Democrats ought to back former Vice President Joe Biden to run in 2020, as he has “the best chance of beating” President Donald Trump, according to former congressman Steve Israel.
Israel, who represented New York for 16 years in the House of Representatives, wrote in an op-ed released Wednesday by The Hill that Democrats should “stop ruminating over too old or too young, too left or too right, and focus on picking a nominee with the best chance of beating Trump.”
Israel notes that during House elections, Biden would travel to connect with voters in “once-blue, middle-class districts” in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida, all of which Trump won in 2016.
“Even if Biden doesn’t beat Trump in these areas, he forces battle there, distracting the president from trying to reclaim now remorseful voters who gave him the benefit of the doubt in 2016,” he writes.
“Their neighborhoods, factories, downtowns have been buffeted by automation, globalization and an increasingly marginalized middle class,” Israel also notes. “In these places, Donald Trump tapped into voter anxieties destructively, summoning people to fear with a dog whistle. But Biden’s ‘genesis story’ — that narrative explaining who he is, where he came from and what he’s about — is palpable in these places. Trump scares-out his vote by lying, conniving, mocking, blaming, dividing; Biden turns-out his vote with authenticity and dignity.”
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