Biden didn't seem up for the job during the debate, but Trump didn't fully capitalize on Biden's missteps, said Hemond, who leads the Lansing consulting firm Grassroots Midwest.

There's an opportunity for Democrats to change their candidate and have a last-ditch intervention with Biden, Hemond added.

"There's a chance," Hemond said. "I am extremely skeptical that that happens."

In a campaign speech in North Carolina on Friday afternoon, Biden vowed that he can do the job of president for another four years. The crowd repeatedly chanted "four more years."

"I know I am not a young man. State the obvious," Biden said. "I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.

"And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up."

A 'bad night'

Dingell, a close Biden ally, said the president had a "bad night" and his campaign should have warned people in advance that he'd have a raspy voice because of a cold.

"But I'm also not OK with Trump doubling down on the worst of what he did ― overturning Roe v. Wade, saying he thought Jan. 6th was OK, that it's OK to attack policemen and wanting to hang his vice president," Dingell said. "And he wants to give his billionaire friends and corporations tax breaks."

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, said that, on style, it wasn't the best night for the president. But she expressed confidence Friday in Biden’s leadership abilities and slammed Trump's debate performance as "full of lies."

“I, as a voter and as a lawmaker who works alongside the president, trust him to make decisions,” Stevens told The News. “That was not Joe Biden at his best, and it has been certainly one tough moment, with just a whole lot of track record behind him.”

Stevens was hearing from a variety of stakeholders Friday who were nervous or concerned after Biden’s performance, in part because they are “Never Trumpers” who don’t want to see Trump back in the White House, she said. But Stevens noted that people at all ages can misspeak and have a “bad day.”

“There are in real-time conversations that I’m watching play out by Democratic operatives on the news about what’s next and what’s going to happen,” she said.

“But me, personally, I do not have a problem at this moment standing by this president. And I am doing so because I respect his decision-making ability, and the decision-making authority of the office and, frankly, that we are less than six months from a very big election after a primary process that’s already come about.”

Asked about the possibility of Whitmer stepping in at the Democratic convention, Stevens said she’d be surprised at such a move, though the decisions the governor will make about running for higher office “are hers and hers alone.”

“I would be quite surprised given her great surrogacy efforts on behalf of the Biden campaign and her close relationship with President Biden that she would jump out in front of him,” Stevens said of Whitmer.

“I don’t see this president resigning or stepping down or not running again," the congresswoman added.

The race ahead

Michigan will likely have a close and competitive race for its 15 electoral votes this fall. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in the state by 3 percentage points, 51%-48%.

Any potential struggle by Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in November would have trickle-down effects on the U.S. Senate contest, where Democrats are trying to hold onto a seat being vacated by the retiring Stabenow.

Democrats also are trying to remain in control of the Michigan House of Representatives, where they have a narrow 56-54 majority.

Tom Leonard, a Republican and former Michigan House speaker, said because of Thursday's debate, GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers, a former congressman, had become "the frontrunner to be Michigan's next senator."

"Last night was a disaster for Biden that will impact races across the country," Leonard said. "I don’t see how he recovers. It was like an athlete suffering a career-ending knee injury that may have cost his team the season."

Rogers, the Trump-backed favorite for the Republican nomination, still faces three opponents in the Aug. 6 primary. One of them, Grosse Pointe Park businessman Sandy Pensler, said Friday that Biden's debate performance showed he isn't "capable of the job today muchless four years from now."

“Unfortunately for Joe Biden and the Democrats, I think it was hard to contemplate the condition he’d be in four years from now as president,” Pensler told The News. "That was the biggest takeaway, which I think is very problematic for the Democrats."

Meanwhile, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra slammed Biden's debate performance.

"Joe Biden's disastrous record was on full display for America tonight, and unsurprisingly, he was unable to defend it," Hoekstra said.

But Lavora Barnes, chairwoman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said Thursday that Trump "showed us yet again what a dangerous and self-interested man he is, more interested in helping himself and his billionaire cronies than anything else."

Barnes' statement did not address Biden's debate performance.

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