Wisconsin Democrats waffle on Biden as GOP proclaims unity after Milwaukee convention

As Democratic pressure mounts on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, Wisconsin Democrats have largely continued to walk a fine line — though cracks in support are beginning to show.

Rep. Gwen Moore’s office has said the Milwaukee Democrat supports Biden’s reelection bid but did not respond to questions about whether she has concerns about his viability.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin said she conveyed constituent concerns to the White House but has declined to say whether Biden should remain on the ticket as she has avoided talk of the president.

Rep. Mark Pocan on Friday, however, said he's seen enough. The Madison Democrat joined three other members Friday in calling for Biden to drop out, saying concerns about his ability to lead the ticket "are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign." He became the first Wisconsin Democrat to publicly say Biden should step aside.

Fellow Democratic U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas and Chuy Garcia of Illinois joined Pocan in the public message to the president.

"We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign," the Democrats wrote. "These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month's debate and are now unlikely to change."

The Democratic anxiety is hitting a high note just as Republicans concluded their presidential nominating convention in Milwaukee on Thursday. Republicans sought to present a unified front of support for Trump throughout the last week following the failed assassination attempt against the former president and as their counterparts battle internally over the future of their own presumptive nominee.

Biden, who announced Wednesday he tested positive for COVID, has seen a growing number of Democrats call on him to withdraw in recent days, despite Biden’s public defiance. Top party leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi have privately suggested Biden drop out, according to media reports. The party's convention is scheduled for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

And recent polling shows Biden losing more ground to Trump in key battleground states.

In Wisconsin, top Democratic officials have refrained from publicly calling on Biden to drop out. But they haven’t hidden voters’ uneasiness following Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month.

More: Top Milwaukee Democrats stick with Biden even as worries continue in D.C.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman Ben Wikler has heard the concerns. The current debate around Biden’s age and viability, he suggested, has made it more difficult to refocus the race on a debate over policy differences.

“There's been a kind of boiling conversation since the debate,” Wikler said of party concerns. “And, at the same time, there’s total clarity on how much better Biden is than Trump and on the effectiveness of Biden’s message.”

Wikler declined to say whether he thinks Biden should or would remain the nominee but said he would “fight for the Biden-Harris ticket all the way though.” And he brushed aside questions about whether Biden stepping aside would allow for more policy debate.

“I have a deep level of certainty that in September and October, we’re going to be talking about the stakes in the election,” Wikler said.

Pocan had shown signs of worry about Biden's abilities in recent days.

He told the Journal Sentinel that Democrats in his district are concerned about what a “Trump presidency with an agenda like Project 2025 would mean for real people,” referring to a conservative think tank’s controversial blueprint for a future Republican administration. But he also acknowledged Democratic worries over Biden.

“I’m hearing from people,” Pocan said on Thursday. “If I told you there was a two-hour period of any day this week that someone didn’t reach out to me personally, much less reach out to my office, I would be lying.”

“Mainly it’s just an overall nervousness,” he said. “I think they’re just concerned that we can beat Donald Trump, and they’re concerned right now whether Joe Biden can or not.”

“It’s everything from what they saw in the debate to looking at some polls,” he added. “I absolutely understand that concern.”

He called on Biden to withdraw from the race a day later.

One Wisconsin Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, put it more bluntly:

“It is very hard to see any path for Joe Biden to win the state of Wisconsin today,” the strategist said. “And it’s becoming such that the weakness of his candidacy is undermining other Democrats on the ballot.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have frequently repeated one word at the Republican National Convention since Trump was grazed by a bullet during a failed assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday: unity.

Former South Carolina Nikki Haley, once among Trump’s top primary opponents and a top critic, endorsed him on stage in Milwaukee this week.

And, more locally, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos arrived in Milwaukee and told CBS58 that Trump is “the best man for the job” this November despite once calling Trump’s candidacy a “suicide mission.”

More: At the RNC, convention-goers see the hand of God in Trump's survival

Wisconsin Republicans throughout the past week echoed the new united tone Trump sought to cast over the convention.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson suggested the Trump rally shooting “unified us,” though he forgot to mention that in his convention speech earlier in the week.

And Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming at breakfasts each morning with Wisconsin Republicans painted Democrats as a party in chaos.

“The plain truth of the matter here is that Democrats are a party in disarray,” he said at the start of the convention. “They’re a party in panic right now.”

“By contrast,” Schimming said, “the Republicans are in Milwaukee today unified behind Donald Trump.”

It’s a tone Democrats have sensed, too.

“I think if you can’t have a unified convention after we had this assassination attempt, you’d really have a bunch more serious problems,” Pocan said. “I’m not surprised at all they’re in the place they’re currently in.”

“Now,” he added, “in two weeks, we’ll see — three weeks — whether or not they’re still in that position.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Democrats waffle on Biden as GOP proclaims unity after RNC