[Politico] The left is already looking to 2024. Some want to see a Biden primary challenge.

Happy New Year!

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/01/progressives-2024-primary-challenge-526299

The left is already looking to 2024. Some want to see a Biden primary challenge.
“Will there be a progressive challenger? Yes,” said one prominent Democrat.
By HOLLY OTTERBEIN
01/01/2022 07:00 AM EST

When Joe Biden first came into office, progressives said he could be the next FDR.

Now, as Biden’s relationship with the left has come under strain, liberals are talking about treating him like former President Jimmy Carter instead — and mapping out a Democratic primary challenge in 2024.

“Will there be a progressive challenger? Yes,” said Jeff Weaver, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ former presidential campaign manager.

Weaver stresses that he is not advocating for such a primary campaign. But the chatter about a left-wing challenge to Biden, which was virtually nonexistent weeks ago, has suddenly burst into public view in the wake of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) killing the president’s climate and social spending bill.

“He’s deeply unpopular. He’s old as ****. He’s largely been ineffective, unless we’re counting judges or whatever the hell inside-baseball scorecard we’re using. And I think he’ll probably get demolished in the midterms,” said Corbin Trent, co-founder of the progressive No Excuses PAC and former communications director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “People will smell opportunity, and D.C. is filled with people who want to be president.”

No one now in office — and none of the top-tier presidential contenders from 2020 — is viewed as a serious prospect to take on Biden. Nor is there any expectation that Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, both of whom have enjoyed a significant amount of influence in the Biden administration, would primary Biden. Few seriously think Ocasio-Cortez would risk her political capital in a long-shot challenge to the president, either.

Instead, liberals believe lesser-known candidates are more likely to primary Biden if he seeks a second term, such as former Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner, 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson or millionaire and $18-an-hour minimum wage advocate Joe Sanberg.

“Yes, but someone like Nina Turner or Marianne Williamson. Doubt anyone currently elected," said one prominent progressive when asked if someone from the left would run against Biden.

The fact that any primary challenge at all is now openly being discussed demonstrates how disappointed some progressives are about Biden’s presidency. It’s also a reflection of Biden’s weakness in the polls and his advanced age — the same factors that are driving more traditional and moderate Democrats to talk privately about scenarios if Biden doesn’t run for reelection as promised.

“I don’t think the country nor certainly not progressives in the party, who all tend to be younger, are going to sit on the sidelines,” said Mark Longabaugh, a progressive ad-maker who worked as a consultant for Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Weaver argued that a liberal challenge wouldn’t be a “repudiation” of Biden but rather the result of the Democratic Party moving left: “Progressives are ultimately ascendant. And if nothing else, a progressive running who gets a lot of support will demonstrate that the ideas that the progressive movement embraces are, in fact, popular.”

Though a progressive challenger would face an almost impossible task — despite his flagging poll numbers overall, Biden is still supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters — even a symbolic candidate could cause political trouble for the president.

If a left-winger primaries Biden, Trent predicted that “it’ll be a bigger primary than people anticipate — I think it’ll be like a Jimmy Carter primary.” Ted Kennedy, a liberal, won close to a dozen states during his 1980 challenge of Carter, who then went on to lose reelection.

When Sanders himself reportedly considered running against then-President Barack Obama ahead of his 2012 reelection campaign, the Obama team was alarmed because “every president who has gotten a real primary has lost a general [election].”

No candidate of Kennedy’s stature has even hinted at mounting a bid. “Progressives in the House, in the Senate, in the Progressive Caucus are not talking about primarying Biden,” said an aide to a senior House progressive.

If Biden did face a left-wing challenge, even from a lesser-known figure, it would mark a dramatic turnaround in his relationship with progressives. Though Biden was not their candidate — and liberals were deeply disappointed watching Sanders come close to winning the nomination only to falter — they have ended up being among the president’s staunchest allies. Top progressive aides helped elect Biden, and liberal House and Senate members have strongly defended his agenda in Congress.

“President Biden and his senior team have made a concerted effort to reach out to me since Sen. Sanders’ campaign ended and seek input into legislation and strategy,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a former Sanders campaign co-chair. “He wants to implement a bold progressive vision, and he will have my enthusiastic support in 2024 so we have eight years to do it.”

Biden already looks to be trying to make amends with the left. Since Manchin axed Build Back Better, the president has acceded to two major demands from progressive lawmakers and activists: He extended the pandemic-related moratorium on student loan payments and recently offered his clearest and most direct support for doing away with the filibuster to push through voting rights legislation.

“The president and the full spectrum of the party are working to deliver on Build Back Better, including strong collaboration with progressives and the left,” said a Biden campaign alum.

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more at the link

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is there any appetite at this point for Tulsi Gabbard? otherwise I'd have to go with Pete or Klobuchar

 

it does seem that way unfortunately

 

more likely:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand would lose to AOC in primary, ex-staffer says

https://nypost.com/2022/01/01/sen-kirsten-gillibrand-would-lose-to-aoc-in-primary-ex-staffer/