Wisconsin US Rep. Mark Pocan joins calls for Biden to drop out

Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan on Friday joined the calls for President Joe Biden to end his reelection campaign, becoming the first prominent elected Democrat from Wisconsin to urge the president to leave the race.

Pocan’s statement, issued jointly with three other Democratic members of Congress, was a significant addition to the drumbeat coming from some Democrats concerned about the aging president’s chances against former President Donald Trump, who accepted the Republican nomination this week in Milwaukee.

“We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign,” wrote Pocan, a Democrat from the Dane County Town of Vermont alongside U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Marc Veasey, D-Texas and Chuy García, D-Ill. “These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change.”

Pocan’s comments could carry extra weight as a representative from Wisconsin, which is one of the critical battlegrounds that Biden would have to win to retain the White House.

Reached for comment, Pocan’s press secretary said the Madison Democrat was out supporting a congressional campaign in western Wisconsin for the day, “and his cell service is terrible, so we are not able to get him at all.”

The letter is one of several recent calls from Democrats in Congress for Biden to “pass the torch,” following a halting debate performance in June and subsequent media appearances that raised concerns about Biden’s mental acuity.

Pocan’s statement was issued just two weeks after he joined Biden onstage at a rally in Madison during which Biden insisted that he was staying in the race.

“I am so appreciative of what President Joe Biden has gotten done for this country, but having a second Trump presidency is as scary of a thought as I can have,” Pocan wrote on social media Friday morning. “We need to move forward in a way that ensures Trump is never president. It’s time to pass the torch.”

Before the Friday letter, at least 25 other Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives had called on Biden to step down, arguing that he could not win against Trump in November and could also harm down Democrats running for other offices, like the U.S. House.

Biden, 81, has said repeatedly that he will not step down, and his campaign has continued to organize events in Wisconsin over the past week, at the same time that the Republican National Convention took place in Milwaukee.

Anthony Chergosky, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, said Pocan is situated on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which has been less vocal in pushing against the Biden ticket in the last month.

“If Biden is losing support from Democrats across the board ideologically, then that is a very disturbing sign for him and a sign that it is going to be increasingly difficult for him to stay in this campaign,” Chergosky said.

Biden must also depend on victories in the so-called “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in his electoral college strategy, Chergosky said, as he faces headwinds in other once-competitive swing states like Nevada, Arizona and Georgia.

“So that is the other reason that I think Pocan’s announcement carries significance,” he added. “Wisconsin is absolutely a must-win state for Biden, and it matters that a major Democratic politician from Wisconsin would be issuing a statement like this.”

Of the two dozen other House members that have called for Biden to step down, only one other — U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan — represents a swing state.

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, did not respond to WPR’s request for comment. Moore is Wisconsin’s other Democratic representative in the House, and has been a firm Biden supporter in recent months.