Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., chair of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, expressed support for President Joe Biden on Monday, bolstering Biden’s argument that his base is still behind him amid calls for him to step aside in the race.
President Joe Biden listens to Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada and Chair of the ... [+]
“President Joe Biden is the nominee and has been selected by millions of voters across this country,” Horsford said in a statement that echoed many of Biden’s campaign talking points, including accomplishments such as creating an “equitable economy . . . taking on big corporations” and “protecting the hard fought freedoms, rights and opportunities we’ve earned.”
Voters, Horsford said, “know President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting for them.”
The statement comes as Biden has vowed to stay in the race and is leaning on key supporters, including Black voters and lawmakers who helped propel his 2020 White House win, to buoy his struggling campaign.
Black lawmakers in Congress have largely stood behind Biden as calls from elected Democrats for him to end his 2024 bid continue to trickle out in the wake of his damaging debate performance—so far, not one has called on him to step down, and several influential members, including Reps. Bobby Scott, D-Va. and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., have expressed support for Biden.
Waters told a crowd at Essence Fest in New Orleans Saturday “it ain’t going to be no other Democratic candidate—it’s going to be Biden,” Politico reported Monday, quoting Scott as criticizing Biden’s Democratic detractors for damaging his candidacy and referring to them as a “circular firing squad.”
Appealing to Black voters is a central focus of Biden’s concerted effort to revive his candidacy: he spoke to a Black church in Philadelphia Sunday, gave his first two post-debate interviews to Black radio hosts and made plans to speak at an NAACP convention in Las Vegas next week as part of “a swing through the Southwest focused on engaging Black and Latino voters,” his campaign said in a press release Friday announcing an “aggressive travel schedule” for July.
“We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively. I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process,” Biden wrote in a letter to Congress Monday reiterating his plans to stay in the race. “Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?”
Biden has refused calls for him to step aside in the race, including from at least nine elected Democrats in Congress, some megadonors and a broad coalition of media organizations. On Monday, Biden expressed frustration at “elites in the party” and “big names” who have called on him to resign from his campaign, insisting “the average voter out there still [wants]
Biden adviser and former Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., told Politico Democrats “risk alienating some of their base” by opposing Biden, taking a veiled swipe at Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who is reportedly organizing Senate Democrats to make a joint statement urging Biden to bow out of the race. “I wouldn’t be rushing to do that if I was from Virginia,” Richmond said.
Whether more members of Congress will follow suit with Horsford. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.—whose swing state will help decide the winner of the 2024 presidential race—voiced her support for Biden in a statement shortly after Horsford on Monday. “Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination in a landslide because he fights for working people in this country,” she said.
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