These major Democratic leaders from NJ explain why Biden should drop out

A high-profile Democratic lawmaker from New Jersey has joined a growing chorus calling for her party's incumbent to step aside with the election just months away.

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J. 11th District, became the first member of Congress from the Garden State and the seventh in the nation to say that President Joe Biden should end his reelection campaign in favor of another Democratic candidate.

In doing so, she has joined a small but growing group of Democrats nationally who have publicly voiced their desire for the 81-year-old Biden to exit the presidential race in the wake of his poor performance in CNN’s debate last month.

“I know that President Biden and his team have been true public servants and have put the country and the best interests of democracy first and foremost in their considerations,” Sherrill said in a written statement.

“And because I know President Biden cares deeply about the future of our country, I am asking that he declare that he won’t run for reelection and will help lead us through a process toward a new nominee," said Sherrill, who is considered by political observers to be a potential candidate for governor.

But in New Jersey, a state Biden easily won in 2020 and where he captured almost 90% of the Democratic primary vote in 2024, the current occupant of the Oval Office mostly enjoys neutrality on the issue of his age or unwavering support.

The only other major Democratic figure in the state to endorse the idea of the president dropping out is Tom Malinowski, a former congressman who is now chairman of the Hunterdon County Democratic Committee, who said he wants to see Biden “pass the torch” to a new nominee for president.

Most members of Congress from the Garden State demurred or declined to say much on the national debate about their presumptive nominee.

U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. 5th District, fell into this camp, telling the New Jersey Globe that running or not was Biden’s decision to make.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J. 6th District, told reporters that their focus was on beating Donald Trump in November.

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J. 3rd District, currently running for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat, went a bit further and expressed “concerns” over Biden’s ability to hand Trump another electoral defeat, but did not definitively say he lost faith in the president completely.

Conversely, U.S. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J. 12th District, Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. 9th District, and Donald Norcross, D-N.J. 1st District, all reaffirmed their backing of Biden as the Democratic nominee. They join Gov. Phil Murphy, an outspoken ally of the president, as prominent New Jersey politicians who stand by him.

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