As President Biden shifts his re-election marketing campaign into increased gear, the energy of his candidacy is being examined by a hanging divide between Democratic leaders, who’re overwhelmingly unified behind his bid, and rank-and-file voters within the social gathering who harbor persistent doubts about whether or not he’s their most suitable choice.

From the best ranges of the social gathering on down, Democratic politicians and social gathering officers have lengthy dismissed the concept Mr. Biden ought to have any credible main challenger. Yet regardless of their efforts — and the president’s lack of a severe opponent inside his social gathering — they’ve been unable to dispel Democratic issues about him that heart largely on his age and vitality.

The discord between the social gathering’s elite and its voters leaves Democrats confronting a degree of disunity over a president working for re-election not seen for many years.

Interviews with greater than a dozen strategists, elected officers and voters this previous week, conversations with Democrats since Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign started in April, and months of public polling information present that this disconnect has emerged as a defining impediment for his candidacy, worrying Democrats from liberal enclaves to swing states to the halls of energy in Washington.

Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign and his allies argue that a lot of the intraparty dissent will fade away subsequent yr, as soon as the election turns into a transparent alternative between the president and former President Donald J. Trump, the dominant chief within the Republican main area.

But their assurances haven’t tamped down worries about Mr. Biden from some high Democratic strategists and most of the social gathering’s voters, who approve of his efficiency however fear that Mr. Biden, who shall be 82 on Inauguration Day, could merely not be up for an additional 4 years — and even the exhausting slog of one other election.

“The voters don’t want this, and that’s in poll after poll after poll,” mentioned James Carville, a longtime social gathering strategist, who worries {that a} lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Biden might result in decrease Democratic turnout in 2024. “You can’t look at what you look at and not feel some apprehension here.”

A Mahaz News ballot launched this month discovered that 67 p.c of Democrats would like Mr. Biden not be renominated, a better proportion than in polling carried out by The New York Times and Siena College over the summer season that discovered half would like another person.

In quiet conversations and off-the-record gatherings, Democratic officers regularly acknowledge their worries about Mr. Biden’s age and sagging approval scores. But publicly, they challenge complete confidence about his capacity to steer and win.

“It’s definitely got a paradoxical element to it,” mentioned Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat who’s amongst a gaggle of governors who put apart their nationwide ambitions to help Mr. Biden’s re-election bid. “This is only a matter of time until the broad party, and broadly speaking, Americans, converge with the opinions of folks like myself.”

Many social gathering officers say that Mr. Biden is making a high-stakes guess that the ability of incumbency, a great political atmosphere for his social gathering and the truth that Democrats typically just like the president will ultimately outweigh the blaring indicators of concern from loyal supporters. Any dialogue of another is little greater than a fantasy, they are saying, since difficult Mr. Biden wouldn’t solely seem disloyal however would additionally most probably fail — and doubtlessly weaken the president’s general-election standing.

One Democratic voter who backed Mr. Biden in 2020, James Collier, an accountant in Houston, sees the scenario barely otherwise. He mentioned he would love Mr. Biden to clear the best way for a brand new era that would energize the social gathering’s base.

“I think he’s a little — not a little — he’s a lot old,” Mr. Collier, 57, mentioned. “I’m hoping he would in his own mind think, ‘I need to sit this out and let someone else do this.’”

There aren’t any indications that anybody outstanding will mount a late problem to Mr. Biden, although strategists working for different elected officers say that quite a lot of well-known politicians would most likely soar into the race if, anytime earlier than the top of the yr, the president signaled he was not working.

The scenario is sort of the alternative of the Republican area, the place Mr. Trump holds a commanding lead among the many social gathering’s base however stays far much less beloved by a political class that fears his unpopularity amongst reasonable and swing voters will result in defeat in 2024.

William Owen, a Democratic National Committee member from Tennessee, was filled with reward for Mr. Biden and mentioned he was puzzled by surveys that constantly confirmed the president struggling to win over Democratic voters.

“I’m looking at all the polling, and I’m amazed that it has so little to do with reality,” he mentioned in an interview this previous week. “A big part of it is just pure ageism. The American people are prejudiced against old people.”

Yet in describing his interactions with Democrats round Knoxville, which he represented for years within the Tennessee legislature, Mr. Owen mentioned he couldn’t escape questions on Mr. Biden’s well being.

“People ask me: ‘How’s Joe doing? Will he last another four years?’” Mr. Owen mentioned. “That’s the real question. Will Joe Biden last another four years? I’m happy to say, yes, he will. He’s going to live to be 103.”

Officials in Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign insist that hand-wringing about his age is pushed by news protection, not by voters’ issues. They dismiss his low approval scores and middling polling numbers as typical of an incumbent president greater than a yr away from Election Day.

A marketing campaign spokesman cited articles about Democrats’ fretting about President Barack Obama earlier than his second time period and famous the constraints of polls so removed from an election, suggesting that Mr. Biden had ample time to make his case.

“President Biden is delivering results, his agenda is popular with the American people and we are mobilizing our winning coalition of voters well ahead of next year’s general election,” mentioned Kevin Munoz, the spokesman. “Next year’s election will be a stark choice between President Biden and the extreme, unpopular MAGA agenda.”

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis of Pennsylvania, who’s Black and has issued public warnings about Mr. Biden’s standing with Black voters, mentioned that merely casting the election as a referendum on Mr. Trump and his right-wing motion — as Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign did in 2020 — wouldn’t be sufficient to energise the Democratic base. Mr. Davis has urged the White House to be extra aggressive about highlighting the affect of Mr. Biden’s accomplishments, notably with Black voters.

“Everyone is kind of exhausted by the fight between Biden and Trump,” he mentioned. “People really want to hear leaders talk about how they’re going to improve the lives of their families.”

Other Democrats argue that Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign should make clearer that the stakes are larger than simply the president.

“It’s about showing people that the future of American democracy is at stake,” mentioned Representative Jennifer McClellan of Virginia, who’s a member of the Biden marketing campaign’s nationwide advisory board. “It’s not just about which president can get through the day without tripping or stumbling over their words, which everybody is going to do, but which president is going to lead this country forward in a way that helps people solve problems and keeps American democracy intact.”

Faiz Shakir, the marketing campaign supervisor for Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential bid, mentioned Mr. Biden wanted to point out voters that he was combating for the American public, pointing to battles like his administration’s authorized combat with pharmaceutical firms over their new Medicare pricing plan.

“The question that I would want to answer is, is he is a strong leader?” Mr. Shakir mentioned. “When people see he is a strong leader, they will feel different about his age. They will feel different about the economy. They will feel different about a lot of things.”

Malcolm Peterson, a waiter from St. Paul, Minn., whose foremost political concern is local weather change, mentioned he typically authorised of Mr. Biden’s work as president and thought he had completed a great job tackling environmental points. But he mentioned he frightened about whether or not the president would be capable to proceed that work in a second time period.

“I just wonder, because he’s quite old, what does he look like in another four years?” Mr. Peterson, 34, mentioned. “I’m not a doctor. I just know what I’ve seen.”