Two House Democrats facing challenging reelection races in rural districts said Tuesday that President Biden would lose to former President Donald J. Trump in November, reinforcing widespread pessimism within the Democratic Party about its presidential nominee.
The two Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, have not called on Biden to step aside, nor have they indicated that another Democrat would have a better chance of defeating Trump in the fall.
But Mr. Golden and Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez, who are among the most vulnerable incumbents in Congress this election cycle, were effectively warning that they were preparing for Mr. Biden as a critical burden at the top of the ticket. A poor showing by Mr. Biden in the presidential race could ruin their own chances for reelection.
In an opinion piece In The Bangor Daily News, Mr. Golden, who represents a district that Mr. Trump won in 2020, said he had expected Mr. Trump to win for months and had made his peace with that outcome.
“Many Democrats are panicking about whether President Joe Biden should resign as the party’s nominee,” he wrote. “Biden’s poor performance in the debate was no surprise.”
“It hasn’t upset me as much as it has upset some people,” Mr. Golden added, “because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: Even though I don’t plan on voting for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And that’s OK with me.”
In an interview with a local television station, Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez, a first-term Democrat from a rural red-wash district, also predicted Biden would lose, blaming his poor performance in the debate.
“About 50 million Americans watched that debate,” she said. told KATU Newswho looked dejected during the interview. “I was one of them for five very painful minutes.”
After carefully considering her answer to a question about whether the president should step aside, Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez said: “The truth is, I think, Biden is going to lose to Trump. I know it’s hard, but I think the damage is done.”
She added that voters in the Democratic primary had already chosen Biden and that “a core principle of democracy is that you accept the results of an election.”
“Biden is the nominee,” she said.
