US election: Who can replace Joe Biden as lead candidate?

 US election: Who can replace Joe Biden as lead candidate?, 

US election: Who can replace Joe Biden as lead candidate?, With just months left before the US heads to the polls, Joe Biden is under pressure to clear the way for a younger, more energetic candidate to run against Donald Trump. Who could step in, if Biden decides to step down?The first 2024 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden proved disastrous for the current US president. Biden, who is now 81, often appeared absent and confused, frequently slurring his speech and stumbling over his words, making 78-year-old Trump, famous for his emotionally fueled, hard-to-follow rants, look collected and lucid by comparison.

While concerns over Biden's age and mental faculties are nothing new, the debate felt like a breaking point. A poll commissioned by the US news outlet CBS after the event found that 72% of all registered voters felt Biden did not have the "mental and cognitive health" to serve as US president. Roughly half of registered voters say the same of Trump.

Perhaps more concerningly, 46% of registered Democratic voters now believe Biden should not be running for another term in office at all. This marks a 10% jump since February.

The Democratic Party has already taken notice. Despite its top leaders closing ranks behind Biden, and the White House insisting that he was "absolutely not" dropping out of the race, speculation is rife about candidates who could possibly stand in to face off against Trump this November. So, who could take over Biden's campaign this late in the game?

Biden's second-in-command, Kamala Harris, is the most obvious choice for the next Democratic nominee. In 2020, she made history by becoming the first woman, the first Black person, and the first person of Indian origin to serve as a US vice president.

But Harris has struggled to establish herself as a political leader independent from Biden during her time in the White House. In the early days of the Biden administration, she was tasked with leading the US response to mass immigration from Latin America. She has widely failed to curb migration, and Trump's campaign has already used this against her.

Since 2023, Harris has been building up her profile as a voice for reproductive rights, even becoming the first vice president in history to visit an abortion clinic this March. Her gender identity and heritage might help her secure the support of more female, Black, and Southeast Asian voters. At the same time, her career as a prosecutor in California leaves her open to attacks from parts of the left, best summarized under the "Kamala is a cop" slogan which haunted her presidential bid in 2019.

An Ipsos poll this week put Harris just one percentage point behind Trump (Harris' 42% to Trump's 43%) in a potential matchup. However, the same poll put Trump and Biden in a dead heat, with each of them projected to claim 40% of the votes. Harris is 59 years old.