DNC delegates grapple with disappointment over Biden, raise questions about his leadership continuity.

A pervasive sense of fear and uncertainty about President Joe Biden’s electoral prospects has taken hold among the very Democratic delegates poised to nominate him — even among the many who say they still back him. Some are going so far as to say he should step aside.

One week after Biden’s faceplant in the debate, rank-and-file delegates to the Democratic National Convention insist they are still largely supportive of the president, according to interviews with more than three dozen of them. But they are also grimly shaken — far less confident in the presumptive nominee than they were just a week ago. And in the unlikely scenario he does, there is confusion both about how they would approach the nominating convention next month and who they would coalesce around instead.

Some delegates say they are eager to support Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative and are hopeful that Biden will make way for her. But others are not sold on Harris and are open to a range of other Democratic prospects instead.

“After watching the debate, I don't feel like he's up to the task for four more years, and I think we need to be electing someone who can serve in that capacity for a full term,” said Marilyn Burgess, a Democratic delegate from Harris County, Texas, where she is the county clerk. “I hope he will consider withdrawing and releasing his delegates if he's on the ballot … I’m his delegate, and I'm going to vote for him, but I think it's time to look at alternatives and to not just accept that it's a done deal.”

Biden has clinched nearly all of the roughly 4,000 delegates to the convention — who are bound by “good conscience” to back him. Representing the wishes of voters in their states, these delegates are more than pundits or — as the Biden campaign has derided some detractors — “self-important podcasters” or a “bedwetting brigade.” Rather, they are often some of the party’s most reliable political foot soldiers — the people Biden will need behind him in Chicago.

Many of those delegates are downright doleful.

Valerie Moore, a delegate from South Carolina, the state that reanimated Biden’s then-flailing primary campaign in 2020, said she and her fellow delegates were “in a stage of grief, possibly, or mourning for what was hopefully going to put Trump away in the first debate and that didn't happen.”

Moore has met Biden twice, most recently in January, and said the 81-year-old president’s debate performance reminded her of her father who died in March at 90 years old, after declining late in life.

A delegate from Texas, granted anonymity to speak freely, said, “I don’t know if I could, in good conscience, support him.” And another South Carolina delegate, granted anonymity to speak freely, lamented the complexities of being a pledged delegate to Biden.

“I'm very quickly reaching a point that I hope his name is not on the ballot, to free up that restraint,” this person said.

The delegate was practically rooting for an open convention: “I think it would be fantastic for the party. I mean think about it: people would watch it. It would get the ratings, it has the drama that people would pay attention to. And if multiple candidates were seeking our nomination, you would have wall-to-wall, week-long, prime time coverage of all of our best rising stars, delivering the party message that, frankly, Joe Biden couldn't against Donald Trump.”

But even delegates who did not relish such a display and said they remain steadfast in their support for Biden described what they feared would now be a rolling wellness check with each subsequent public Biden appearance.

“What I'm really looking at is: How are his appearances now going forward?” said Irene Bonham, a delegate from Colorado. “What does he look like without the prompter? How are things coming together out there in the field?”

Half a dozen delegates told POLITICO they would look to Harris as Biden’s heir apparent should he withdraw — something Biden has given no indication he plans to do.

“If anything like that were to happen, it’s more likely than not that our Vice President Kamala Harris would be our candidate,” said Samantha Hope Herring, a Florida delegate and elected member of the Democratic National Committee.

But that kind of consensus is far from a certainty, and for as unsettled as many Democrats have become about Biden’s candidacy, it’s not clear who they would move behind, instead. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has disavowed efforts to draft her. California Gov. Gavin Newsom was scheduled to travel to Washington on Wednesday to attend a meeting between Biden and Democratic governors — “to stand with the president,” a spokesperson said. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said after the debate that Biden is “up to the job.”

“I think Democrats are sort of all across the board, and I feel like there would be so much, there would be a split as to who to choose if it was so open,” said Chaundra Bishop, an Illinois delegate and Urbana councilmember.

Bishop said she is still a Biden supporter, and that if he stepped aside, “I mean, that's something to really think about. I don't know. I think it would be maybe even chaotic.”

In a statement to POLITICO, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison underscored the majority of Democratic voters backed the president during the primary this year and the delegates have an obligation to reflect those voters’ preference.

“The primary is over, and in every state the will of Democratic voters was clear: Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for President. Delegates are pledged to reflect voters’ sentiment, and over 99% of delegates are already pledged to Joe Biden headed into our convention,” Harrison said.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Facing an unprecedented crisis, Biden’s campaign has moved in recent days to calm nerves across the party. In addition to meeting with Democratic governors, Biden is scheduled to participate in his first post-debate interview, with “Good Morning America” and “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. His campaign was working to add travel to his schedule, potentially with stops in Milwaukee on Friday and Philadelphia over the weekend.

One delegate granted anonymity to describe private conversations said the Biden campaign reached out to them to make sure they still support the president.

But the damage control appears to be uneven. Some other delegates who spoke with POLITICO said they have yet to hear from Biden or his campaign.

Bob Mulholland, a veteran California political adviser who served on the DNC for 28 years and who will be attending his 13th national convention, said he has not heard from anyone attached to the campaign, nor has any other delegate he has talked to.

Mulholland remains steadfast in his support for Biden, declaring that “one debate does not make a campaign.”

Brandon Scott, the mayor of Baltimore and a Maryland Delegate, reflected the majority consensus of delegates reached by POLITICO who said they remain firmly behind Biden, saying he’s not currently contemplating contingency candidates.

“Now, if that changes, it changes, but at this point, I'm not,” Scott said.

Or as Bonham, the Colorado delegate who said she has been brushing up on convention rules in anticipation of “intrigue”, put it: “We’re not happy with the performance, but I don’t know that we’re quite ready to abandon ship yet.”

At a minimum, that ship has become far more difficult to steady in the week since the debate. In Wisconsin, Marcelia Nicholson, chair of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, said the debate was “kind of sobering, I think, for folks to see his age play out,” arguing that delegates’ responsibility is to elect an administration, not just one man.

In California, Igor Tregub, a Berkeley City Council member and chair of the Alameda County Democrats, said that while he is staying loyal to Biden, he has received emails and texts from fellow Democrats in his county party asking him to relay to the national party that they want an open convention.

And in New York, Democratic House candidate George Latimer, who won a bruising primary against Rep. Jamaal Bowman last week, said, “Now the question is what we saw on Thursday night indicative of who he is every single day? If it is, we’ve got a major problem … But then I heard him speak the next day when he appeared in some places; he looked vigorous proportionate to his age.”

“He has to show, and we’ll see whether he does or doesn’t over the next few weeks, that he has the vigor and he has the acuity,” Latimer said. “He may be able to do it, he may not be able to do it. I tend to think he will, but I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Some delegates are already looking for an exit. A California delegate, granted anonymity to discuss their inclination freely, predicted Trump would win in November.

The delegate said of Biden, “I’m hoping he steps aside and plays a grand role at the convention — but not as being president.”

Holly Otterbein, Lara Korte, Kierra Frazier and Heidi Przybyla contributed to this report.