California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday told anxious Michigan Democrats that President Biden was fully committed to his reelection campaign during a meeting at the White House the previous day, and Newsom gently suggested his party members take a deep breath and rally behind the sitting president.
“What I want to convince people is not to be fatalists, not to be seduced by these negative thoughts,” Newsom told more than 100 Democrats gathered in South Haven, Michigan, for the Independence Day holiday.
Democrats have had a tough week since Biden's shaky performance in last week's debate, with calls for him to drop out of the race exposing rifts within the party.
Newsom was in the key battleground state of Michigan campaigning on Biden's behalf, but it was hard to ignore the fact that he was one of the names being considered as possible candidates to replace Biden, along with Michigan's Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer.
Newsom stuck to party line Thursday that Biden remains the nominee and Democrats have no interest in replacing him. The California governor also gave no indication that he was interested in the post.
“I believe in this guy,” Newsom said, “I believe in his character. I believe he's been one of the most transformative presidents of our lifetime.”
Newsom was one of several Democratic governors who met with the president in person at the White House on Wednesday, and he came to Michigan with a message of reassurance for his party's supporters. Sure, the debate wasn't great, Newsom acknowledged. But the president he met at the White House on Wednesday “was the Joe Biden I remembered from two years ago,” he said.
Still, Democrats were nervous watching last week's debate. Lifelong Democrat Mike Steele, 76, said he had concerns about Biden's age and said he would advise the president to replace Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket in 2024. Steele, a former teacher, said he would have given the president a D for his debate performance.
“It was embarrassing. It was scary. It made me angry,” Steele said of the debate. “I couldn't sit still. I had to get up and leave the room a couple of times.”
Still, Steele said Biden was a good president and that he would vote for him again if the nominations remained the same. The stakes in the election are huge, Steele said, and democracy itself is on the line.
Newsom's visit underscored the importance of Michigan to both campaigns. Trump won the state in 2016 and Biden won it in 2020. Democrats see winning the state again this year as key to keeping the White House. Recent polls in Michigan have shown a close race, with Trump generally leading by small margins.
Jan Petersen, a 67-year-old grass-fed cattle farmer in southwest Michigan, said she appreciated Newsom's reassuring message to Democrats. She said she was disappointed with the reporting about Biden after the debate and hoped he would continue in the race.
“I'm not complaining, but I feel like it's highlighting the wrong point,” Petersen said.
Newsom spoke in Van Buren County, a lakeside county of 75,000 people in southwest Michigan. The county is strongly Republican, and families dressed in red, white and blue were celebrating the holiday Thursday in Southaven's downtown, within walking distance of each other. Trump won Van Buren County by 12 percentage points in 2020, but Whitmer came much closer in her reelection two years ago, when she lost the county by 2 percentage points.
The rally in Southaven came a day after First Lady Jill Biden galvanized Democrats at the opening of a campaign office 200 miles north in Traverse City, Michigan, where some Democrats said they wanted Biden to step aside, but Jill Biden said he wanted to continue in the race.
Mary Anderson, 74, who wore a “I Love Joe!” badge at Newsom's speech, said she was excited to vote for the president for a second term and “absolutely” wants him to stay in the race. She said she believes he will win Michigan again.
“He represents and supports all of my values,” said Anderson, a retired teacher and Democratic activist in a nearby county. “I know a lot of smart 80-year-olds.”
It's unclear how Democrats would choose a nominee if Biden were to step down. One of the first decisions Democrats will likely make is whether to make Harris their nominee or open the race to another candidate, such as Newsom.
A reporter asked Newsom after Thursday's speech whether he would support Harris as his running mate if Biden withdraws. The governor denied the premise of that question.
“What happened last night was about closing off any doubt or ambiguity, so I don't like to talk about what-ifs,” Newsom said, referring to the White House meeting.
“Joe Biden is our president,” the governor added. “He said he's going to do everything in his power to get this done.”