CNN
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Alana Morris tuned in to last month’s presidential debate hoping to see President Joe Biden “blow away” former President Donald Trump.
Instead, the 44-year-old cardiologist from Atlanta saw a candidate she barely recognized. She became saddened and worried that the president might have had a stroke or some other ailment, and stopped watching the event midway through.
But the disappointment hasn’t deterred her from planning to vote for the president, as she considers the alternative — a second term for Trump — unacceptable.
“Don’t rock the boat unless you have a plan to bring me back to land,” she said. “And by bringing me back to land, you are ensuring that Donald Trump doesn’t become president in January 2025.”
Four years ago, Black voters saved Biden’s challenge for the Democratic presidential nomination after he performed poorly in mostly white early-voting states. Now, support within the Black community from voters in battleground states and Black leaders is one of the last bulwarks against a growing number of lawmakers and donors calling for him to pass the baton.
That support was seen in Georgia, a state crucial to the president’s political success so far: Biden became the first Democrat to win Georgia since 1992, when he defeated Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes.
But that victory will be tough to repeat: In a new memo sent to Democrats this week, the Biden campaign argued that the “clearest path” to victory in November’s election runs through the so-called “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and suggested other battleground states like Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina are less competitive.
Biden’s path to victory in the Peach State this year hinges on the continued support of Black voters, many of whom have said they would rather maintain Biden’s support than have the chance to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s first Black woman candidate. In interviews, the president’s supporters in the state shared a similar message: The stakes in this election are too high to change course now.
“I vote for democracy, and at this point, a convicted felon is not democracy,” Jarita Burdette, 42, of Atlanta, told CNN. “Biden is our candidate, I’m with him.”
Some voters said they believed Biden could lead the White House for another four years and preferred him to other candidates, while many expressed frustration with the spotlight on Biden’s age and record versus Trump’s record and policies.
“Democrats knew four years ago how old Joe Biden was going to be in 2024,” said Michelle Mitchell, a 69-year-old Black Atlanta resident who participated in a CNN roundtable with older voters and opposes efforts to force Biden to step down. “It’s really disappointing that they would pull this last-minute ploy.”
Jayla Koryan, a 26-year-old voter from Atlanta, said her vote in November was aimed at keeping Trump out of office.
She pointed to the former president’s plans to launch a massive deportation operation and criticized his long-standing refusal to condemn the far-right Proud Boys and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Asked if he had concerns about Biden’s age, Koryan replied, “What other options do I have?”
Post-debate polls have found black voters divided on whether the president should step aside or remain the Democratic front-runner. A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released this week found 47% of black voters said Biden should continue campaigning, while 49% said he should hand the nomination over to someone else. A New York Times/Siena College poll found a similar split.
But the same polls suggest that support for Biden to win the nomination is less strong in black communities: A recent Pew Research Center survey found that among Biden supporters, 58% of black voters said both Biden and Trump should be replaced, compared with 84% of Asian voters, 74% of white voters and 67% of Hispanic voters.
Black voter support has long been a deciding factor for Democratic politicians. In 2008, black voters helped Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination, and their high turnout helped him win states like Ohio and North Carolina. In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination with the support of black primary voters in southern states like South Carolina.
In 2020, Biden was expected to lose the primary elections, coming in fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire. However, he came in first in South Carolina with the support of Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn, completely changing the dynamics of the primary elections. According to CNN exit polls, Biden won 61% of the black vote, which made up 56% of the Democratic primary electorate.
As of Friday, more than a dozen lawmakers had called on Biden to pass the baton to a new generation, but support for the president among the Congressional Black Caucus remains publicly strong.
Clyburn said Friday he was “all in” on Biden and that the debate about whether the president should back down should end.
“The debate should be focused on the record of this administration and the alternatives to his election, and let Joe Biden make his own decision about his political future,” Clyburn said on NBC’s “Today Show.” “He’s earned that right.”
Rhonda Briggins, a 51-year-old political activist in Atlanta, said her main goal is to defeat Trump and boost lesser Democratic candidates, and anything else, including calls for Biden to step down, is a distraction.
But Biden’s decision to retain her stems in part from concerns for Harris and his own safety. Briggins said that while Harris is “highly qualified” to be president, he was uneasy about the idea of a vice presidential candidate.
“Sexism is more prevalent than racism in America, and being a black woman you get hit with both,” she said. “Just the idea that it’s an option for her scares a lot of things.”
Other names being mentioned in the media as possible successors to Biden should he step down include California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. For many Biden skeptics, the most logical choice is Harris, who would inherit much of the campaign’s finances and infrastructure and be able to campaign on Biden’s track record.
Morris said Harris was the “obvious choice” and that he would vote for her if she became the nominee. He said he was concerned that independents would not vote.
“We saw in the case of Stacey Abrams in Georgia, where they had a very qualified candidate who had all the qualities,” Morris said, referring to the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2018 and 2022. “She had it all. She was fully qualified. And she didn’t win.”
Some voters are open to Harris and believe she can do the job, but several said they haven’t seen enough of her performance over the past four years to be confident in replacing her.
Robin Gipson, 29, an Atlanta voter who wants Biden to continue in office, said she wasn’t convinced Harris could beat Trump because she hadn’t heard enough from her in recent years.
“I think all I know about Kamala is, ‘Yay, Joe,'” Gipson said, referring to the viral moment when Harris called Biden to congratulate him on his 2020 victory. “Four years, and I haven’t seen anything.”
George Mitchell, 78, of Atlanta, who also attended the roundtable, said he supports Harris because, in his view, everyone is better than Trump.
“I’m rooting for my nephew who’s in third grade,” he said. “I’m rooting for whoever the Democrats put up there.”
