Support could soon shift one way or the other as Biden's schedule quickly fills with interviews and other high-profile activities.

However, for Democrats who support and question Biden's campaign position, preventing Trump from returning to the White House remains the top priority.

Democratic leaders point out that the timing, party rules and lack of consensus on a Plan B would make it difficult, if not impossible, to replace Biden and still win.

And this is especially true since Biden shows no signs of resigning voluntarily.

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams joined a chorus of Democrats in calling his poor debate performance a rough night. That shouldn't overshadow his decades of work, said Williams, who also serves as state party chairwoman.

“I have bad days. You have bad days. We all have bad moments. But what I do know is that President Joe Biden has been a leader in every way over the last three and a half years that he's led the country,” Williams said Tuesday on the “Politically Georgia” radio show. “And he beats Donald Trump by a mile.”

Interviews with more than a dozen Democratic officials revealed a deep sense of duty to the president, even as many acknowledged that his performance at the debate confirmed concerns about his health and mental state.

In private and public conversations, they said they owed something to Biden, and not just because he was party chairman and the first Democrat in nearly three decades to win Georgia in a presidential election.

After years of most Democratic candidates viewing Georgia as a fundraising stop, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have now paid lavish attention to the state and built close relationships with party leaders and rank-and-file officials.

He has also adopted many of their priorities as his own, signing measures to lower insulin costs, boost Georgia's green energy industry through numerous state incentives, fund a wave of infrastructure projects and advance still-stalled voting rights protections.

And he didn't take it personally in 2022 when U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock and other Democrats kept him – and his dismal approval ratings – at arm's length during a difficult midterm election. Warnock is now one of the president's most ardent defenders, dismissing rumors that Biden is pulling out.

“I'm behind Joe Biden and it's our job to make sure he crosses the finish line in November,” Warnock told NBC. “Not for his sake, but for the sake of the country.”

The rallying around Biden can be compared to the rallying around Trump, who has weathered repeated internal party turmoil after his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and indictment in multiple criminal cases. Even Trump's fiercest GOP opponents have joined him in declaring they will support him in November, keeping the MAGA wing in control of the party.

But Democrats say it's dangerous to draw parallels. Senator Josh McLaurin (D-Atlanta) is one of Biden's most vocal defenders. A day after the debate sparked panic in the party, he was the keynote speaker at a press conference supporting the president.

“It's a misinterpretation to say that Democrats are simply adjusting. That's what Republicans are doing. As you've seen in the last few days, Democrats are having a deep discussion about leadership,” he said.

“The ups and downs of daily political dialogue and the drama that surrounds it distract from the mission,” McLaurin said. “Joe Biden is our candidate, and right now he is our best chance to defeat authoritarianism in November.”

And US Senator Jon Ossoff, who faces a difficult re-election campaign in two years, said through a spokesman that there was no question that he would “fully support” the president in November.

“Former President Trump, caught on video attempting to rig the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, this week floated 'televised military tribunals' for his political opponents,” the Ossoff aide said. “Every GOP leader in Georgia has an obligation to reject the most dangerous presidential candidate in American history.”

But other Democrats have privately indicated that their support is not unconditional. They want Biden to have a solid campaign plan, invest more in Georgia and other battleground states, and do a stronger outreach to donors and politicians. If not, several say, they are prepared to replace Biden on the ballot with Harris or another alternative.

They also worry about polls that could deepen the crisis. A CBS News poll released Wednesday showed Trump and Biden within the margin of error in Georgia and other swing states, hardly suggesting a dramatic turnaround. But they worry that worse results from other media outlets could trigger a spiraling effect.

Photo credit: Nell Carroll for the Journal Constitution

Photo credit: Nell Carroll for the Journal Constitution

The latest alarm was a New York Times article on Wednesday that said Biden told a key ally that he knew he might not be able to continue his candidacy if he couldn't convince the public he was fit for the job. The White House said the report was “absolutely false.”

Biden has taken steps to calm his skeptics. He is scheduled to meet with Democratic governors at the White House late Wednesday, and on Friday he will give a highly watched interview to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

The White House said Biden recorded interviews with radio hosts on Wednesday ahead of planned campaign appearances in two swing states, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Biden will address hundreds of active-duty troops and their families during a Fourth of July Independence Day celebration. And he has scheduled a press conference next week to coincide with a NATO summit in Washington, giving media a rare opportunity to ask him directly.

The few prominent Democrats in the state who have spoken out about Biden do so as if they are giving voice to others who fear the president cannot defeat Trump but who are also afraid their comments could provoke a backlash.

Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux is one of the few who has publicly and unequivocally said Biden should abandon his campaign for a second term. Speaking on the radio show “Politically Georgia” on Wednesday, she said his performance in the debate convinced her that Democrats must find a new candidate immediately.

“We really don't have a lot of time to make this change,” she said. “We need to get this message across very clearly in the next two weeks.”

But Bordeaux's influence in the party is limited. She won a close election in a swing suburban district in 2020, but was defeated in the primary two years later after fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath decided to challenge Bourdeaux when Republicans remapped McBath's own seat to make it conservative.

Photo credit: Miguel Martinez

Photo credit: Miguel Martinez

Williams was blunt in her response to Bourdeaux's criticism of the party's willingness to keep Biden as its nominee. “You have to take it as it is,” she said, noting that Bourdeaux has long been skeptical of the president. “When people show you who they are, just like Donald Trump, believe them the first time.”

Bourdeaux said the comparison to Trump is exactly what Democrats, who are reluctant to talk about their concerns about Biden's mental health, fear. But they cannot afford to remain silent.

“This is the moment when everyone has to gather their courage to get to the finish line,” she said. “I just want to encourage them. Voters will not forget what they saw last Thursday.”

Bourdeaux said clips of Biden's most troubling debate moments would be used in commercials and used not only against him but also against other Democrats in contested races, potentially hurting their chances of regaining the majority in the House or maintaining a narrow majority in the Senate.

There are also practical reasons why some Democrats are hesitant to reject Biden as a candidate.

Some party leaders have privately noted the logistical difficulties of opposing Biden. Party rules are designed to protect incumbents from opposition, and Biden has secured the support of about 99 percent of delegates. Biden is the party's nominee until he chooses not to, they say, and he has vowed to keep fighting.

“The president is clear-eyed and he's staying in the race,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. She said he told her he wanted to keep his promise to run for a second term in the hopes of pushing through his agenda. “That's what the president is focused on: continuing to take care of the American people.”

Howard Franklin, a veteran political strategist, said there is another reason why Democrats in Georgia have not yet sounded the alarm about Biden.

“He embodied loyalty and steadfastness throughout his career. Both he and the vice president deliberately showered the Peach State with attention, visiting early and often to build real relationships, not just raise funds,” he said.

“We rewarded Biden with 16 electoral votes in 2020,” Franklin added. “And despite a weak showing in the first debate, most Democrats I've heard from remain committed to putting him back in the White House next year.”