[datawrapper embed]As the race to become president of the United States continues to heat up, members of the Democratic party fear for their leader Joe Biden's prospects of retaining the White House.
The 81-year-old president has vowed to stay in the race.
He has also sought to reassure top Democrats he is up for the task despite a disastrous debate performance against his opponent Donald Trump last week.
Two representatives have already recommended he step aside, joining some of the country's largest newspapers.
Others have expressed concern for Mr Biden's health, demanding answers from the campaign.
Multiple high-ranking Democrats raise concerns
The president and Vice President Kamala Harris met with 24 Democratic governors and the mayor of Washington, DC to reassure them he was up for the job on Wednesday night local time.
Nearly a dozen state leaders attended the meeting in person, with some joining online, but only three spoke with media afterwards.
There are 25 Democratic members of the House of Representatives preparing to call for Biden to step aside if he seems shaky in coming days, according to one House Democratic aide speaking to Reuters.
Two have already stepped forward.
"It looks like the dam has broken," said a second aide.
DROP OUT: Lloyd Doggett
Texas Representative Lloyd Doggett was the first congressional Democrat to call for Biden to step down.
"Recognising that, unlike Trump, President Biden's first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw," he said in a statement.
"I respectfully call to him to do so."
"President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump.
"I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not."
He told NBC News he hoped other Democratic officials would follow his lead.
DROP OUT: Raúl Grijalva
Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva cited the "precarious" state of the campaign.
"What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat," Mr Grijalva told the New York Times.
"And part of that responsibility is to get out of this race."
Mr Grijalva represents an area in southern Arizona along the US-Mexico border, a crucial and contentious area for Mr Biden's re-election effort.
CONCERNED: Nancy Pelosi
The former house speaker, still a prominent member of the Democratic party, said it was a "legitimate" question to ask whether Mr Biden's debate performance was "an episode" or "a condition".
"Both candidates owe whatever test you want to put them to, in terms of their mental acuity and their health, both of them," she told MSNBC.
But asked for further comment, a representative for Ms Pelosi said she has "full confidence" in Mr Biden and "looks forward to attending his inauguration on January 20, 2025".
CONCERNED: Summer Lee
Pennsylvania Representative Summer Lee called on Mr Biden to prove he was up to the task of winning an election.
Speaking on a satellite radio broadcast, she said: "If President Biden and his team decides that he's staying in this race, then it's going to be incumbent on them to show us — to show us, not tell us — to show us that he's up for the task."
"If our president decides that this is not the pathway forward for him, then it means that we are going to have to move very quickly."
If Mr Biden did step aside, Ms Lee said, Vice President Kamala Harris was "the obvious choice" to replace him.
CONCERNED: Andy Beshear
The Kentucky governor is among a number of Democratic governors meeting with the president amid concerns about the campaign.
He has said he would continue to support Mr Biden for as long as he remains in the race.
Following the debate, Mr Beshear told CNN: "I don't think it's an attack on the White House or an attack on the president — who is a good man and a nice man — to just say, 'Tell us a little bit more about how you're doing.'
"[For parents] if you've got two separate grandparents that you can leave your kids with — one is kind and has been good to them, maybe stiffer, may have had a bad debate, and one is angry and talks about getting revenge on people — who are you going to trust your kids with?
"And should we entrust the country with any less?"
CONCERNED: James E Clyburn
The South Carolina Representative told The Hill he planned to speak with the president to give an assessment of his "standing" with Americans.
"I think that the American people want an explanation," he said.
"They need to be reassured, and I hope that over the next several days, we'll do that."
Mr Clyburn has been credited in the past with earning Mr Biden's 2020 win in South Carolina.
CONCERNED: Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
The Washington congresswoman has not called on Mr Biden to step aside, but has said she does not believe he can win against Donald Trump.
"The truth, I think, is that Biden will lose to Trump," she told KATU News.
"I know it's difficult, but I think the damage has been done."
But she noted primary Democratic voters had chosen Mr Biden, and accepting that nomination was "a core tenet of democracy".
CONCERNED: Jared Golden
The Maine representative, like Ms Gluesenkamp Perez, faces a challenging bid for re-election.
Mr Golden said he has assumed for months that Trump would win, adding he had made his peace in an opinion essay published recently.
"Lots of Democrats are panicking about whether President Joe Biden should step down as the party's nominee," he wrote, noting the debate performance was "not a surprise".
"It also didn't rattle me as it has others because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months.
"While I don't plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I'm OK with that."
CONCERNED: Mike Quiqley
The Illinois representative said Mr Biden "has to be honest with himself".
"It's his decision," Mr Quigley told CNN.
"I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts, not just his race, but all the other races coming in November."
CONCERNED: Peter Welch
While he hasn't called for Mr Biden to step down, the Vermont senator has warned the president could take other Democrats down with him.
"So if we do really poorly at the presidential level, that creates a fierce undertow," he told CNN.
"He's wrestling with [standing aside]. He's reading the polls.
"I'm confident that at the end of the day the president will make his decision based on what's best for the country."
CONCERNED: Sheldon Whitehouse
The Rhode Island senator has said he was "pretty horrified" by the debate, telling local TV he could barely recognise his former Senate colleague.
He also asked the Biden campaign to give proof of Mr Biden's health.
"I think people want to make sure that this is a campaign that's ready to go and win, that the president and his team are being candid with us about his condition — that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days," he said.
"I've been critical of the campaign all along, so the upside is that this could be the jolt that they need to make a more compelling case against Donald Trump."
CONFIDENT: Kathy Hochul
The New York Governor said she felt confident after meeting with the president at the White House.
She told media outside that the president was "in it to win it".
CONFIDENT: Tim Walz
The Minnesota governor, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said Biden's debate performance on Thursday was bad but he felt Biden was fit for office.
He was also in attendance in person at the White House meeting on Wednesday night.
"Obviously we, like many Americans, are a little worried. We're worried because the threat of a Trump presidency is not theoretical," he said.
He added the previous Trump presidency was marked by "chaos, destruction."
CONFIDENT: Wes Moore
The Maryland governor said he and his colleagues were frank in relaying negative feedback from constituents.
He said there was clearly work to do before the November 5 election, but that Mr Biden had made it clear he would stay in the race.
"The president has always had our backs. We're going to have his back as well," he told media.
CONFIDENT: Gavin Newsom
The California governor was among those who travelled to the White House for the meeting with Mr Biden.
He posted his reaction to social media but did not speak to news outlets on the ground.
"I heard three words from the president tonight — he's all in," he wrote.
"And so am I."
News organisations speak out against Biden campaign
Media outlets across the United States have also called on Biden to suspend his campaign in the wake of his poor debate performance.
Latest among them is the Boston Globe, joining a growing list of editorial boards labelling the Biden campaign a "national endangerment".
Other newspapers have been less direct, avoiding outright recommending the president step down.
The editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer — the swing state's largest newspaper — instead called on Trump to step down.
"Biden must show that he is up to the job," they wrote.
"But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump's usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering."
In the days since last week's presidential debate, President Biden's team has said little that adequately explains why his performance was historically bad, beyond that he had a cold ...
What we mostly heard instead was the closing of ranks around a beleaguered and wounded candidate.
— The Boston Globe Mr Biden is not the man he was four years ago. ... The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant.
[The] greatest public service Mr Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.
— The New York Times In November 2022 [we] said that, after a lifetime of public service, Joe Biden should not seek re-election as president ... If Mr Biden really cares about his mission, then his last and greatest public service should be to stand aside for another Democratic nominee.
— The Economist I never thought I would be writing a column to urge Joe Biden to step aside. But his painfully poor performance in his debate ... forced me to face a very uncomfortable truth. His debate showing was a capital-D disaster.
The horrible truth: Biden needs to bow out.
— Chicago Tribune editorial board senior member Clarence Page The 81-year-old president has shown a greater capacity to tell the truth than his opponent, former president Donald Trump.
But the unfortunate truth is that Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century.
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution For the president to insist on remaining the Democratic candidate would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment.
To step aside and unleash the admittedly complicated process of locating and nominating a more robust and promising ticket seems the more rational course and would be an act of patriotism.
— The New Yorker editor David Remnick If Biden steps down, who could replace him?
Should he step down, Vice President Kamala Harris is the top and "obvious" alternative to take up the baton, according to senior campaign sources.
Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager for former president Barack Obama, whose firm is on contract to produce the Democratic National Convention in August, said "President Biden is the nominee and he's going to remain the nominee."
"For those who are looking for some sort of inter-party fight, be careful what you wish for because that would ensure a Trump victory," she said in a statement.
Both Mr Trump, 78, and Mr Biden, 81, maintain the support of 40 per cent of registered voters, according to a two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this week.
But among the names of top Democrats put before respondents, only Michelle Obama outperformed Biden and led Trump 50 per cent to 39 per cent in a hypothetical match-up.
Ms Obama has said repeatedly she does not intend to run for president.
Some 32 per cent of Democrats in the same poll said Mr Biden should give up his re-election bid.
Kamala Harris
If named as the party nominee, the 59-year-old vice president would take over money raised by the Biden campaign and inherit campaign infrastructure.
She also has the highest name recognition among all the alternatives, and the highest polling among Democrats who could seriously be considered a candidate, sources told Reuters.
In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, Ms Harris trailed Mr Trump by one percentage point at 42 per cent to 43 per cent, a difference that was well within the poll's 3.5 percentage point margin of error, a showing statistically just as strong as Biden's.
In addition, she has already been vetted for national office and has survived intense scrutiny from Republicans.
Her aides have dismissed any talk of a Democratic ticket that doesn't include both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
"Vice President Harris looks forward to serving a second term with President Joe Biden," a statement from her office said.
Gretchen Whitmer
The Michigan governor came into office in 2018 on the slogan "Fix the Damn Roads" and landed an easy re-election in 2022.
She has since been able to notch key victories on abortion and union law.
Politico has reported she has personally called Biden campaign officials to make it clear she was not among those responsible for her name being listed as a potential candidate.
Gavin Newsom
The California governor has been one of the most prominent Democrats in the country in the lead up to the election.
He's made frequent appearances on television supporting and defending Mr Biden and has repeatedly denied any interest in running for president.
But he has also been listed as a possible 2028 candidate.
Andy Beshear
The Kentucky governor gained a larger profile for his re-election victory in the Republican state last year.
He has told supporters any suggestion of a presidential run was "flattering" but was "a reflection of all the good things going on in Kentucky".
JB Pritzker
The Illinois governor will host the Democratic National Convention next month, and has been a staunch defender of Mr Biden during the campaign.
He also made headlines when his abortion-rights group announced it would invest $US500,000 ($744,925) into efforts to enshrine abortion protection in Florida law.
But he has also remained a supporter of Mr Biden in the aftermath of the debate.
Pete Buttigieg
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ran for president in 2020, gaining popularity and traction among voters.
Local media outlets speculate his relative youth — 42 years old — would put him in appealing contrast to Mr Biden.
ABC/Reuters
