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Ohio Democrats rally together as question of whether Biden should stay in race lingers

By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Monday, July 15, 2024

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — A few hours before the assassination attempt on former president Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania, Ohio Democrats got together for an executive committee meeting, a state convention, and then what was called a “family reunion”. But that event was marked by the crisis of concerns about what’s happening with the head of the family.

The Kemba Live concert venue in downtown Columbus on Saturday was dark, cool and loud. But the cheers can’t cover what’s been going on in the Democratic Party since President Biden and former president Trump met in a debate in June – and sparked a discussion over whether Biden is still physically and mentally fit to lead the party’s ticket this fall.

“There’s like a public conversation and there’s private conversations, and everything I’m seeing is, in the private conversations, everyone’s very concerned,” said Will Petrik. He’s a member of the party’s central committee, and is director of policy and advocacy for the Rise Together Innovation Institute, an organization focused on fighting poverty and racism in Franklin County.

Petrik posted on social media about his concerns after the debate. He and about a half dozen others stood outside the venue with signs that read “pass the torch, Joe”.

Inside, as attendees in Biden-Harris shirts and pins listened, there were vague references to what’s been talked about.

“This party is not the party of the people on the ticket when you go in to vote. It’s not the people at the top and the boldface names,” said U.S. Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ). “The reason why this gathering is so important, it’s not about the names of the speakers up here, it is about the grassroots before me.”

The other headliner of the event was Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who will host the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say there has never been more stressful time to be a Democrat than right now,” Pritzker said.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), in a battle with well-funded and Trump-endorsed nominee and political newcomer Bernie Moreno, has been cagey about Biden. He’s avoided directly sharing his opinion but has reportedly met in private strategy sessions with other Democratic senators in tough races.

“I don’t think any of us has all the answers to how things will unfold at the top of the ticket. I don’t think we know that yet,” Brown told Saturday’s statewide crowd. “But I do know that there must be a resolution so that we can get back to talking about the choice in this election and what is at stake in the presidential race, what is at stake in the Senate.”

A few minutes earlier at the back of the noisy room, Brown echoed his previous statements to the media when briefly chatting with reporters, who repeatedly asked if he thinks Biden should stay in the race and whether he’d campaign with Biden if he comes to Ohio.

“I don’t really think about that. I am focused on my focus on doing my job and focusing on my race,” Brown said. “I know you’re doing your job, asking those questions. I’m doing my job. I continue to be the kind of senator I‘ve been.”

As the event’s emcee and the one in charge of herding all the diverse voices in one direction, Ohio Democratic Party chair Liz Walters has heard the debate since the debate, and acknowledges that Democrats have an steeply uphill fight with the presidential race in Ohio. But she said in the end its about Biden vs. Trump.

“The contrast is clear and that is going to be made all over this country,” Walters said. “But in the state party space, our world is always going to be centered around our state-based candidates because that’s our job.”

Chris Gibbs is a farmer from Shelby County, and the former chair of the Republican Party there. He now heads the county Democratic Party. He says this kind of debate is refreshing.

“This is what the Democratic Party does as opposed to the Republicans where there’s only one voice. You’re there in line or you’re out of the party, you’re vaporized,” Gibbs said. “But in the Democratic Party, it’s like a tapestry. It makes people stronger, that everybody gets a voice and not everybody gets their way, but everybody gets a voice.”

But some party faithful like Will Petrik still have concerns.

“There are so many Democrats who can tell a compelling message about the future of our country and what we’re fighting for and what we want, but also tell a compelling message about the choice, the alternative, about what a mega future could look like for our freedoms, for our democracy, for just people’s lives,” Petrik said.

A few hours later, many prominent Democrats at the event issued statements that they were thinking and praying for Trump, calling for unity and denouncing political violence, with Brown also calling for a comprehensive investigation to “get to the bottom of this so it never happens again”.