As Democrats' concerns over Biden's health continue, experts and the electorate alike are looking for possible alternatives for the ticket ahead of the November elections. But despite the president's unpopularity, his primary replacement option, Vice President Kamala Harris, seems to be even more unpopular in certain places, such as Texas.
According to a recent poll by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, Harris sees a 56% unfavorability rating among likely Texan voters. That's worse than Biden's unfavorability rating of 55% and Trump's rating of 49%.
However, the poll was conducted before the June 27 presidential debate, right before the discourse between Biden's ability to stay on the race emerged into the mainstream, the Texas Tribune reports.
More recent polling shows the Vice President surging ahead of Biden against former president and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. For instance, a national poll by the firm Bendixen & Amandi showed that after the debate, Harris is now slightly running ahead of Trump, 42% to 41%.
Nevertheless, some experts don't believe these numbers are enough for Harris to overtake Trump in the upcoming elections, particularly in conservative states.
Senior Executive Director of Hobby School of Public Affairs Renée Cross, told the Texas Tribune, she doesn't think there would be a dramatic shift in opinions among Biden and Harris among Texans after the debate.
"Most of the [Texas] Democrats, while they may have to hold their nose, they're still supporting Biden just because they don't like the other day," Cross said.
Instead, Cross argues, Harris' biggest opportunity to increase her favorability in the state would be to concentrate outreach with voters of color and younger voters. When broken down by demographics, Harris has a slightly higher approval rating— 81%— among Black voters than Biden's approval rating of 79%, the Universities' poll suggests.
Harris' figures of unpopularity in Texas comes as The New York Times reported on Thursday that Biden's campaign is quietly testing the Vice President's strength against former President Trump in what is believed to be the first time since the infamous debate, several insiders told the news outlet.
They did not specify why the survey was being conducted or what the campaign planned to do with the results. But according to the Times, it could be read as the team gathering information to present a case to the president that his path forward is slim, or to argue that he is still the strongest standard-bearer for his party.
These efforts also come as some longtime aides and advisors to Biden are said to have become increasingly convinced that he will have to step aside from the campaign, and in recent days have been trying to come up with ways to persuade him that he should, another New York Times report said this week.
But Biden's team stubbornly remains in the race. In a memo to campaign staff on Thursday, Biden's campaign chair, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, and his campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, wrote about the rumors and polling reports.
"In addition to what we believe is a clear pathway ahead for us, there is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump," they wrote. "Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden."
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