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After June’s European parliamentary polls, the US elections are considered by political analysts to be the most important for the entire planet this year. From the uncertain situation in the Pacific, where China is constantly teasing Taiwan, to the ticking time bomb in the Middle East in the context of the Israeli-Hamas war, to the eastern border of Europe where for 29 months we have had an armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the foreign policy of the next US president will be decisive for the stability and military security of the entire world.
Incumbent US President Joe Biden didn’t wait to be forced out by his own party and announced on the 21st of July his withdrawal from the race for another term in the White House. Biden’s re-election campaign appeared to be in jeopardy after he underperformed in the debate against Republican challenger Donald Trump, and after a series of polls shortly after the debate between the two revealed former President Trump ahead in key states. However, it took the current US President’s campaign team several weeks to analyze the situation and forced by calls from at least 30 members of the House of Representatives, five US senators as well as a number of major donors (including actor George Clooney), who publicly urged Joe Biden to withdraw from the race and “hand over the baton”, the decision was announced. Finally Joe Biden made his long-awaited announcement that he would not be seeking another term. With his announcement, Biden declared his support in the presidential race for Kamala Harris. Well, shortly after this announcement by President Biden, in the Democratic Party, the internal scramble to designate a replacement who would be capable of defeating Donald Trump began. Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison in a press release claimed that the party will begin a transparent and disciplined process to move forward.
“In the coming days, the party will begin a transparent and disciplined process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Jaime Harrison tweeted.
On the short list of potential candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the November 2024 presidential election are several governors and senators but in poll position is Vice President Kamala Harris. During her tenure Vice President Harris has faced low popularity ratings. According to polls 51% of Americans do not support Harris, while 37% support her. At the same time, Democratic Party officials would have liked to hold a roll-call vote to choose Joe Biden as the party’s nominee before the convention scheduled to begin on the 19th of August. Well, the Democrats’ new nominee for US president will be the one to win a majority of delegates to the convention as the idea of a roll-call vote seems to have fallen through.
What is the list of potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination?
Gavin Newson, the governor of California, with repeated appearances on television networks praising Biden, has often been mentioned as a potential candidate not in this election but in 2028. That’s when Biden would have entered the race in November. As Biden is out of the picture, it looks like Newson has become a pretty serious Democratic option for US President in this very election. As the party’s key messenger in the conservative media and through a debate against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year, Newson is considered by many Democratic pundits to be Biden’s replacement.
Raphael Warnock, a senator from Georgia, is also being mentioned as a possible replacement for incumbent Biden. Warnock managed to win the Senate seat in a very close battle in a swing state. Another name being bandied about is Maryland Governor Wes Moore. He has been in the public spotlight in recent months following the unfortunate incident of the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse in Baltimore. Also one of Trump’s main challengers, JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, is also on the short list of possible Biden replacements. The heir to the Hyatt hotel chain, Pritzker has risen to notoriety in recent years by consistently attacking Trump and positioning himself as a defender of Biden. The billionaire is known to be quick to post criticism of Trump on social media. After the debate between Trump and Biden, Pritzker called Trump a “liar” and said Trump is a “convicted felon with 34 felony convictions who only cares about himself.”
After being elected in 2022, in a swing state that Trump narrowly won in 2016, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has a high approval rating. Before becoming governor, he served as the state’s attorney general which gave Shapiro the opportunity to work with all parties during his tenure as attorney general. He made national headlines last year. Shapiro rebuilt a collapsed bridge on a major Philadelphia highway in an extremely short time. That gave him a major political victory for a first-term governor.
Gretchen Whitmer, the two-term governor of Michigan, is a Democrat whose popularity is growing in the Midwest. On Whitmer’s name many pundits speculate that she would run for president in 2028. In the past, Gretchen Whitmer has campaigned for Biden and has not been shy about flaunting her political aspirations. After running a campaign in 2022 that saw Michigan Democrats take control of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion, Whitmer has enacted a number of progressive policies. These include protecting access to abortion in Michigan and enacting gun safety measures.
The fact that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also has presidential aspirations is no secret to any US politician. Labeled as one of the best communicators in the Biden administration, Pete Buttigieg had another shot in 2020 when he ran for president. As former Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg, during his tenure, had to manage several public crises. For example, Pete Buttigieg helped oversee the government’s response to the East Palestine train derailment in Ohio, the Baltimore Bridge collapse, and the Southwest Airlines flight scheduling crisis in 2022.
Kamala Harris and US foreign policy
Returning to Kamala Harris this is the Democrats’ most likely choice in the US presidential election. Ahead of the November election, Vice President Kamala Harris inherits a foreign policy predicament led by Joe Biden. According to analysts it is expected that if nominated to take on Trump, Harris will retain some of Biden’s foreign policies. At the same time the specialists are of the opinion that Harris will certainly take a stand in cases when Joe Biden has avoided to do so. The experience and personal ties established with world leaders coupled with a sense of global affairs gained during a term as a senator and as Biden’s vice president many experts co-cast Harris as the front-runner and the best choice the Democrats could make.
Kamala Harris has a major vulnerability in a fight with Republican nominee Donald Trump. It’s the well-known issue of migration at the southern US border with Mexico that Haris was tasked early in her tenure with addressing the root causes of the ever-growing illegal migration. Republicans along with their leader, Donald Trump, have tried to equate the illegal migration issue with the image of Kamala Harris. On the war between Russia and Ukraine there is a major difference of opinion between Harris and Trump. Kamala Harris claimed that she would not deviate from President Biden’s policies of supporting NATO and that she would continue to support Ukraine in the fight against Russia. In antithesis, former President Trump promised to fundamentally change the US relationship with NATO. Moreover, Trump hinted that he would halt arms shipments to Kiev and repeatedly stated that as president he would end the war in Eastern Europe within an extremely short time of taking office. By mid-August is not much further and only after the Democratic conference will we have the nomination of Donald Trump’s running opponent.