Senate Democrats get passed over for governors as potential Biden replacements

Democratic governors have been thrust into the spotlight as potential saviors of the party should President Joe Biden heed mounting calls to withdraw from the race.

The same can’t be said of Senate Democrats. That’s despite several of them having run for president in 2020, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

And in the 2016 election, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) was nearly elected vice president.

Still, it’s the governors with higher political ambitions who are getting all the glory amid the continued fallout from Biden’s debate flop that’s raised questions if he’ll still be in the running by this time next week. Govs. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), Josh Shapiro (D-PA), and Andy Beshear (D-KY) have all been floated as some of the likeliest of successors, in addition to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The White House on Wednesday vehemently denied reports that Biden may be considering bowing out of the race.

Governors have executive-level experience in contrast to senators. But they also have a far better track record when it comes to becoming presidents, including 17 who have accomplished such a feat throughout U.S. history. Just three senators have become president.

There’s a reason for that, according to Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton.

“[Governors] tend to be picked from particular geographies, the nominees from both parties, with higher probabilities of winning because they can bring different parts of the country together,” Sheinkopf said. “The question is do any of the people that have been mentioned fit the profile? The answer is likely not.”

Having already run for the job, albeit unsuccessfully, the senators with presidential campaign experience could find the proposition of trying to right a sinking ship even less appealing.

A spokesperson for Kaine’s Senate reelection campaign told the Washington Examiner that the second-term senator was “absolutely not” interested in a White House run. The campaigns or offices of the other senators did not respond to requests for comment about their potential interest. Warren, Sanders, Gillibrand, and Klobuchar are all up for reelection this year in safe seats.

Sheinkopf made the case that Kaine and Klobuchar would be appealing options among the Senate crowd. Kaine hails from the purply state of Virginia and was Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee.

“Kaine is a real horse. He comes from a state that is marginal that could go either way,” Sheinkopf said. “He has stature, he could raise the money, and he’s had experience running in a national campaign before.”

Klobuchar, similar to Biden, more closely aligns with the centrist wing of the party that is often most attractive to swing voters. Sheinkopf described her as “appealing to the center, which is part of Democrats’ problem.”

But the governors who’ve been floated also aren’t currently interested in the job of commander in chief — or so they say.

Newsom has repeatedly tamped down calls to jump in the race and has remained one of Biden’s most loyal surrogates, even as the list of prominent Democrats who say he needs to be replaced grows by the day. Newsom traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to “stand with the president” and attend a meeting between Biden and other Democratic governors from around the country.

Whitmer has stated she is “behind him 100% in the fight to defeat Donald Trump” and has insisted Biden can still win her battleground state of Michigan.  

Pritzker’s state of Illinois will be host of next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

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“I’m 100% on board with supporting him as our nominee unless he makes some other decision,” Pritzker told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday night. “And then I think we’re all going to be discussing what’s the best way forward.”

Shapiro in battleground Pennsylvania has also remained steadfastly behind the president, while Beshear in red-state Kentucky said it was “flattering” to hear his name as a potential candidate but that he prefers Biden to be more transparent about his health going forward.