Endangered Democrats blast Biden, Harris
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Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: The White House
Democrats running in some of the toughest congressional races in the country are becoming less shy about going after President Biden to boost their campaigns.
Why it matters: Even as Democrats try for a fresh start with Vice President Harris at the top of the ticket, she is getting swept up into some of the criticism as well.
- A half-dozen House Democrats, all in swing districts, voted for a resolution last week condemning the administration's handling of the border that called out Harris specifically.
- One of those lawmakers, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), went so far as to say he is "absolutely not" committed to voting for Harris in November.
What they're saying: Josh Riley, the Democrat running against Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), told Axios the "whole administration" — including Harris — "has failed on this. Top to bottom the Biden administration has been a disaster on the border."
- Riley made clear he would not vote for Trump but declined to commit to voting for Harris in November – though his campaign said in a July 22 fundraising email that he's "supporting Vice President Harris as the Democratic nominee."
- "I approach all of this based on policies, not personalities. And my view is that if there's a president, vice president, anybody ... if they want to do things to help upstate New York, I'm going to support that, and if not, I'm going to oppose it," he said.
Driving the news: Riley's campaign is out with a new ad saying that "on the border, I've opposed the president."
- That echoes ads run by Trump-district Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who is running for Senate in GOP-leaning Texas.
- Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) has repeatedly stressed disagreements with Biden on the border, as well as environmental regulations and oil drilling.
Between the lines: The Harris campaign pointed to numerous examples of vulnerable House and Senate Democrats campaigning with Harris and saying she has reignited Democratic voters' enthusiasm.
- The campaign sees winning up and down the ballot as its top priority and wants Democrats to use whatever maneuvers help them win, a source familiar with the campaign's thinking told Axios.
- Campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz, pointing to Republicans and former President Trump killing a bipartisan border deal earlier this year, said Harris is the "one candidate in this race who will fight for bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security."
The other side: "These highly vulnerable House Democrats will vote for San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris on election day," National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Will Reinert told Axios.
- Harris "isn't just complicit in Joe Biden's failures these frauds pretend to dislike, but wants to take America in an even more dangerous direction," Reinert added.
- Molinaro said in a statement that Riley is "blatantly lying" in his ad, with his campaign saying their Democratic rival has "stood with Harris-Biden on open border policies 100%."
Zoom in: Biden dropping out of the race has made it even easier for Democrats to turn the president into a down-ballot punching bag.
- Adam Frisch, who is running in a Republican-leaning House seat in Colorado, is running an ad touting his call for Biden to withdraw as evidence that he is not a party "yes man."
- Golden launched an ad after Biden dropped out saying the 81-year-old president is "unfit to serve a second term" and touting his vote against the Build Back Better Act and a Biden emissions standards rule.
Zoom out: Distancing from a presidential administration, especially an unpopular one, is a time-honored strategy for congressional candidates of both parties.
- Congressional Democrats had begun distancing from Biden before he left the ticket, a dynamic that accelerated after his disastrous debate against former President Trump.
Yes, but: Some incumbent Democrats have shied away from openly hitting Biden from for fear of not having a sufficiently anti-Biden record to back up their rhetoric.
- One swing-district lawmaker told Axios it is hard to deploy the strategy "unless we have a voting record to prove it."
- In lieu of that, the lawmaker said, "Most of us will lean in on the Senate border bill ('which I would have voted for if Mike Johnson hadn't scuttled it...')."
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
