U.S. President Joe Biden holds event marking National Small Business Week at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Joe Biden holds event marking National Small Business Week at the White House in Washington Reuters

KEY POINTS

  • Strategists said that Democrats think Donald Trump can win again in 2024
  • Underestimating Trump is the mistake Biden's team doesn't want to commit
  • Snatching the GOP nomination could be an uphill battle for Trump and his team

Several political strategists of the Democratic Party are calling on the Biden campaign team to show some real "urgency" as the prospect of Trump beating him in the 2024 presidential elections is palpably high.

Democratic strategists are already sounding the alarm over Trump's possible comeback, saying despite his numerous legal troubles, he still appears formidable, and "underestimating" him could be the mistake that Biden's team doesn't ever want to commit, The Hill reported.

"Democrats are getting a sinking feeling when it comes to Donald Trump: They can see him winning again," an unnamed strategist said, per The Hill.

A prominent strategist also told the outlet, "There is a concern from a lot of people like me, for sure," highlighting a "disconnect" between the party's consultant class and the voters themselves.

"They think they can just run a bunch of ads talking about how crazy Donald Trump is [and] that will be enough. That's just not the case," the strategist said.

"Be very f--king worried," another added.

The Hill cited the recent Washington Post-ABC News poll that gave Trump a comfortable seven-point lead against Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup. Strategists see this as an "outlier," and many in private and publicly questioned the data as "inconsistent."

However, a Harvard-Harris poll conducted just last month showed Trump is ahead of Biden by five percentage points, while a Wall Street Journal survey gave the former president a smaller three percent lead.

The Economist/YouGov poll last week, on the other hand, put Trump and Biden at 46%, which greatly worries the strategists.

While all the polls show a lack of enthusiasm over Biden's reelection efforts and many preferring a different Democratic candidate, there is still a silver lining for Democrats, the report said.

Trump's 2024 campaign launch announced just a few days after the midterm elections hoping to cash in on the strong Republican comeback that never quite materialized could be a sign that he'd be a weaker candidate.

On top of that, his legal woes just got worse after he was indicted in New York and found liable for battery and defamation. Snatching the GOP nomination, or winning the general election, could be an uphill battle for Trump's campaign.

"It's reasonable to think that as the country focuses on Joe Biden versus the Republican alternative and on the contrasts that will present, Joe Biden's standing will improve in that binary choice scenario," a former campaign aide to Hillary Clinton told The Hill.

In the absence of a serious primary challenger, Biden will not have a hard time getting the Democratic nod to be the party's nominee. However, his advanced age is becoming a major concern for American voters on whether he has the stamina for a second term.

However, some Democrats said it's too early to be worried about a bad poll and believe that if voters were to choose between Biden and Trump, the Democrat would undeniably win.

Meanwhile, veteran political strategist Simon Rosenberg said that there are more indicators that point to a momentum in favor of Democrats. He also warned commentators to be very cautious in "gauging intensity levels in the next elections."

Rosenberg, against all conventional polling wisdom, predicted that Democrats would do better in the midterms as he said that the party is getting better at organizing on key issues every election cycle.

"You've now had three consecutive elections where Democrats' performance has been at the upper end of what's been possible for us," he said.

"Anyone who thinks that this anti-MAGA majority did so well for us these last three elections is all of a sudden going to not show up, well, I have a red wave to sell you," Rosenberg added.

Former US president Donald Trump has repeatedly denied E. Jean Carroll's rape allegation
AFP