Ohio Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan suggests Biden shouldn’t run for president in 2024
Democratic House Rep. Tim Ryan suggested to reporters that President Joe Biden should step aside in 2024 in favor of a new generation of leaders – just before the commander-in-chief was due for a high-stakes visit to Ryan’s home state of Ohio.
With less than two months until the November midterm elections, Biden made a visit to an overwhelmingly Republican part of Ohio on Friday for the groundbreaking of a semiconductor plant that he promoted as evidence that his economic policies are working.
But his trip was punctuated by Ryan’s doubts.
The moderate Democrat is running for the U.S. Senate against Donald Trump-backed Republican author J.D. Vance. They’re vying to replace outgoing GOP Sen. Rob Portman.
On Thursday, Ryan publicly questioned whether the party needed someone other than Biden after he was asked if the 79-year-old president should run for re-election in 2024.
Asked if the president should seek a second term, Ryan told Youngstown, Ohio, network WFMJ, ‘My hunch is that we need new leadership across the board.’
‘Democrats, Republicans, I think it’s time for a generational move,’ he added.
‘The environment politically across the country is poisonous, and people I think want some change.’
Ryan, who has broken with the president on some issues, has not asked Biden to campaign with him in the state, but was present at the Intel groundbreaking for the president’s remarks.
President Joe Biden made a visit to a solidly Republican part of Ohio on Friday – one day after fellow Democrat, Rep. Tim Ryan, poured cold water on his 2024 aspirations.
Pressed later by reporters if Biden should run again, Ryan said that was up to the president.
‘The president said from the very beginning he was going to be a bridge to the next generation, which is basically what I was saying,’ he said.
Just last month Ryan became one of the first Democrats in power to publicly break from Biden over his controversial plan to ease federal student loan debt.
Ryan said it sent the ‘wrong message’ and called for broader tax cuts instead to help more of the working and middle classes.
Vance seized on Ryan’s appearance with the president Friday.
‘It takes a real two-faced fraud for someone to tell Ohioans he doesn’t support Biden running for reelection, the literal day before he appears at an event with him,’ he said.
The venture capitalist and ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ writer is appearing with Trump in Youngstown, Ohio on Saturday for one of the ex-president’s signature ‘Make America Great Again’ rallies.
Ryan is running for Senate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman. He’s up against Trump-backed author JD Vance
Biden traveled to Licking County near Columbus to speak at the site of Intel Corp’s new $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility and hailed it as a sign of things to come.
‘The future of the chip industry is going to be made in America,’ he said. ‘The industrial Midwest is back.’
The trip is part of a White House pre-midterms push to tout new funding for manufacturing and infrastructure that Democrats pushed through Congress.
In the meantime, Biden has also made waves by hurling fiery insults at his predecessor’s supporters – who the president has dubbed at times ‘MAGA Republicans,’ ‘extremists’ and ‘Trumpies.’
Previous trips to Maryland, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have landed the president in areas where Democrats already have strong support, but Licking County voted Republican 63 percent to 35 percent in the 2020 presidential election.
Democrats have lost Ohio in the past two presidential contests, but Portman’s retirement may give Democrats a chance to pick up a Senate seat.
Some recent forecasts show Democrats favored to maintain control of the Senate, after a series of wins in Congress. But not all candidates welcome Biden’s campaigning support.
Wisconsin Democratic Senate hopeful Mandela Barnes, the state’s current lieutenant governor, opted not to appear alongside Biden during a Labor Day speech last week.
His campaign told DailyMail.com at the time that Barnes was engaged in other activities celebrating American workers throughout the state.
In Pennsylvania, progressive Senate candidate and lieutenant governor John Fetterman spoke with Biden on Labor Day but did not join him at an earlier Key Stone State event.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat running for governor, appeared with Biden in Wilkes-Barre but did not on Labor Day.