{"id":38270,"date":"2024-07-09T19:22:38","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T23:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=38270"},"modified":"2024-07-09T19:22:38","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T23:22:38","slug":"cronkite-news-arizona-delegates-stand-behind-joe-biden-ahead-of-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/07\/09\/cronkite-news-arizona-delegates-stand-behind-joe-biden-ahead-of-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Arizona delegates stand behind Joe Biden ahead of convention"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Joe<\/a>
President Joe Biden gives a speech at the Tempe Arts Center in September 2023. File photo by Kevinjonah Paguio \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n
Arizona Democratic delegates reject calls for Joe Biden to quit presidential race after debate stumbles raise questions<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, July 9, 2024<\/div>\r\n
By Benjamin Adelberg <\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C. — Arizona Democrats who\u2019ll serve as convention delegates are standing by President Joe Biden despite widespread concerns about his ability to serve four more years or fend off rival Donald Trump.

<\/P>\r\nLast week, Tucson Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva became the second Democrat<\/a> in Congress to publicly call for the president to quit the race.

<\/P>\r\nBut for delegates who\u2019ll converge on Chicago in six weeks for the Democratic National Convention, loyalty to Biden, pragmatism about what a last-minute scramble would say to voters, and a sense of responsibility to the party are paramount.

<\/P>\r\nFor some, the pile-on has been outright offensive.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIndigenous communities and Native communities do not publicly humiliate their elders the way the media has,\u201d said delegate April Ignacio<\/a>, who\u2019s running to be the first Indigenous woman elected to the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

<\/P>\r\nLorenzo Sierra, a former state House member from Avondale, recalled being on a ventilator weeks before the 2020 election. Doctors had given him only a slim chance of surviving a bout with COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic.

<\/P>\r\nBiden called \u201cin our darkest hour\u201d to tell Sierra\u2019s wife that he and the first lady were praying for Sierra.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cPresident Biden did not give up on me, and I will not give up on him,\u201d Sierra said. \u201cPresident Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris form the team America needs to ensure we will not fall into a MAGA dictatorship.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nCronkite News reached out to more than 80 Arizona Democrats who\u2019ll serve as delegates in Chicago next month. Those who agreed to share their views on Biden were adamantly against him dropping out \u2013 though many also acknowledged they\u2019re worried.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt’s time to put this to bed,\u201d said delegate Mark Robert Gordon, who ran for secretary of state in 2018 \u2013 though he would entertain a serious discussion about replacing Biden if there\u2019s \u201canother incident\u201d like the debate, another occasion for there to be this \u201cintrospection.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nOf more than 3,900 delegates, nearly all are pledged to Biden. Under party rules, they would ordinarily be obliged to support him on the first ballot unless he releases them.

<\/P>\r\nSome Democrats contend there\u2019s a loophole, because their pledge is to reflect the sentiments of those who elected them, and those sentiments can change by the time of the formal nomination.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWhichever way we go, we are going to be able to beat Donald Trump,\u201d said Steven Jackson, a delegate from Tempe, who emphasized he supports Biden.

<\/P>\r\nNear-panic set in among Democrats after Biden\u2019s disastrous prime time debate performance live on CNN the night of June 27.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWe have a person that is honest and committed to our democracy in President Biden, and sometimes he stumbles over his words,\u201d said Joshua Polacheck, 44, a delegate from Tucson who\u2019s running for the Arizona Corporation Commission. \u201cHe had a bad night at the debate.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nIn Congress, six Democratic lawmakers have publicly called for Biden to quit, and others have privately talked up the option.

<\/P>\r\nHouse Democrats huddled Tuesday morning to debate a path forward, with or without Biden at the top of the ticket. Calls for him to quit didn\u2019t escalate but weren\u2019t entirely quashed either.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThose discussions will continue throughout the balance of the week,\u201d House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said afterward.

<\/P>\r\nGrijalva, 76, is the highest-profile Arizona Democrat urging Biden to pass the baton to someone younger and more vigorous.

<\/P>\r\nSen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told Cronkite News Tuesday that he sees no reason for Biden to step aside.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cMillions of people all across the country, 50 states and more territories voted for him \u2026 and when it becomes a choice between him and Donald Trump, a convicted felon, the choice should be very clear to the American people,\u201d he said at the Capitol.

<\/P>\r\nBiden won Arizona\u2019s 11 electoral votes by just over 10,000 ballots in 2020. Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state by over 91,000 votes in 2016, and the latest polls indicate Trump\u2019s narrow lead over Biden is slightly wider than it was before the debate.

<\/P>\r\nTrump was the second-oldest president after Ronald Reagan, until Biden took office and bumped them both. Trump turned 78 last month and is now about a month younger than Biden was on Inauguration Day 2021.

<\/P>\r\nNow 81, Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term.

<\/P>\r\nTrump and other Republicans have questioned his mental acuity, and the debate did Biden no favors tamping down the concerns.

<\/P>\r\nLike other delegates, the youngest one from Arizona \u2013 20-year-old Markus Ceniceros of Avondale, who also holds an elected post on a local school board \u2013 readily acknowledged concerns about Biden\u2019s age. But he remained committed to the president.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cHe should stay in the race,\u201d he said, and \u201cas long as Biden is our nominee, he is the one to get the job finished.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nSigna Oliver, an Army veteran from Phoenix, was among the delegates who expressed fear that a mad scramble to replace Biden \u2013 four months before Election Day, long after he clinched the nomination \u2013 would invite disaster.

<\/P>\r\nHe should \u201cabsolutely not\u201d drop out and \u201cif he does, we will lose to Trump,\u201d she said.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI can’t think of any one person that could step in, even the vice president,\u201d she said. She emphasized that Harris is fully qualified but added, \u201cI don’t believe this country will elect her.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nBiden and Trump are scheduled to hold a second and final debate on Sept. 10, two months before Election Day and after each has been formally nominated.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI would love to see someone who’s not in their 70s or 80s as president. But those are the two options,\u201d said Isabel Hiserodt, president of the Young Democrats at Arizona State University.

<\/P>\r\nWhat she saw in the debate \u201cwas concerning, and it wasn’t a phenomenal performance,\u201d she said, but Trump is outright \u201cdangerous.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nDelegates like Llama Habern, from Cottonwood, are more focused on Biden\u2019s achievements in office than his stumbles.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to be a great speaker, he just has to be a good president,\u201d Habern said.

<\/P>\r\nFirst-time delegate Robert Branscomb, 61, an insurance agent in Phoenix, acknowledged an \u201cinitial shock\u201d at Biden\u2019s debate performance but said the president has provided reassurance about his vigor since then.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cPeople sometimes get a little shaken, a knee-jerk reaction, but I\u2019m fully confident that the Arizona delegation will stay behind President Biden,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s done some fantastic work over three years; he\u2019s kept his promises. We have a thriving economy, we have people in place to support him to move forward. \u2026 He should stick in the race no matter what.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nThe succession plan is already in place, he noted: \u201cIf something did happen, I have full confidence in Vice President Harris to pick up the pieces and move forward.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nWith reporting from Cronkite News Washington correspondents Keetra Bippus, Brianna Chappie, Alex Cunningham, Amaia J. Gavica, Aoife Kane, Isabelle Marceles, Alex MacDonald and Sahara Sajjadi.

<\/P>\r\nFor more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A>.<\/STRONG>\r\n

<\/P>\r\n

Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News<\/a>. It is published via a Creative Commons license<\/A>. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication<\/A> at Arizona State University<\/A>.<\/EM>
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