'Biden's lack of clear vision for next 4 yrs may hurt his 2024 poll prospects'

TN Ashok

Washington, Dec 21 (IANS) Democrats and allies are worried that US President Joe Biden has not yet laid out his party's agenda for his 2024 Presidential run as any "lack of clear vision" for the next four years is weighing heavily with Latino, young black and progressive voters, political analysts said. 

Biden is entering the election year with strikingly poor ratings among young voters.

Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., is a key strategist of all the Democratic-leaning constituencies who seems to be souring on Biden.

The 26-year-old freshman is convinced that the president is struggling with voters of his background who are yet to hear a compelling agenda from Biden.

They haven't heard anything from Biden on why they should vote for him outlining how he would improve their lives, motivating them to vote him a second term.

"That's the key to the re-election," Frost, who conducts the Biden campaign's advisory board, told NBC News, it's "not enough" to tout the achievements of the last two years or trash likely GOP opponent Donald Trump.

"We also have to talk about what are the plans for 2025, 2026 and beyond. And how does that fit into this future we're fighting for? I think that's really the key right now, especially for young, progressive voters."

Biden is entering the election year with strikingly poor ratings among key Democratic-friendly groups who were critical to his 2020 victory.

A recent NBC News poll found him trailing former President Donald Trump nationally by 44 to 46 per cent — and vastly underperforming his 2020 margins among Black, Latino and young voters under 35.

The poll said his approval rating is a mere 31 per cent among voters under 35, whom Democrats need to carry to win the 2024 election.

Young black voters are not sold on Biden as they said their lives have not improved much under his presidency, and they are not sure that is likely to change in his second term. The contrast with Trump may bring some of them back into the fold. But the risk for Biden is that others could stay home or vote for a third-party candidate.

While the Biden campaign slogan is "finish the job", Democrats believe he needs to lay out what that means by that.

"These are the things that build this broad coalition," Frost said. Voters have valid concerns and they have the right to know in terms of the polling. We have time to fix this. But the thing that people need to realize is we're trying to do better than we did in 2020."

White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed said Biden's agenda includes steps to lower prescription drug costs, tackle price gouging, target junk fees, $35 insulin "for everyone", a federal voting rights law, extending Affordable Care Act subsidies and "defending and strengthening democracy".

--IANS

ash/pgh