Monday is the final day for candidates to file in the City and Borough of Juneau elections. Over the weekend, Angela Rodell, the former executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund, started collecting the 25 needed signatures to run for city office. It became clear then that the rumors were true: Mayor Beth Weldon, who has served two terms, will not get an easy path to reelection.
Rodell has been a financial consultant for the past few years, since leaving as the CEO of the Alaska Permanent Fund. She had also served as the Commissioner of Revenue, and Deputy Commissioner of Revenue – Treasury Division.
Her filing now shows on the elections tab at the Juneau.org website.
Rodell is a Republican, while current Mayor Beth Weldon is an undeclared — not with any party. Weldon recently lost her husband, served in the fire department, and is well-liked. Rodell will have to work hard to unseat her.
For the most part in Juneau, the mayor has no real power, other than running assembly meetings and ribbon cutting. The city manager answers to the assembly and has far more power than the mayor.
Here are the candidates for Juneau’s municipal election, which is conducted by mail and ends on Oct. 1:
ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES
Mayor – One open seat (3-year term)
Beth Weldon
Angela Rodell
Assembly District 1 – One open seat (3-year term)
Neil Steininger
Connor D. Ulmer
Assembly District 2 – One open seat (3-year term)
Emily Mesch
Nathaniel (Nano) Brooks
Maureen Hall
Dorene Lorenz
Mary Marks
Three open seats on the Board of Education. (All seats for a 3-year term)
The 2024 presidential election was already interesting but, let’s face it, it is now the most interesting of our lifetimes.
The incumbent, a mind-wandering geriatric who is arguably the worst president in American history –- scratch that; it’s not even arguable –- vs. a bombastic and twice-impeached former president who is arguably the most hated chief executive in history – scratch that, too; there is no president who has ever received the hate that Donald Trump has received.
We the public have witnessed the ravaging progression of dementia upon Joe Biden. Those of us who have endured the pain of watching our loved ones stumble down that path of confusion and deterioration have also cringed through three and a half years of seeing it happen to the most visible government official in the world; the suffering exacerbated by the hair-pulling frustration that comes with watching the Democrat party ignore, or more often blatantly lie with committee-researched-and-approved phrases about the president being “focused and on point.”
The public has also seen a legal assault on the former president, Donald Trump, by the incumbent and his political cronies, the likes of which are usually reserved for dictators wearing stern gazes or gawdy uniforms full of meaningless medals.
The use of political power to bring 88 felony charges against a political opponent because he is feared even more than he is hated, is an embarrassment for our legal system and a much bigger threat to democracy than the allegations that Trump himself is a threat to democracy. Again, the frustration factor in watching this happen is elevated by the complicity of the Democrat party and (just as with the dementia issue) a complicit mainstream media.
A stumbling, bumbling Biden performance in the June debate was painful to watch, even for those of us rooting heartily against him, and it became too much for even the most ardent Biden (or more precisely, anti-Trump) sycophants to bear. A few brave Democrats, fearing a November election loss more than the damage a non-present commander-in-chief could do to our country, began declaring publicly that the emperor wears no clothes . . . an equally unpleasant and not unlikely scenario if not for Dr. Jill hovering over her husband like a mother watching her three-year-old child.
Palace intrigue indeed.
On July 13, a would-be-assassin took a shot at the president’s opponent and came within an inch of being a full-fledged-assassin, taking place two days before the challenger’s party convention. It was enough to bring over the Trump-hesitant Republicans, including former Trump primary opponent Nikki Haley.
Trump takes a bullet then stands up defiantly.
Biden takes almost as long ascending an airplane stairwell as some Secret Service agents take to holster their weapons.
One can expect energy and enthusiasm to emanate from a party convention –- at least when John McCain or Mitt Romney aren’t the banner carriers –- but when Gold Star Family members take the stage to shout the names and tell the stories of their loved ones who died in military operations and, in doing so, expose front and center Biden’s lie about being the only president to not have any troops die under his command, the president and media could no longer ignore the drumbeat.
The increasing tempo became a deafening roar when Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (no clear-minded spring chicken herself) let her private conversation with the president leak to the press.
And now it looks like Kamala Harris, the most incoherent person to ever hold the office of vice president, is the Dems’ frontrunner despite approval ratings even lower than those of her boss. While Joe Biden mumbled his words due to dementia, Vice President Harris jumbles her words due to gross incompetence. If the Peter Principle needs a poster child, it needs look no further than the grand philosopher and her favorite, albeit meaningless, word salad, “What can be, unburdened by what has been.”
Nevertheless, a woman (despite being a word that’s difficult to define), and a woman “of color” to boot, is exactly the type of policy imperative the Left is seeking. Competence and coherence have no place when intersectionality reigns supreme. Donations that were withheld from Biden by millionaire Marxists will now flow into the collectivist coffers.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate is a man who has pulled himself up out of poverty by the bootstraps (a concept the Left abhors) and served in the United States Marine Corps. No president or vice president has ever held the title of U.S. Marine, and it’s about time to change that.
Will the Dems stick by Harris? If so, who will be her running mate? If not, who will be on the ticket? Will their Chicago convention be a repeat of the chaos of 1968? Will non-partisans and moderates support either ticket? Is RFK Jr. now more of a viable choice for voters?
Lots of questions and only four months to go, folks. It’s getting interestinger and interestinger by the day.
Tim Barto is a regular contributor to Must Read Alaska, and is Vice President at Alaska Family Council. During the Reagan Administration, he wore the uniform of a United States Marine.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski is asking lawmakers to pass legislation to help tribal members who are bitten by their stray village dogs.
She said, “an average of 4,800 tribal members are hospitalized or receive outpatient care from dog bites each year. Some studies indicate that tribal areas experience a death rate from dog attacks that is 35 times higher than the rest of the nation, with most of these cases are in Alaska.”
Murkowski introduced the legislation intended to control rabies and distemper in Native Alaska communities by deploying veterinary services to Native areas.
“The overpopulation of stray and abandoned dogs in Indian country is a significant public health and safety issue,” Murkowski said. “More than 250,000 reservation dogs, as they’re often, called roam the Navajo nation alone. Alaska Native children experience the highest incidences of hospitalization from dog attacks than any other group in the nation and we need to deal with it.”
An average of 4,800 tribal members are hospitalized or receive outpatient care from dog bites each year. Some studies indicate that tribal areas experience a death rate from dog attacks that is 35 times higher than the rest of the nation, with most of these cases are in Alaska. pic.twitter.com/gpkQV3gFHu
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) July 19, 2024
Murkowski is vice chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Last month, she introduce S.4365, the Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act.
The act addresses “uncontrolled animal populations and a lack of veterinary care in Native communities, Alaska Native villages, and on Indian reservations,” the bill says, which increases “the risk of parasites and zoonotic diseases, dog bites, food insecurity, and mental health issues among Alaska Natives and American Indians.”
“Dog bites and other injuries are common in rural areas in the State of Alaska, with the Norton Sound Health Corporation reporting an average of 87 bites per year in the Bering Strait region be- tween 2016 and 2023, and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation reporting an average of 98 bites per year in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region be- tween 2008 and 2017,” the legislation says. “Alaska Native children have the highest incidence of hospitalization for dog bites in the Indian Health Service system.”
The act will provide free veterinary services to tribal areas. It will also:
Amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to authorize Indian Health Service to provide public health veterinary services to Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations in Indian Health Service Areas where zoonotic diseases are endemic and the risk of transmission is elevated due to uncontrolled dog populations.
Allow Tribes and Tribal organizations to receive IHS funding for such services in their 638 self-governance compacts with Indian Health Service. These services would include eligibility to spay and neuter dogs.
Provide Indian Health Service with veterinary officers from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to fulfill the purposes of the bill.
Direct Indian Health Service to coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture in the implementation of the bill.
Require a biannual report to Congress on the bill programs and use of funds.
Direct USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services to conduct a feasibility study on deploying and improving the delivery of oral rabies vaccine in Arctic regions of the country.
Amend existing statute to designate Indian Health Service as a co-coordinating agency in the National One Health Framework, an initiative to address zoonotic diseases and advance public health preparedness across federal agencies.
The legislation was referred to her committee, where it has had one hearing. To view a copy of the bill, click here.
The Alaska Department of Health issued an epidemiological bulletin on the topic of dog bites in 2015, at this link.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appeared before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday, to answer questions about the failure of the Secret Service to prevent a shooting on July 13 that took the life of one man, injured two others, but that missed its target — Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president.
Cheatle called the incident the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
She said that there were security lapses, but she refused to answer specific questions of the committee, which is headed by Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican.
Comer said Cheatle’s agency has become the “face of incompetence.”
“Because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent,” said Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, who has called for President Joe Biden to fire Cheatle if she did not resign. “If Donald Trump had been killed, you would have looked culpable.”
Cheatle repeatedly told the committee that she is “unable to answer details” about how the shooting unfolded, due to the F.B.I. investigation under way.
Cheatle said that there were no requests by Trump for additional protection for the rally in Butler, Penn., where a man was able to get on top of a nearby roof and take several shots at Trump, nicking Trump’s ear but hitting people behind him before Secret Service snipers shot the assassin dead.
” I don’t understand how you can continue to stay in the position you’re in when this is a failure of historic magnitude,” said Republican Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama, adding that nothing like the incident had happened since the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan 43 years ago. “You failed in this case in a spectacular way,” he said, adding that the incident put many lives in danger, including members of the Secret Service.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, asked Cheatle: “Now Director Cheatle, would you agree that this is the most serious security lapse since President Reagan was shot in 1981, of the Secret Service?
Cheatle responded, “Yes, sir, I would.”
Khanna continued: “Stewart Knight was in charge of the Secret Service [when Reagan was shot]. Do you know what he did afterwards?”
Cheatle responded, “He remained on duty.”
Khanna corrected her: “He resigned. He resigned.”
In a statement on the committee’s website, Rep. Comer called on Cheatle to resign.
“Given the historic security failures leading up to and during the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Chairman Comer called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign in order to ensure accountability. Chairman Comer encouraged Americans of all political stripes to unite against extremism and political violence and concluded action must be taken to ensure this never happens again,” the statement reads.
Alaska Democrats last week were all in for President Joe Biden. He had the party’s unwavering endorsement, the party told reporters from the mainstream media.
On Sunday, after a hastily called phone meeting organized by national Democrat officials, the Alaska Democratic Party leadership threw its newly discovered unwavering support to Kamala Harris for president. The announcement was made hours after President Joe Biden apparently signed a letter saying he was withdrawing from the race for reelection.
“On the heels of President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will be seeking re-election, Party leaders endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the Office of President and commend President Biden for his noble decision and service to the Nation,” the Alaska Democratic Party announced.
“President Biden made a selfless and heroic decision,” said DNC Committeewoman Brenda Knapp, in a press release. ’’I’m all behind Vice President Harris and anxious to move forward with formal selection of her as the Democratic presidential nominee. I’m also heartened that Joe Biden will continue serving as our nation’s President through the end of his term.”
“I fully support Vice President Harris and know she is the most capable candidate of defeating Trump, earning the Party’s nomination, and uniting Democratic voters,” said Party Vice Chairwoman Jessica Cook, “She is a proven leader.’’
“President Biden is the best President we’ve had during my lifetime and did a phenomenal job in bringing our nation back together after Jan 6, 2021. Under he and Vice President Kamala Harris’s leadership, we’ve seen the largest infrastructure investments desperately needed in our state, job growth, unprecedented support for Unions, and policies enacted so that all Alaskans thrive,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair and Alaska National Delegation Chair Mike Wenstrup. “Our country needs to unite behind the Democratic nominee and she can deliver that. A vote for her is a vote for a country where all Americans can live without fear of persecution. It’s a vote for democracy and against Project 2025. The values of the Democratic Party and the legacy of the Biden Administration will continue to prosper with her.”
Biden has arguably been the worst president for Alaska, signing over 63 executive orders and executive actions singularly focused on Alaska to shut the state economy down. Biden has done more for Venezuela, ruled by a dictator, than he has done for Alaska’s economy.
Chuck Degnan, Alaska Democrats’ DNC Committeeman, did not apparently vote. He is a Bering Sea commercial fisherman.
This vote by party leadership is a signal to all Alaska Democrat delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that they will vote for Kamala Harris as the nominee. They will not be given a choice. Among those going to Chicago for the Aug. 19 convention is Rep. Mary Peltola, a voting member of the delegation.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison on Sunday said the Democrats will have “a transparent and orderly process” to choose the nominee. He said he would share the process soon.
“The work that we must do now, while unprecedented, is clear. In the coming days, the Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Harrison said. “This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the Party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people.”
But on Sunday, Democrat Party officers, seeking to quell the chaos that quickly developed in the party, convened a phone meeting as the Association of State Democratic Committees to ensure the endorsement of Harris as the Democratic nominee. The vote was unanimous for all states, giving marching orders to the delegates across the country that they will fall in line.
Democrats staged their palace coup this weekend, forcing President Biden to sign a letter saying he will not accept the nomination of the Democrats, and that he endorses Vice President Kamala Harris. This, just three and a half years after Biden won more votes than any president in American history, making him arguably the most popular president in history, if the 2020 election was accurate.
Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said that Democrats in general have such bad policies that it doesn’t matter who heads the presidential ticket for them — Alaska would lose if Joe Biden, Kamala Harris — or any Democrat — became president in November.
“Regardless of who is on the top of the ticket, the National Democrats and the failed Biden-Harris agenda will still be on the ballot this November,” Sullivan said. “If they win, Alaskans and the rest of America will continue to suffer from their far-left policies that caused crushing inflation, high energy prices, weak national security, open borders with fentanyl flooding into Alaska, and Biden’s unprecedented war on Alaska—with 68 executive orders and actions specifically targeting our state and our working families.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has had a close personal friendship with Biden over decades, was more terse: “I respect President Biden’s decision to act in the best interest of the country by stepping aside in the 2024 presidential election,” was her complete statement.
Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat who has tied her apron strings to Biden with glowing endorsements and past testimonials about his “sharpest” mental acuity, offered no statement about Biden dropping or Kamala Harris getting Biden’s endorsement. Peltola will be one of the Alaska delegates to vote during the Democratic National Convention that begins in Chicago on Aug. 19, and she will have to vote as the party tells her.
Kelly Tshibaka, chair of the Trump campaign in Alaska, offered this: “Democrats eliminated Biden not to try and win the Presidential race but to redirect all their donors and campaign efforts to Senate and House races. Biden would have surely cost the Democrats both majorities. Now they have a fighting chance.”
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah noted that Vice President Harris “didn’t accomplish this alone, by any means. She had help from the mainstream news media. She had help from people close to President Biden, including the White House staff.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said, “Finally, Joe Biden has realized what the rest of the American people and even his own party already knew—he is not only the wrong leader for America, but is wholly incapable of doing the job of President of the United States. But he didn’t go far enough. If Joe Biden is too weak to stay in the race for the presidency, he should RESIGN as our Commander-in-Chief immediately.”
Former Hawaii Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said, “Biden’s out, Kamala is in. Don’t be fooled: policies won’t change. Just like Biden wasn’t the one calling the shots, Kamala Harris won’t be either. She is the new figurehead for the deep state and the maidservant of Hillary Clinton, queen of the cabal of warmongers. They will continue their efforts to engulf the world in war and taking away our liberty.”
Alaska Democrats simply posted Biden’s letter declaring he is not going to be able to accept the party’s nomination on the party’s social media account, without comment. Two days earlier, the party had said it is backing Biden. The bumping of Biden will send delegates to the national convention scrambling, if other candidates jump in. Alaska Democratic Party is operated by the more Bernie Sanders end of the political scale.
Alaska Republican Party Chairwoman Carmela Warfield, published a statement:
With President Joe Biden having formally dropped from his race for reelection on Sunday afternoon, the words of Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, now vice presidential nominee, have even more meaning:
“If Joe Biden doesn’t have the cognitive function to run for re-election, then he certainly doesn’t have the cognitive function to remain as Commander-In-Chief. How can any Dem pushing him to drop out of the presidential race, argue in good faith that he should stay on as POTUS?” Vance asked last week.
Today, Vance wrote: “If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President? Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground.”
Operatives at the highest levels of the Democratic Party have been conducting a backroom coup to erode the ground under President Biden, who is sequestered due to having contracted Covid last week. By Sunday, the tide had tuned and the rumored “withdrawal” letter that had been drafted for him to sign turned out to be one rumor of many that ended up being accurate, in a month of many rumors and speculations following Biden’s disastrous performance in the debate against Donald Tump on June 27.
In his letter, Biden said it was in the best interest of the “party” for him to drop out. But Biden’s leaving the race is his admission that he has already lost to Trump. Polls for both Democrats and Republicans show it, and Biden’s campaign has also access to polling done on his behalf but not revealed to the public. The down-ballot impact of him remaining on the ballot was serious for the Democrats, who could have faced a wipe-out in the Senate and House races in November, if he had stayed.
The person Biden has designated to replace him on the ballot is a person who could not win even one delegate when she ran for president in 2020: Kamala Harris. Harris may face challengers who have been warming up in the bullpen for weeks: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former Sen. Hillary Clinton, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are no doubt having war room meetings on Sunday to determine if there is a path forward against the war chest that Harris inherits from Biden.
Biden’s campaign had $91.6 million on hand by the end of May, according to its most recent report to the Federal Election Commission. By early July, the Biden campaign had $240 million, which included new funds from the Democratic National Committee. Presumably, the majority of that will go to Harris’ campaign.
She will have to pick a vice presidential nominee before the Democratic National Convention. Harris may choose someone like Gov. Shapiro, to help lock up the Pennsylvania swing-state vote and attract the Jewish vote. The same holds true for Gov. Whitmer, who also leads the swing state of Michigan.
But then there’s Team Barack Obama, who is highly influential behind the scenes. Obama may throw his weight behind Hillary Clinton, who in 2016 won the national vote when she ran against Trump. She lost the electoral vote and claimed the election was stolen. Although Hillary won 2.9 million more votes than Trump, he worked the map, and ended up with 304 electoral votes, more than the minimum 270 electoral votes needed. Clinton won 227 electoral votes that year, in spite of all her baggage. She is a nationally known candidate and could make the case to Democrats that, as a person who took on Trump directly, she’s the stronger candidate to win this time.
While the Democrats spin, Biden is lounging at his beach house at Rehoboth Beach, Del. He has nothing on his public schedule on Sunday, which is true to his usual schedule. He is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, a day before Netanyahu is due to address a joint session of Congress. The White House has not yet announced if it has canceled the meeting.
Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, released a health report on Sunday: “President Biden completed his eighth dose of PAXLOVID this morning. His symptoms [which were not disclosed by O’Connor] have improved significantly. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain absolutely normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear.”
There was no report about whether Biden was alert or how his cognitive functions are.
Matt Walsh, podcaster and political writer, observed, “Every Republican needs to go on the record right now calling for Biden to be immediately removed from office. If he is not competent to run for re-election then he is not competent to remain in the White House.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on X/Twitter, reminded people that he had predicted this exact scenario 18 months ago:
On Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote his reaction to the news: “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was! We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Kelly Tshibaka, chair of the Trump campaign for Alaska, said, “No new information has arisen about President Biden. Predictably, Democrat elites forced him out, despite his unanimous selection through a democratic, primary process. Biden’s withdrawal from the race shows either that Democrat Party leaders are willing to reject the will of their own voters because they know their candidate can’t win, or it proves they have known President Biden has not been fit to fulfill the duties of his office. Either way, this decision reflects the anti-democratic impulses that have corrupted the party’s leadership ranks. And, make no mistake, Kamala Harris has been part of this anti-democratic cover-up to subvert democracy and the will of primary voters. Et tu, Kamala?”
Although neither the Alaska Democrats or Rep. Mary Peltola issued no statement about the news, the Alaska Republican Party did:
President Joe Biden has dropped from the race for reelection, he announced in a letter on Sunday.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote in a post on the social media site X. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President.”
“And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
Notably, he then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. California Gov.Gavin Newsom, Hillary Clinton, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are being discussed by Democrats, along with Gov. Shapiro of Pennsylvania are being discussed, as is an open nomination process at the Democratic National Convention.
His resignation letter, which was said to have been drafted for him earlier this week, was posted Sunday:
The announcement came the same day that eight state Democrat parties, including Alaska’s Democrat Party, had affirmed their support for Biden, while over 35 congressional Democrats had already told him they could not support him any longer.
The National Republican Congressional Committee posted a challenge for Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola, who has gone silent over the past month after sticking by her endorsement of Biden.
“Extreme House Democrats, including Mary Peltola, have been twisting themselves in knots trying to ignore the question on everyone’s minds: “Is Joe Biden fit to serve as President?” the Republicans wrote.
“Democrats can’t have it both ways. If Joe Biden can’t handle a debate or a rally, he can’t stand up to Putin or have access to the nuclear codes,” the NRCC wrote. Peltola needs to answer the question, ‘Is the President fit to serve the rest of his term?'”
The presidential race is less than four months away and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is August 19-22, when the nomination officially takes place.
The state Democratic parties of Alaska, along with those of Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, have affirmed their support for Joe Biden continuing as the presidential nominee for the Democrats.
According to a report in USA Today, Democratic Party chairs of seven key battleground states Sunday reaffirmed their support for Biden in a letter, and urged fellow Democrats to focus on beating former President Donald Trump, who the chairs called a looming “dictatorship.”
Separately, the Alaska Democratic Party told KTUU that it stands behind Biden and is focused on beating Donald Trump.
“But right now, many voters aren’t hearing that from our party. We understand the anxiety. But the best antidote to political anxiety is taking action,” the seven state chairs wrote in their letter. “When we all lend our voices to contrasting the Democratic vision — from Biden-Harris straight down the ticket — with the MAGA nightmare, we win.”
The list of Democrats in Congress asking Biden to drop now includes Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat-turned-independent from West Virginia and a close ally of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who herself is on record for not supporting Biden or Trump.
After Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, the number of congressional Democrats who have called for the frail and addled 81-year-old Biden to stop campaigning for reelection has risen dramatically. The Democratic Party is flailing as a behind-the-scenes coup is underway to remove Biden — and for some Democrats Kamala Harris, too — from the ticket, so the party can start fresh, with someone like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Some Democrats object, since Biden has won the right to be on the ticket as the winner of primaries in nearly all states.
Democrats in Congress calling for Biden to exit the race do not include Alaska Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, who has not only gone silent on the Biden race but who has largely disappeared from the public eye for the past month, not making public appearances and reducing her social media posts.
The Democrats in the Senate and House who have gone on the record are, as of Sunday morning:
Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio
Sen. Martin Heinrich, N.M.
Sen. Jon Tester, Mont.
Sen. Peter Welch, Vt.
Sen. Joe Manchin, W.Va. (Manchin left the Democratic Party registered as an independent in May.)
