Mass. delegates explain why they’re backing Biden in new survey

Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu greet President Biden at Logan Airport in December 2023. (Image via Mass. Governor's Flickr feed)

While President Biden faces unprecedented calls from within his party to step down as the Democratic nominee, members of the Massachusetts delegation who are headed to the national convention in Chicago appear largely supportive of Biden staying at the top of the ticket, according to a new survey.

The survey of delegates , conducted by the MassINC Polling Group for Commonwealth Beacon , ran from Friday through Monday. The survey coincided with an assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump that upended American politics and overtook a focus on – and widespread Democratic teeth-gnashing over – Biden’s age and ability to beat his Republican opponent in November.

If a presidential nominee drops out, what happens to states’ ballots?

Responses show a Massachusetts delegation mostly supporting the president (62%), while about 15% of respondents said Biden should drop out and another 23% said they were unsure or preferred not to say.

The survey allowed for open-ended comments, and nearly all who offered comments, whose responses were anonymized, expressed firm support for the president and took shots at what they see as a media unduly focused on the age issue. If elected to a second term, and if he serves out the full four years, Biden would leave office at the age of 86.

A majority of Democratic voters nationwide now say they think Biden is too old for a second term.

“Instead of focusing on the signs of aging in Biden, the media should focus on Trump’s lies, malapropisms, illogical statements, and hateful messages,” one delegate wrote. “We need the media’s cooperation in revealing Trump to be the immoral threat to democracy that he is.”

Another added: “In general, members of Congress calling for the President to withdraw when he’s already said he intends to stay in the race is counterproductive and weakens the nominee unnecessarily.”

Massachusetts Democrats will send 116 delegates – 92 of which are pledged to Joe Biden – and eight alternates to the party convention in Chicago in late August.

Just over 50 delegates began the survey, with 42, or 36% of the total, completing it in its entirety, weighing in anonymously on their presidential preferences. The numbers are not necessarily representative of the delegation, but they are illustrative of what’s on their minds.

Some may have been wary of giving their view, even with the promised anonymity. Publicly, Massachusetts Democrats have sent mixed messages to the Biden camp, with Gov. Maura Healey saying the president should “carefully evaluate” whether he can beat Trump. Congressmen Seth Moulton, Stephen Lynch and Jake Auchincloss have raised concerns about Biden after the disastrous debate in June, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren backed Biden in her public comments.

A significant number of the delegates have ties to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration and political operation. “I hear a lot of excitement about wanting to make sure we are getting to the point where things are official,” Wu said this week. “And I think the stakes remain as high as ever in terms of the need for this Democratic ticket to be successful.” She added that she continues to support Biden as the nominee.

“This survey puts some hard numbers to the speculation and offers a window into what delegates want when names aren’t attached,” said Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group. “There’s no recent precedent for the situation the party is in, so it’s hard to apply any conventional wisdom to the numbers. But, intuitively, it seems like Biden would want more of his own party insiders thinking he will win and pressing for him to stay in.”

The debate over Biden’s ability to weather a grueling campaign left the headlines only one day into the survey period. On Saturday afternoon, an attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally injured former President Donald Trump’s ear, killed one attendee, and critically wounded two others.

The days after that saw admonitions to lower the political temperature, with calls for Biden to drop out muted by statements of sympathy for the victims that segued into Democrats calling for better gun control and charges from Republican elected officials – including now vice presidential pick J.D. Vance – that the party’s characterization of Trump as a threat to democracy “directly led” to the rally shooting. Investigators have not yet established the gunman’s specific motive.

The debate over Biden appears to be resurfacing now. Days before Democratic National Convention members were scheduled to meet and expected to take a virtual roll call vote to nominate Biden weeks ahead of the convention, some Democrats, including Moulton , are pushing back on the plan. While not outright calling for the president to step aside in favor of another candidate, the opponents argue the vote would unnecessarily cut off opportunity to consider non-Biden alternatives.

Alternatives exist, with 67% of respondents identifying Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate they would be most likely to support should Biden drop out, followed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at 33%. Harris is also the candidate they believe has the best chance of defeating Trump in November at 53%.

Other possibilities include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michelle Obama, and Pete Buttigieg, drew support in the low teens. The response to former Gov. Deval Patrick was underwhelming – just three delegates who responded to the survey said they were open to considering him.

The Democratic delegates surveyed also offered a rosier assessment of Biden’s chances than current neck-and-neck polling suggests, with 64% of the delegates who responded to the survey saying they thought Biden is more likely to win the race.

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

The post Mass. delegates explain why they’re backing Biden in new survey appeared first on Rhode Island Current .