For more than a year, a majority of Democratic voters have told pollsters they would prefer to see their party nominate a candidate other than Joe Biden in 2024. Last month, a congressman made the media rounds to urge his fellow Democrats to challenge the incumbent president.

But Democratic political pundits say it is highly unlikely Biden will face a new, formidable foe in the primaries. 

“The likelihood of that happening is quite remote,” Democratic political strategist Basil Smikle told Spectrum News. 

A CNN poll last week found that Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters are not enthusiastic about the prospect of a second Biden term, with 67% saying they want the party to nominate someone else.

The same poll found that roughly three-quarters of Americans are seriously concerned about the 80-year-old president’s age. The survey also had Biden and former President Donald Trump, despite his four criminal indictments, running neck-and-neck.  

There have long been polls showing Democrats are tepid on Biden. That sentiment prompted Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., to call on Democrats to enter the race, saying he believes there is a “grave risk of another Trump presidency.”

“My call is to those who are well positioned, well prepared, have good character and competency — they know who they are — to jump in because Democrats and the country need competition,” Phillips told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Aug. 6. “It makes everything better.

“This is not about him,” Phillips said of Biden, whom the congressman has called “a remarkable man.”

“This is about listening to people, and I'm afraid in this bubble here in Washington, people get real tone deaf real fast.”

To date, no one has answered Phillips’ call. Biden faces two challengers in the primary: former environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and activist and author Marianne Williamson. A recent Morning Consult poll had Biden leading Kennedy 76%-9%, with Williamson was polling at 3%.

Smikle said any serious efforts by Democrats to put forward a primary challenger for Biden would create a “level of chaos” that would only stand to hurt the president’s chances in the general election.

“If you have a sitting U.S. president running for office and then major forces within his own party actively looking for somebody else … it just kills the votes for Democrats on the margins in important states that the party needs to win,” he said.

Smikle said Biden would have to voluntarily step aside to clear the way for another nominee. Even then, Smikle said, the party would be “starting from scratch” because such a candidate would likely be somewhat unknown to many voters.

Smikle said he’s not concerned about polls such as the CNN one because Democratic spending and advertising is not yet in full swing. 

“That will have some effect on where voters are, how voters think about Biden and his economic message and so on,” he said. “ … So I do think there’s time to make up some of that ground.”

Tim Hogan, another Democratic political strategist, said flatly a serious Biden primary challenge “won’t happen.”

“If I'm a Democrat and I see the threat that Donald Trump poses to our democracy, I want the guy who's already beat him,” he said. “And I think there is value that is baked in with Biden that's not getting as much consideration right now.”

Smikle and Hogan agreed that, in the end, most Democratic voters will support Biden over the Republican nominee because of his policies and legislative achievements. 

“To quote a line from from Joe Biden, you have to compare him to the alternative, not the almighty,” Hogan said. “And that's going to come into focus for voters.”

But Rina Shah, a political strategist and former Republican congressional aide, said the GOP, in many ways, prefers to face Biden. 

“Simply because they feel like he's 80 — how much longer is he going to be really with it? And for every moment he stays in the White House, [Vice President] Kamala Harris is a heartbeat away from taking over,” she said, explaining the GOP views Harris especially as beatable.

Shah said she would not be shocked if a new Democratic candidate jumped into the race, adding Republicans would be worried about a nominee who is “young, energetic, inclusive” and has both a public- and private-sector résumé.

She said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore could fit that bill.  

“If Moore or Jeffries would be top of ticket, I think Republicans would be really scared,” she said. 

The last time a Democratic incumbent president faced a serious primary challenger was in 1980, when Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts took on President Jimmy Carter. Carter won the nomination but lost to Ronald Reagan in the general election.