13 more Democrats, including Pelosi allies, call for Biden to exit 2024 election

WASHINGTON — More than a dozen congressional Democrats on Friday joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling on President Joe Biden to step aside as the party’s nominee, bringing the total number of Capitol Hill Democrats who want someone else at the top of the ticket to 35.

The new detractors include close allies of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as well as a fourth senator.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is running for re-election in Ohio this fall, became the fourth Senate Democrat to call on Biden to leave the race, joining Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Jon Tester, who is facing a tough re-election bid in Montana.

The latest announcements in the House come from some of the president’s core constituencies of support. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus — whose leaders campaigned with Biden this week in Nevada — to call on Biden to bow out.

In a joint statement, Veasey and three other House Democrats — Rep. Jared Huffman, of California; Chuy Garcia, of Illinois; and Mark Pocan, of Wisconsin — praised Biden’s decades of public service but said that it is now time for the 81-year-old president to “pass the torch” to give Democrats the best chance of beating Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.

Garcia is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose chairwoman, Rep. Nanette Barragán, of California, also campaigned with Biden in Nevada this week, and whose affiliated super PAC endorsed Biden on Friday. Other Hispanic Caucus members who earlier called for Biden to step aside are Reps. Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Mike Levin of California.

Meanwhile, Pocan is chairman of the Congressional Equality Caucus, formerly the