran for president in
2020. When he jumped in,
he was a top tier candidate.
I'm uniquely qualified to get rid of Donald Trump here.
Are we going to allow somebody to divide us,
to degrade us, to demean us,
or are we going to come together as a country
to a sense of common purpose and common cause again?
But he also kind of struggled in many ways in
a crowded field,
similar to Kamala Harris and a lot of other candidates.
So he ended his campaign.
And so far, he's been a really strong supporter of
the Biden administration.
If he were to potentially step in for Biden,
there are several things that would go well for him.
He has really high name recognition throughout the country.
He really went viral for his questioning of Katanji Brown
Jackson.
I'm sorry. You're, you're, you're a person that is so
much more than your race and gender.
You're a Christian, you're mom,
you're, you're, you're an intellect.
You're love books. But for me,
I'm sorry, I, I it's hard for me not to
look at you and not see my mom.
Some things that probably would be detrimental to him is
that even with that sort of recognition,
you would have to run a campaign in just a
few months.
It takes a lot to run a national race,
and stepping in as the presidential candidate is a big
leap.
A potential alternative from a key Midwestern state is Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan is a really unique candidate.
She was someone who was a former state lawmaker.
When Gretchen Whitmer won the state in
2018 after eight years of Republican control,
it was a big deal.
Since then, her profile has exploded re.
The governor's going to fight for our reproductive breaks,
not give them away.
One of the things for Gretchen Whitmer that attracted a
lot of national attention was a kidnapping plot.
A group of militia men conspired to kidnap her in
2020. They were upset about coronavirus restrictions in the state.
The FBI announced the plot and the men were subsequently
arrested.
Attorney General Dana Nessel was joined by officials from the
Department of Justice and the FBI to announce state and
federal charges against thirteen members of two militia groups
who are preparing to kidnap and possibly kill me.
One thing that really benefits Gretchen Whitmer is the fact
that Michigan is the key to Democratic chances this year.
It's a must win state for Biden.
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is another really interesting figure
in the party.
She ran for the Senate in 2006 and
she wanted a landslide. And pretty much since then,
she's won her elections pretty easily.
She ran for president in 2020,
and she famously had a speech that she was giving
it during the snow.
A lot of people may remember that we don't let
a little snow stop us.
We don't let a little cold stop us.
Like, are you guys even cold?
She's someone who really over performed expectations in the New
Hampshire primary and that really kind of kept her campaign
going.
We are so close. I woke up this morning and
found out that in one of the national polling Emerson
polls here in New Hampshire,
we'd gone up to #3 since the debate.
But when she faltered in South Carolina shortly afterwards,
she ended her campaign. Since then,
she's been a really big supporter of the administration.
Today I am ending my campaign and endorsing Joe Biden.
If she were somehow the nominee to replace Biden,
there's lots of things that will be going well for
her.
She has a moderate profile.
She's not someone that really throws lobs or is incendiary.
She has a really great relationship with Republicans.
I have brought people with me who are moderate Republicans
and independents in every single election.
I have one in the reddest of red Congressional District
and with
she's a proven vote getter in her state,
especially with independence. She's popular with Democrats there.
She's a very broad based appeal.
Some things that would be going against her it's mostly
just recognition.
She doesn't have the name ID as you know,
a Kamala Harris, a high profile Democratic figure who could
be an option as California governor Gavin Newsom.
Gavin Newsom is one of the highest profile Democrats in
the country.
He represents California, of course,
in almost every single category of goal setting.
California has exceeded the goals.
Gavin Newsom has been one of the biggest advocates of
tackling climate change.
I'm a little bit exhausted
that we have to continue to bait this issue.
This is a climate dam emergency.
This is real. He's someone who has debated Ron DeSantis,
former Republican presidential candidate. He's willing to really go in
the ring with a lot of conservatives.
He knows how to go against Republicans.
He's not somebody that's willing to back down.
He also can do it in a way that isn't
off putting to swing voters.
He's someone who can speak about reproductive rights,
who can speak about climate change,
who can speak about education,
who can speak about healthcare in a way that people
can connect to it.
Some of the things that may hurt Gavin Newsom on
a national level is also the things that some people
say are beneficial for him.
Some people may not think that him being as combative
for Republicans is a good thing.
Some people may think that that turns off swing voters.
There's some voters who may not want to vote for
a candidate from California.
There were some Democrats who were pushing him,
saying, hey, you should run.
You came out and refuted it and said,
hey, I'm just here promoting Democratic values.
Joe Biden is very well suited,
and it's a strong person who can do that.
I know Joe Biden know what he's accomplished in the
last 3 1/2 years.
I know what he's capable of.
1 alternative could be Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina.
Governor Roy Cooper is one of the most successful Democrats
probably in modern North Carolina history.
He started as a state lawmaker.
He became attorney general, where he served for 16 years,
and then he ran for governor and he won Medicaid.
Expansion in North Carolina has been a long and winding
road,
and it goes back to
President and Obama who called to congratulate us.
By the way, he's from that moderate cloth,
the Democratic Party, but he's able to communicate very well
with rural Democrats,
with Democrats in suburban areas,
independents and Democrats in urban areas as well.
I hear from people in our state who say I'm
tired of being on the late night comedy shows.
I want our state to head in the right direction.
I want my state back.
Do you? I know you do.
The pros of him potentially being a Democratic presidential candidate
event in
2028 would be the fact that he's able to really
win over a lot of the swing and independent voters
that Democrats need to win in swing states.
The last thing we need is a reckless president of
the United States.
If he were to somehow step in for Biden,
something that would hurt him would just be the lack
of name identification.
Governor Westmore of Maryland, it's another really compelling figure.
He was an Army veteran.
He was elected in 2022.
He's someone who was the first time candidate and he
ran for office basically running on a lot of really
core Democratic issues.
One of the things that he's really tried to instill
a lot of Democratic voters is that patriotism isn't just
for one particular party,
one particular group. It's something that's a shared value among
Americans.
We do not have to choose
between being a safe state
and a just one that
Maryland can and we will
be both. Since he took office in
2023, Governor Westmore has been really focused on housing affordability
in Maryland.
He's also been focused on eliminating the child poverty in
the state.
Governor Westmore's national profile really heightened during the tragic bridge
collapse on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
He was on the news,
giving press conferences daily. It's imperative that we get the
port of Baltimore back up and going.
And it's not just about how are we supporting Maryland.
This is about how we support the American economy.
For a lot of people,
that was their first view of Westmore and a lot
of issues that were going on in Maryland because of
that bridge collapse.
Governor Westmore is a very strong ally of President Biden
and Vice President Harris.
And by the way, our vice president is lights out.
The work that she is doing around gun violence right
now is spectacular.
It is first in the country kind of work.
When some people suggested that he could be a potential
candidate,
he said no, I'm supporting the administration.
Perhaps the most recognizable potential alternative is Vice President Kamala
Harris.
Kamala Harris would be a natural successor.
Kamala Harris is the first Indian American vice president.
She's the first Black American vice president,
and she's also, of course,
the first female vice president.
She was a former District Attorney of San Francisco.
She was a former state attorney general of California.
Justice should not depend on how you look,
on the color of your skin,
on how much money you make.
It shouldn't depend on where you were born or the
language your grandmother speaks or what political party you belong
to.
She was elected to the US Senate in
2016. She ran for president in
2020. We need a new commander in chief
and she was in many ways a top tier candidate.
Kamala Harris's 2020 campaign started off with really lofty expectations.
She had a lot of support from female voters.
She was getting some steam from black voters and a
lot of people were really excited about her candidacy,
thinking that she could be the first female president.
A lot of people thought she could have a broad
based campaign like a really rival Joe Biden.
And that now viral moment when Kamala Harris confronted Joe
Biden about desegregation efforts in the 1970s,
that was also something that really got her higher up
in the polls.
It was hurtful
to hear you talk about the reputations of two United
States senators who built their reputations and career on the
segregation of race in this country.
But it was just really hard for her to break
out saying that there were other center left candidates who
were running.
She left the race and then she was tapped by
Joe Biden to be his vice president Romney mate.
And when they won, she made history in that respect.
She's also a candidate who has a lot of connections
with Black voters,
with female voters. She's currently really the face of the
administration's push for reproductive rights.
She's gone all across the country campaigning against not only
Republican policies on that issue,
but against the Supreme Court decision which overturned Roe versus
Wade.
Donald Trump's friends in the United States Congress are trying
to pass a National Bank.
If she were to somehow take over for Biden,
everybody knows who she is.
So she wouldn't need a natural introduction.
But there are some things that are going against her.
She also would still be tied to the administration.
A lot of people are going to want a fresh
face.
President Joe Biden is committed to running for a second
term.
It's something that he's always wanted.
It's very unlikely that he would drop out at this
particular point,
but it's not unprecedented for a president not to run
for RE election.
In 1952, Harry Truman decided not to run for re
election.
I have served my country long and I think efficiently
and honestly.
I shall not accept a RE nomination.
I do not feel that it is my duty to
spend another four years in the White House.
In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson declined to run for re
election.
He was really weighed down by the Vietnam War and
his polling ratings had declined.
I shall not see
and I will not accept
the nomination of my party for another term as your
president.
In the unlikely situation that President Biden
left the race before the Democratic National Convention,
a new nominee would have to be selected at the
convention in August in Chicago.
It would be a very,
very chaotic process.