There has been a deluge of negative news in recent weeks for Joe Biden. Last week’s CNN poll shows Biden neck-and-neck with many of the candidates for the Republican nomination, including the disgraced and indicted Donald Trump. Biden’s approval ratings have hardly risen above 40% for months, placing him in the same boat as other recent one-term presidents. And Biden has seen an alarming dropoff in support among the constituencies that propelled him to the presidency in 2020, including black and young voters. Two-thirds of Democrats or Democratic-leaners told pollsters for CNN that they’d prefer a different Democratic nominee in 2024.

Now, after many months of looking the other way, members of the Democratic establishment seem closer to finally acknowledging the profuse indications that Biden would be too weak to defeat Donald Trump in a 2024 matchup. Longtime party strategists like James Carville — not exactly a leftist firebrand — are going public with their concerns about a Biden re-election campaign. 

As more voices within the party begin to face reality, will Joe Biden? There is still time for Biden to step aside and make way for an open primary process that could place a stronger candidate at the top of the ticket, but that window is closing.

The consequences of a second Trump presidency would be catastrophic. A vengeful Trump has already telegraphed his desire to accelerate the march toward neo-fascism and to use presidential power to settle personal grudges he has accumulated since 2016. People of color, women, LGBTQ communities and immigrants would all be in the repressive crosshairs of his regime.

As the organization sponsoring the Step Aside Joe campaign, RootsAction has said since the campaign’s inception that the risks are too great to gamble on a weak candidate. Many recent signs indicate that Biden has been getting even weaker. We need an open primary process to begin soon — making possible a more dynamic and progressive candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket.