A new polling memo has oiled the gears of a drive by top Democrats to drop President Joe Biden as party nominee ahead of the November election.
Put together by BlueLabs Analytics, the document shows that alternative candidates currently have an average three-point lead on the president, and it has been widely circulated among officials behind efforts to push him out, Politico reported.
Results come from interviews with more than 15,000 voters in seven battleground states including Pennsylvania, where rival Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt on Saturday, and where the Republican VP pick J.D. Vance will now be stationed for the next few months in an effort to challenge Blue Wall support.
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“The shooting clearly helped the strategy of Biden’s team to run out the clock,” one top Democrat told Politico on Monday. “But it’s not over. Senior D leaders have not changed their minds that Biden needs to get out. I think a final push will come once the R convention ends on Thursday.”
Further insights from the data include that most voters are looking for a “fresh face,” with the memo stating, “those more closely tied to the current administration perform relatively worse than other tested candidates.”
That’s bad news for supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket—and a ray of hope to those backing candidates from further afield. The strongest contenders at present are, according to the memo, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who all polled ahead of Biden “by roughly 5 points across battleground states.”
“Quiet efforts continue to urge the president to step aside, and team Biden remains dug in,” a source told Politico.
