Democratic insiders in Washington and key primary states expect President Biden to follow through on his intention to stand for re-election and appear to have little appetite for casting him aside, though they expressed concerns about his advanced age and persistently low poll numbers.
The White House has repeatedly said that Mr. Biden, 79, the oldest president to be sworn into office, intends to run for re-election. A person familiar with the president’s advisers’ thinking said they are planning on him running and that the private conversations have matched the public statements. The current discussion is that an announcement would happen after the midterm elections, likely sometime in the spring of 2023, this person said.
That means it will likely be several months before the decision is official, during which Democrats could shift their views on their 2024 preferences. An announcement of another White House bid by former President Donald Trump could also affect the calculus of Mr. Biden and other Democrats.
Plummeting approval ratings, a stalled legislative agenda and surging inflation have fueled questions about whether Democrats would be better off in 2024 with a different standard-bearer. Roughly half of all adults and one-third of Democrats in a March Wall Street Journal poll said they didn’t think Mr. Biden would run again, with many citing his age as the main argument against him running. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll last week found 40% of 2020 Biden voters said he shouldn’t run again compared with 37% who said he should, a reversal from a month earlier.