President Joe Biden delivers a standard two-word answer whenever he is asked about his fitness to serve a second term, smiling as he declares with an air of boastful confidence: “Watch me.”
That’s exactly what Kathi Harris is doing. So far, she is unbothered by it all.
“Age is just a number,” said Harris, a loyal Democrat and longtime civic leader here in western Michigan. “Until God takes him home, he has the strength right now to do what he needs to be doing for the country.”
Yet that does not mean she is particularly enthusiastic about the road ahead or doesn’t wish voters would be given choices beyond Biden, 80, and a potential rematch with former President Donald Trump, 76.
“Do I get excited? No!” she said. “I just think of, again, all that craziness.”
A week after declaring his bid for reelection, a wave of new Biden campaign ads touting his accomplishments are already airing in Michigan as the president works to elevate his standing among Democrats and independents who backed him four years ago.
Khara DeWit, a small businesswoman who opened South East Market two years ago to bring fresh groceries to an underserved Grand Rapids neighborhood, exhaled when asked about the next presidential race and whether she intended to cast her vote once again for Biden.
“I personally only voted for him as a way to debunk Trump,” said DeWit, who fondly recalls seeing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her preferred candidate, on a visit here before the Michigan primary in 2020. “But I really thought our democracy was in jeopardy and I wanted someone else.”
For more than two years, she has watched Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and is not displeased with their record or governing style.
Of the president, she said: “He is about…
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