President Joe Biden secured the 2024 Democratic nomination and hopes to win votes for reelection in November.
Biden won the Utah Democrat primary held March 5, after winning 86.9% of the Democrat vote. Following his Super Tuesday performance, Democrat Dean Phillips dropped out of the race.
Mary Singer, a political science student at BYU, shared her analysis of the 2024 election. “I’m a registered Democrat and I’m likely going to vote Democrat this election,” she said. “It isn’t out of a love for Joe Biden.”
Singer’s concern mirrors a poll done by CNN six months ago finding two-thirds of Democrats want a nominee other than Joe Biden.
“This is the first presidential election that I am old enough to vote in and it’s disappointing,” Singer said.
However, Singer said despite his shortcomings, other Democrats would have hurt themselves by running against him in a primary.
“It would have been a dangerous move for other Democrats to run against Joe Biden. It would sabotage their careers,” Singer said.
David R. Mayhew, a political scientist, argued this same idea — running against a political opponent in your own party is rarely successful.
With recent polling suggesting Donald Trump has an early lead in swing states, Singer also made her prediction for the outcome of the election in November
“I think there is a decent chance it’s Trump again,” Singer said.
Sophia Erickson, another BYU student and a registered Democrat, expressed similar sentiments.
“I’ve been really unimpressed with Joe Biden’s behavior, especially concerning the ongoing war in Palestine. I think he has taken a lot of questionable approaches,” Erickson said.
She continued by saying Biden’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a big factor for her and other Democrat voters her age.
“I have observed a lot of disillusionment with Biden, particularly because of his position on Israel and with his failure to follow up with a lot of his promises,” Erickson said.
With enough delegates to clinch their party’s nominations, Trump and Biden will face off again this fall. The general presidential election will be November 5 this year.
Those who want to vote and aren’t registered can do so at vote.utah.gov.
