Ruben Gallego says Joe Biden needs to prove to him and to voters he's up for a second term

U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego said Thursday that President Joe Biden needs to prove he can do the job if he stays in on the top of the Democratic ticket.

"He needs to prove that he's up for the job, if he stays in, to me and to the voters of Arizona," Gallego, a Democratic member of Congress, said at a campaign event to increase senior voter support in Phoenix on Thursday.

But Gallego acknowledged "there's going to be a lot of hypotheticals altogether."

Biden announced Wednesday he contracted COVID-19, which added to the pressure of Democratic lawmakers' calls for him to step out of the race against former President Donald Trump. Axios reported Thursday that top Democrats say Biden is considering dropping his campaign as soon as the weekend.

The Republican front runner, Kari Lake, said most Americans think Biden is in mental decline and that Gallego's Arizona Democratic colleagues have taken a stronger position on the matter.

"Ruben is hiding from Arizona voters," she said in a statement. "He needs to make clear: Does he support Joe Biden staying in the race? Joe Biden Biden and Ruben Gallego have brought high inflation and open borders to Arizona. We won't forget in November."

Gallego's comments didn't go as far as his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill, Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Greg Stanton. Both recently called for Biden to step aside.

Grijalva, D-Ariz., was the second Democrat in Congress to say Biden needs to exit the White House race.

"What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race," Grijalva said.

Stanton, D-Ariz., followed Grijalva's call, saying a second Trump term in the Oval Office would be devastating.

"The stakes in this election could not be higher. For our country's sake, it is time for the President to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders," Stanton wrote last week on social media.

When pressed, Gallego declined to elaborate how Biden can "prove" that he's up to being the party's nominee.

He said the next steps of Biden's campaign are all hypotheticals. One of the "hypotheticals" some Democrats have talked about is throwing Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., into the mix as a potential candidate to replace Biden as nominee, or as a possible running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris if she ascends to the top of the ticket.

In a recent poll, Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut, was among four Democrats who potentially would pull more votes in battleground states, such as Arizona, than Biden. Kelly voiced his support for Biden and Harris Wednesday in a TV appearance.

A recent FiveThirtyEight poll shows Trump leading Biden in Arizona by 5 percentage points. Biden won Arizona in 2020 a slim margin of fewer than 11,000 votes, making the state a battleground for this election.

Gallego said he loved running with Kelly, and that Kelly is a great public servant, but wouldn't comment further.

Prior to Gallego's call for Biden to prove himself, his Republican Senate opponent Kari Lake continuously linked Gallego to Biden at the Republican National Convention. She said Biden and Gallego are full of "bad ideas."

Gallego and Lake are running for the seat of the retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

Gallego's supporters threw their support behind Biden Thursday at a campaign event in Phoenix that focused on Medicare policy.

Anna Maria Leff, 76, of Tempe, said she is voting for Biden because he is a truthful person. She said young people backing Biden give her hope.

"I have three granddaughters, and it's actually giving me goosebumps to think about what could happen to our country if we don't choose the right people for our government," she said.

Vic Peterson, 74, of Buckeye, said as a veteran, he supports Biden because of his support for unions.

"Joe Biden is the most friendly person working with people in my history," Peterson said.

Republic reporter Ronald J. Hansen contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Ruben Gallego says Biden has to prove he's up for second term