For Democratic voters who have spent much of the summer brooding about President Biden’s fitness for office, his decision on Sunday not to seek re-election came as a relief. Now, they figured, their political party might stand a chance in November — though many still expressed deep doubts.
“I’m overjoyed, absolutely overjoyed,” said Mark Oliver Rylance, 67, a Democrat from Columbus, Ohio, said about Mr. Biden’s announcement. Just last weekend, Mr. Rylance participated in a demonstration outside of the Ohio Democratic Party convention calling for Mr. Biden to step aside.
“If Biden had stayed in, we would have lost absolutely everything,” he added, echoing the feelings of many Democrats. “We would have lost the House, would have lost the Senate, and it could very well have been a landslide.”
The delicate subjects of whether Mr. Biden, 81, was fit for another term and how long he might stay in the race after his disastrous debate performance last month had found their way into conversations at dinner parties, neighborhood parks and church gatherings. The end of Mr. Biden’s candidacy on Sunday shifted some Democrats’ emotions from profound anxiety to hopeful determination, even if what comes next for their party remains unclear.
There was also plenty of resignation to the idea that no Democrat might be able to pull off a victory against former President Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the ticket drew quick support from some voters eager to chart a path forward. But, underscoring the party’s tumult, others were certain that Ms. Harris, whose own presidential campaign four years ago fizzled, would face ugly attacks and rejection.
“I’m ready to have a woman president,” said Michael Wood, 50, who lives in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Germantown in Philadelphia. “I don’t think the country is ready.”
In South Miami, Fla., Carolina Camps, a 78-year-old Democrat, said many older women on the board of her nonpartisan organization of Cuban American women had remained supportive of Mr. Biden, despite his age.
“We understand that he might be frail, but we still think he had good acuity for the job,” she said. She compared Mr. Biden to Yoda from Star Wars, “a wise, old man with dignity and principle.”
Amy Stelly, a 66-year-old urban planner and community activist in New Orleans, said she would be “elated” if Ms. Harris became the nominee.Credit…Edmund D. Fountain for The New York Times
Amy Stelly, a 66-year-old urban planner and community activist in New Orleans, said that while she had supported Mr. Biden, she said she feared that his candidacy would not appeal to young voters. Ms. Stelly, who is Black, said she would be “elated” if Ms. Harris became the nominee.
“She is educated and the kind of clear thinker we need for these difficult times,” Ms. Stelly said. “I also think she would mop Trump up in a debate.”
Already, many Democrats were musing over whom Ms. Harris might pick as a running mate. And there was little consensus.
In Michigan, a critical swing state, David Mittleman, a 67-year-old lawyer from East Lansing who has long been active in Democratic politics, suggested Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. In Traverse City, Mich., Cameron Stefanski, 31, said he would be excited if Ms. Harris selected Ms. Whitmer or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has a home in Michigan.
But Mr. Stefanski also said that he expected Ms. Harris might choose someone like Gov. Gavin Newsom of California or Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, “just to bring in that moderate vote.”
Either way, he added, the party needed to unify behind a strategy, and soon.
“When we have a plan and stick to it, like we did in 2020, that’s how Joe Biden won,” Mr. Stefanski said. “People have to come together and have a plan and execute.”
Armand Domalewski, who last month protested Mr. Trump’s appearance at a fund-raiser in San Francisco, said he was “shellshocked” by how much had happened in the race since then.Credit…Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
Several Democratic voters said that Mr. Biden had waited too long to withdraw.
In Los Angeles, Massiel Cabrera, 39, said that she and others on her family group chat were trying to reassure one of her sisters who was “panicking a little bit, saying that now she thinks Trump might win because it’s too late.”
“And we’re saying, ‘No, you know, there’s still time,’” said Ms. Cabrera, a freelance copywriter. “Honestly at this point, I’m pretty desperate, and I would vote for anybody the party puts in.”
Dima Nazzal, a 47-year-old engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was at a videogame parlor in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon when she received a news notification and then a flood of text messages about Mr. Biden’s decision. For her, there was no rush of optimism.
“I wish the Democratic Party had started this work a year ago, at least,” said Dr. Nazzal, who tends to vote for Democrats.
She said Mr. Biden’s endorsement of Ms. Harris seemed like the only move to make, given the time crunch.
“I don’t think they will win,” she said — though perhaps, she added, now their defeat will “not be a landslide anymore.”
Others had even bleaker predictions.
“It’s too late,” said Osborn Murray, 58, a retired Army officer who lost a Democratic primary for the Georgia State Senate in the Atlanta area this year. Referring to the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania last weekend, he added, “The election was lost when Trump survived that attack. He came out like a gladiator with his fist up in the air and an American flag behind him.”
Mr. Biden had to endorse his vice president, Mr. Murray said, or he would have faced a party “revolt.”
But, “as a candidate, you have to prove yourself to the masses,” he said, referring to Ms. Harris. “What can you do when nobody likes you?”
Though Democrats must now pick a new nominee in a short period of time, several party members said that at least they could shed the uncertainty that had plagued the party since the debate.
“I just needed to know what we were going to do,” said Kevyn Creech, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Wake County, N.C., who said the party’s internal strife dominated the conversation at a dinner for state Democrats on Saturday night.
Ms. Creech, whose Democratic-leaning county could play a pivotal role in North Carolina because of an influx of newcomers since the coronavirus pandemic, said volunteers would not sugarcoat the oddity of the situation when talking to voters.
“We’re going to be upfront with people: ‘Yeah, it’s weird,’” Ms. Creech said. “When we’re talking to folks, we’ll acknowledge their feelings and then say, ‘But the next step for you as a voter is clear.’”
The significance of Mr. Biden’s decision — that he stepped aside for what many Democrats saw as the greater good — was not lost on the party’s voters, several of whom described the turmoil since the debate as unbearable.
In San Francisco, Armand Domalewski, a 34-year-old data analyst who last month protested Mr. Trump’s appearance at a fund-raiser in the city, said he was “shellshocked” by how much had happened in the race since then. Now he felt a solemn sense of gratitude toward Mr. Biden.
“I didn’t think I’d feel the historical gravity of the moment this profoundly,” he said.
Still, Mr. Domalewski cautioned his fellow Democrats against predicting what will happen next.
“Everything is changing so much, so fast,” he said. “Anyone who’s confident that nothing will change between now and November has to be crazy.”
Reporting was contributed by Oralandar Brand-Williams in Southfield, Mich.; Audra D. S. Burch in Hollywood, Fla.; Corina Knoll in Los Angeles; Eduardo Medina in Mars, Pa.; Jenna Russell in Salt Lake City; Edgar Sandoval from San Antonio; Dan Simmons in East Troy, Wis.; Verónica Zaragovia from Miami Beach; Richard Fausset and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon in Atlanta; Jon Hurdle and Craig R. McCoy in Philadelphia; and Christina Morales and Isabelle Taft in New York.
