Vice President Kamala Harris should be the Democratic nominee

The plurality of Democrats want President Joe Biden to pass the torch to a new generation and a nominee who can prosecute the case against Donald Trump.

My name is Conrad Lange Zbikowski and I am Chair of Minneapolis DFL. This letter is written as a DFL organizer and Joe Biden voter.

On Thursday, June 27, I hosted a Debate Watch Party with Team Biden-Harris in Minnesota and the Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign. We welcomed over 100 DFL supporters to a sports bar near the University of Minnesota campus and had a pep speech from Governor Tim Walz.

Democrats are fired up to build upon the progress we have made. In Minnesota, we are working hard to keep our DFL Trifecta of legislative majorities and governorship that has allowed the DFL to make progress on every policy action we have been campaigning on since the last Trifecta in 2013, including protecting reproductive freedom and legalizing safe adult-use cannabis.

Let’s cut to the chase: The debate performance was worse than nearly all Democrats had feared and since this was on the calendar for months, there is no excuse for it. President Biden is old. I have always thought he was too old to be President and supported Harris, Warren, Buttigieg, and Sanders in that order before Biden became the nominee in 2020.

Now we are 119 days out from Election Day and a plurality of Democratic voters — 47% — think that Joe Biden should step aside as the nominee. Among Democratic voters ages 18 - 44, there is an outright majority with a 25+ point spread between should and should not step aside.

I hesitated in writing this publicly because I am but one volunteer in a flyover state. But already we have staffer morale on the ropes and volunteers saying they will not canvass or make phone calls until President Biden steps aside as the presumptive nominee. With momentum growing among the grassroots, that message will only become more apparent to Democratic leaders who will admit to hearing it.

My understanding of the Democratic National Convention rules is that we are in a tough spot. Unless Joe Biden steps aside voluntarily or god forbid drops dead as my own father did at 71, he is locked in to be the Democratic nominee.

I don’t know Joe Biden, and I don’t know the best strategy or tactics to persuade him that the future of our country is at stake if he puts his ego above the good of our Democratic Party chances.

I don’t know, but I know that Democratic leaders do know and have access to the President and can make the case if they work together. Simply put, if you truly believe the soul of our country and democracy itself is at stake, take those comments you texted to your confidents in private and tell the truth in public, on television, together in concert. If the stakes are truly that high, then what’s the point of silence?

That’s why I am sharing my thoughts as a local volunteer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I encourage you to do the same.

Now, if Joe Biden is the nominee, I am still 100% committed to organizing every day to make sure he is reelected, just like I did in 2020. The stakes are high, and while I supported umpteen other candidates, I knew that literally millions of Americans were dying because of the fecklessness of Donald Trump, injecting bleach and all. And we won!

So this is a conversation that requires nuance and hard intervention. Yes, Joe Biden should step aside because he is more likely than not to lose. Vice President Kamala Harris is best positioned to use party resources and relentlessly prosecute the case against a 34-count felon. But also yes, we need to do everything we can to make sure Donald Trump doesn’t win again.

Thank you for everything you are doing, and I look forward to organizing together this year.