Democratic debate stage without Biden sparks 'Trump vibes' for some voters

MANCHESTER, N.H. – President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have at least one thing in common – they both haven't debated challengers for their party's 2024 nomination.

But it likely won’t matter for either frontrunner in upcoming primaries and caucuses.

Biden didn't participate Monday in the first Democratic primary debate of the 2024 season, hosted in New Hampshire by New England College. The event came just two weeks before the state’s historic, first-in-the-nation primary contest.

Longshot candidates Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., instead took the stage, touting nearly identical platforms on issues to a crowd of about 200 tuned-in voters and high school students.

Some attendees said Biden’s absence loomed large during the debate.

“It's kind of giving Donald Trump vibes because Donald Trump hasn't gone to any of the Republican debates,” Hannah Lowell, a 19-year-old from Laconia, New Hampshire, said of Biden’s absence in the hotel ballroom where the event was held.

Biden chose to skip the New Hampshire primary set for this month due to a dispute over the state’s place on the Democratic primary calendar. Even if he wanted to participate in the Monday debate, the president wouldn't have been able to attend because the rules mandated all participants be on the New Hampshire Democratic ballot.

But the president is still favored to win the Granite State contest, via a write-in effort, and the Democratic presidential nomination later this year. A Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll conducted in mid-December found 50% of Democrats planned to write in Biden’s name.

But the crowd of voters who turned out Monday to watch his Democratic rivals compete viewed the president's absence as a form of self-disqualification. They split over whether to support the incumbent leader, mirroring the wide-ranging sentiments of liberal-leaning voters across the country.

The Biden backers

A large chunk of Democrats in New Hampshire support Biden’s reelection bid – even though the president angered some voters when he supported an effort to strip New Hampshire of it’s first-in-nation primary status and then decided not to appear on the ballot.

Sitting near a group of middle school students at the debate, Gale Taylor, 68, told USA TODAY she was still angry about the president’s decision.

Biden last year backed an effort by national Democrats to push New Hampshire’s contest later in the 2024 cycle, despite a state law mandating that it hold the first primary. Because of the dispute, the national party threatened any candidates who appeared on the Granite State ballot with penalties, and Biden opted against it.

“It really hurt. It's almost like a form of voter suppression,” Taylor, a retired IBM employee from Concord, said of the move to not count New Hampshire’s delegates. Even so, she is still planning to write-in Biden’s name come Jan. 23, citing his experience and accomplishments in office.

“I got beyond it,” Taylor said. “I decided I need to support him.”

Granite State Write-In, a group backing Biden, says it has organized several thousand voters just like Taylor who plan to print the president’s name on their ballot in the upcoming election. It’s hoping to convince more voters to back the president through local Democratic groups.

The Democratic defectors

Nevertheless, another group of liberal-leaning voters say they don't feel obligated to support Biden after he decided not to appear on the New Hampshire ballot.

Hella Ross, 69, said she saw Biden’s decision to snub New Hampshire as an opportunity to fulfill what she views as a more pressing responsibility: keeping Trump from winning his party’s nomination.

Ross, who met Taylor during an election event over the summer and accompanied her to the debate on Monday, dropped her Democratic Party affiliation in the fall so she could vote in the state’s Republican primary.

“I'm going to be voting for Nikki Haley because I think she's best positioned to keep him from becoming the nominee,” the Rochester resident told USA TODAY. “I'll be a registered Republican for the first time in my life. It’s going to be so uncomfortable. But it's desperate times right now, I’m just taking a desperate measure.”

She’s not alone. USA TODAY found that about 4% of Democrats changed their party affiliation before an October deadline last year.

For Ross, the decision is only temporary. She ultimately plans to vote for the Democratic nominee in the general election.

The youth vote

Several young voters at the debate told USA TODAY they were leaning toward supporting Biden’s primary challengers who appeared onstage.

Avery Opland, 20, told USA TODAY that she had long planned to write in Biden’s name. Then came his response to the Israel-Hamas war.

“I understand but I don't approve of his stance on military support for Israel,” Opland, a political science major at Plymouth State University said. She explained she was disappointed Biden hasn't backed a cease-fire in the war.

“You think he would want to be a humanitarian,” Opland said, adding that she also was hoping to support a younger candidate. “I felt like there was a consensus among the party that he'd be like a one-term president after Trump and then pass it on to a younger generation.”

She said she's leaning towards voting for Williamson in the primary but wants to learn more about Phillips after watching his debate performance.

The Saint Anselm poll from December showed Phillips with 10% support and Williamson with 7%. Neither are likely to beat Biden, but their candidacies could further reveal his weaknesses among Democratic voters like Opland.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NH debate stage without Biden sparks 'Trump vibes' for some voters