Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Eli Earlier this year, JEFF WEAVER, the longtime BERNIE SANDERS aide who ran the senator’s 2016 presidential campaign, believed that JOE BIDEN would face a 2024 primary challenge from the left. “Will there be a progressive challenger? Yes,” he told POLITICO in January. He’s not so sure anymore. “It’s certainly not clear now given the results of the midterms,” he told West Wing Playbook when asked about his previous quote. “Many of the potential top challengers are lining up behind the president,” he said, before adding the caveat: “There is a lot of time between now and the next election.” Weaver isn’t alone. Despite a fierce primary in 2020, most of the Democratic Party’s leading progressives are showing no appetite to challenge the more moderate, 80-year-old incumbent in 2024. Instead, they are endorsing him for a second term. That includes Rep. RO KHANNA (D-Calif.), who has positioned himself as part of a new generation of national liberal leaders. Asked if Biden should run for re-election, he said, “I do.” “I certainly plan to support him and believe that we need the president to succeed to then usher in a bold progressive agenda,” Khanna said. While he noted policy differences with Biden — like over Medicare-for-All — he argued that “eight years of the president will pave the way for a moment that we will have a true progressive agenda in America.” The support is not just the result of the better-than-expected midterm election. It’s also owed to the Biden team’s efforts to build bridges with the left and the lack of a willing left-wing challenger (so far). Leading progressives including Khanna have essentially ruled out a primary challenge. Sanders has said he will support a Biden re-elect. Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) told MSNBC in July that Biden “should” run again and a spokesperson said that remains her view. California Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM also told the White House he won’t challenge Biden, per POLITICO’s JONATHAN MARTIN. Even some of the most vocal progressive activists are chanting four more years. “I’m excited for second term President Biden,” said MELISSA BYRNE, who worked on Sanders’ 2020 campaign. “We need to focus on showing our power so we enter 2025 with a trifecta and a mandate to finish higher education reform — free public college and canceling the rest of the student debt.” Polls have also picked up the party’s consolidation over Biden. According to a recent USA Today/Ipsos , 71 percent of Democratic voters think Biden could win re-election. A similar poll in August found only 60 percent of Democratic voters believed that. Still, there are some on the left still rooting for a left-wing challenger and arguing that the midterms were a sign of Republican weakness rather than Biden’s strength. They are holding out hope that Biden will decide not to run or that a long-shot candidate will show surprising verve and drive him out of the race, á la Sen. EUGENE McCARTHY in 1968. “We shouldn’t shrink. Somebody or a group of somebodies should have the courage to challenge this president if he decides to run again,” said former Ohio state senator and former congressional candidate NINA TURNER, who has hinted in the past that she may run against Biden. “It’s necessary for the progressive left to give the American people a choice,” she said. Asked if that person would be her in 2024, she declined to comment. MESSAGE US — Are you RUSH DOSHI, director for China on the National Security council? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .
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