President Joe Biden clinched the Democratic presidential primary in Maine and several states voting on Super Tuesday over nominal opposition within his party.
Exit polls showed that Biden would easily defeat U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, the only other candidate on the Maine ballot. The Bangor Daily News and its national election results partners at Decision Desk HQ called the primary for Biden just as polls closed at 8 p.m.
Biden has spent the vast majority of his life in politics. The former vice president became the favorite for 2020 Democratic nomination after several candidates dropped out days ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries. He unexpectedly won Maine and led Trump wire to wire to win a general election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democrats across the country have done well during Biden’s tenure, turning in a durable 2022 midterm performance despite historic headwinds against the president’s party. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of the Trump-friendly 2nd District won reelection and Democrats in the Maine Legislature clinched six straight years of control.
Yet Biden is in a weak position for an incumbent, trailing Trump in national polls with an approval rating stuck in the 30s. He even found himself behind the former president in a recent poll of Democratic-leaning Maine that found majority support for both Golden and U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
The biggest vulnerability for Biden may be his age of 81. Roughly 63 percent of voters said they were not confident in his mental capability to serve effectively as president in a recent poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That was only slightly higher than the 57 percent who said the same thing about the 77-year-old Trump.
Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided. Super Tuesday voters in Biden’s party said abortion (28 percent) and the economy (25 percent) were the issues they are prioritizing most, while 44 percent of Republicans in the voting states including Maine said immigration was their top issue. according to Decision Desk HQ’s exit poll.
In Bangor on Tuesday, Elizabeth Soldati-Glanville, a 74-year-old retired ed tech, said she appreciated many of Biden’s policies, including the insulin cap for Americans on Medicare that passed as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the post-pandemic economic recovery.
“Biden has the experience, temperament and class of a president,” she said.
