TRICKLE DOWN POLITICS — Today, Rep. Adam Schiff, a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who is likely to be California’s next senator, joined the roster of prominent Democrats calling on Joe Biden to bow out of the presidential race. Biden continues to insist he isn’t going anywhere. He has said that the pressure to withdraw is being driven by party elites. Yet there is now growing evidence of deep unease with his candidacy at the grassroots level, where his June 27 debate performance rattled the confidence of many of the party’s foot soldiers. Last Friday, several progressive fundraising and organizing coalitions — including the Sunrise Movement and the Movement Voter Project (MVP) — called for Biden to pass the baton amid concerns about Biden’s viability in key battleground states. Organizing groups like these were critical to this victory in 2020, helped to spark turnout among young voters. But reports from the field, some of these groups say, reveal that enthusiasm among this demographic is waning – particularly in the wake of a debate that raised questions about Biden’s mental acuity and fitness to take on Trump. “For the past many months, we’ve described our biggest challenge in beating Trump as closing the Biden enthusiasm gap,” MVP director of communications Zo Tobi said. “That gap since the debate has become the Grand Canyon.” An AP-NORC poll released today showed that 65 percent of Democratic voters think the president should withdraw and allow his party to select a different candidate. Younger Democrats are especially restive: Those between the ages of 18 and 44 report being very dissatisfied with Biden by a more than 2-to-1 margin over Democrats over 45. “The sentiment regarding the Biden administration is not new news,” Rico Ocampo, organizing lead for Make the Road Action in Nevada — a canvassing and voter mobilization group that has itself yet to call directly for Biden to step down — said regarding voter frustration. “We hear it every day when we talk to voters and when we’re canvassing.” The Biden campaign isn’t worried, as they argue that their fundraising and volunteer efforts have been strong in the past two weeks. “On every metric that matters, data shows it did nothing to change the American people’s perception, our supporters are more fired up than ever, and Donald Trump only reminded voters why they fired him four years ago and failed to expand his appeal beyond his MAGA base,” Biden for President campaign chair Jen O’Malley said in a statement. However, MVP said post-debate reports from battleground state voter mobilization groups have raised alarm bells, prompting their escalation to call for Biden to drop out. In a public statement that was also sent to 50,000 donors, the group revealed that 74 percent of local grassroots leaders they surveyed want Biden to withdraw, as confidence in him plummets among swing-state voters — a group that includes both undecided and previously Democratic voters. Meanwhile, Poder NC Action, a Latinx-focused advocacy and voter outreach organization in North Carolina, called on the Democratic National Committee and pledged delegates to act against Biden at the August convention. “In order to maintain the voter turnout of 2020 and even increase it, we need the Executive Committee of the DNC to put the well-being of our entire nation ahead of any one individual,” the group said in a statement. Irene Godinez, the founder and co-executive director of Poder NC Action, said she felt a dip in Democratic enthusiasm the day after the debate at Biden’s rally in Raleigh as organizers struggled to generate turnout. “The audience was not as dynamic and diverse as it was maybe even a year ago,” Godinez said. “That’s a clear signal to the Democratic Party that if you can’t even rile up your own base to show up to an event the day after a pretty significant moment in the candidacy of your person, there is something really urgent that needs to happen in order to change course.” Grassroots groups staying neutral on Biden agree that the debate had reverberations – but say that many have actually been positive. Field Team 6, a national voter registration group, has shifted their social media messaging to broader themes like personal freedoms and democracy instead of specific candidates, which they have found to be more effective. Voter outreach organization Swing Left reports heightened anxiety among Democratic volunteers, which has at least translated into one beneficial effect: an increased level of volunteer activity. “We’re experiencing fall levels of activism at this early moment in the summer following the debate, in terms of people signing up to volunteer and donating,” Swing Left executive director Yasmin Radjy said. Even so, many grassroots organizers have directed volunteers to avoid mentioning Biden in their voter outreach, finding that his name disengages voters and undercuts their efforts. Instead, these groups have focused on issue-based messaging surrounding the Republican Party’s Project 2025, a path which MVP warns is unsustainable in the absence of a compelling presidential candidate. “We can’t speak for everyone, but many local voter engagement groups in swing states have been contorting themselves, doing electoral gymnastics, to try to elect Biden without talking about Biden,” Tobi said. “The truth is that they’ve been sounding the alarm about this for a long time, but it took until the debate for people to listen.” New Disabled South Rising, a disability advocacy organization focused on Southern states, slammed Biden’s debate performance, saying it’s crippling their ability to rally support for Democrats at the congressional, state, and local levels. “People have been saying, ‘I’m hearing a lot of what to vote against, and not a lot of what to vote for,’” Dom Kelly, the co-founder, president and CEO of New Disabled South Rising, said. “There’s deep concern that if Biden is the nominee, and he’s not a strong top of the ticket, it’s not going to translate down.” MVP senior state strategy director Javier Morillo said a change at the top of the ticket is needed for the Democrats to reignite enthusiasm, especially among younger disaffected voters. “The risk-assessments are paralyzing everybody,” Morillo said. “This could be a moment to actually really shift things. Although people are anxious about what could happen next, more people think we need a big change than not.” In the meantime, says Tobi, Democrats and progressives must do more to support organizers on the ground, regardless of who is at the top of the ticket. “There was a sense of resignation that [Biden] is the horse we’re riding on and we can’t pick a new horse, so we’ve just got to ride this horse off the cliff.” Tobi said. “Since the debate, it has created an opening for more and more people of conscience who desperately want to prevent a second Trump term to say, ‘maybe it’s not too late; maybe we can change the course we’re on while there’s still time.’” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at amathur@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @AnushaMathur4.
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