BUTLER, PA —
Late last October, Phil Heasley traveled to Philadelphia to attend the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s annual Independence Dinner for the sole purpose of hearing President Joe Biden rally the base ahead of last year’s midterm elections.
After hearing a fired-up Biden attack congressional Republicans, saying if they got power they would “raise prescription drug costs, cut Medicare and Social Security, get rid of the Affordable Care Act and create a national abortion ban,” Heasley saw an opportunity to meet the president when he noticed him lingering to shake hands with attendees.
“I have goose bumps just thinking about it right now,” said Heasley. “I shook his hand, and I just said, ‘Thank you, and I’m proud of you, I really am,’ and he just looked at me right in the eyes, and said, ‘I’m proud of you.’” He felt he had met “Uncle Joe.”
For Heasley, Biden has done an exemplary job as president. He dismisses passionately — despite abysmal polling numbers and deep concerns about his age — any discussion among his fellow Democrats arguing that Biden should not seek a second term.
This profile of Heasley and several other Biden supporters is the first of a three-part series looking at three very different camps of voters emerging ahead of both the primary races in January and next year’s general election: loyal Biden voters, ride-or-die Trump voters, and voters who have thrown their hands up at both men and want anyone else. The profiles will examine what drives their loyalty or frustration.
Biden followed through
Interestingly none of the Biden supporters I interviewed mentioned “Bidenomics,” climate change, abortion, or social justice — the things Biden has staked out as the core of his platform — as the reason they voted for him in the first place and will again.
Heasley, 32, runs a small business with his sister in his hometown of Butler and got involved in Democratic party politics at a very young age. “I’ve been out there knocking on doors and getting petitions signed since I was 12 years old,” he said.
He began with John Kerry’s failed presidential run in 2004 against George W. Bush. Bernie Sanders was his guy in 2016 and 2020, but once Biden won, he was happily on board — especially after Biden carried the Sanders college forgiveness pledge onto his platform. “Despite the hiccups, Biden has followed through with that, and that means a lot to me,” he said.
Heasley also points to a bridge closure in Butler that had caused a grueling reroute for years finally being fixed under the infrastructure bill as another reason he believes Biden deserves a second term.
Heasley serves as a reminder that many voters form a bond with a political figure based on very personal experiences they believe the figure deserves credit for. It’s often something meaningful in their lives, such as a bridge in their community being fixed, a pricey life-saving medicine a loved one needed becoming affordable, or an education program that benefits their child being funded by the government.
He bristles at what he calls the “opportunist Democrats” who are whispering in the press that Biden is too old to run again. “They have the audacity to say that Biden’s too old whenever he’s sitting there riding his bike around on vacation and traveling through Europe, getting stuff done.”
He has principles
Over in Indiana County, Lynne Alvine, a retired faculty member of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and current vice-chair of the county Democrats, says she blames the media for constantly pointing to the polls.
“When you keep telling people the polls are low, the polls are low, then that becomes the fact, not just a perception. That becomes the reality,” she said. “When I hear people say, ‘Oh, his polls are so low’ I just want to say, ‘Shut up. You’re creating it. You’re creating this. You’re making this the news.’”
Alvine said Biden earned her support out of the gate during the 2020 Democratic primary contest. “He just had the experience, and the wisdom, and the diplomatic skills that we needed at the time.”
She is firmly in the ride-or-die Biden camp and believes he has earned a second term based on what she says are his principles. “He puts integrity and ethics at the forefront of being the president,” she said, stressing it’s not just that he deserves to be reelected, despite his age: “It is that the young people of this nation deserve to have us reelect him.”
He faces challenges
Chris Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said the great question going into a presumed Biden Democratic nomination is what are his strengths going into a general election? Polls currently have Biden tied or losing against almost every GOP primary candidate, including Trump.
“It’s a challenging question for Biden,” said Borick. “I think lots of Americans maintain an appreciation that he was able to in 2020 defeat Trump and so there’s some goodwill there, I think, for those who fear a Trump return to power.”
Borick anticipates that Biden will try to build a coalition through the achievements he’d like to herald about his presidency, like climate change policies for the groups who really care about that. “And of course, again, if it is Trump, hope that Trump’s liabilities would indeed provide some energy that he may not be able to generate himself.”
Late last week, an ABC News/Washington Post poll showed 44% of Americans say they’ve gotten worse off financially under Biden’s presidency. Just 37% approve of Biden’s job performance, while 56% disapprove. Fewer still approve of Biden’s performance on the economy at 30% — and the rating of his handling of immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border is even lower, with 23% approval.
A whopping 62% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the party should pick someone other than Biden as its nominee in 2024. Just a third of them back Biden.
He cares
Judy DeAugustino Hines is solidly in that one-third camp. She’s the daughter of an Italian immigrant who came to this country at the turn of the 20th century and had six children, five of whom would become school teachers (including her), with two serving in World War II and one in the Korean War. She will remain a staunch Biden supporter because of the impact he has had on her family.
“Well, here in rural Pa., the things that a lot of people are grateful for is the cap on the insulin,” the Springfield Township retiree said. “Many of my family members that have been diabetic, and friends and neighbors have been struggling with the healthcare. Biden, he’s always put healthcare at the top of his list.”
As for other Democrats fretting about Biden’s age, she’s is having none of it: “My sister flat-lined twice at 95, and with the medicine, they brought her back, and she’s doing crossword puzzles.” He added, “When you keep your mind engaged, I don’t see age any more as an issue.”
However ...
Borick said it is incredibly valuable for a candidate to have deeply loyal voters. “They don’t have to do as much to energize and activate those voters.”
The Democrats will have a problem, however, if Biden isn’t at the top of the ticket and many of his supporters stay home. Or conversely, the president is at the top of the ticket, “and they too stay home because they have been disappointed with his presidency.”
North Side native Salena Zito is a national political reporter for The Washington Examiner, a New York Post columnist and co-author of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics”: zito.salena@gmail.com.
First Published: October 1, 2023, 9:30 a.m.