With the 2024 election season in full swing, Democratic lawmakers are concerned about President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign as support for former President Donald Trump continues to mount. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who made his second run for the White House in 2020 competing against the Democratic president, said Biden needs a new campaign strategy. 

“There is no question, it is very hard for young people, I think for most Americans, to be excited about what is going on right now,” Sanders told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “President [Biden] has got to change course.”

Sanders, a democratic socialist, has pushed Biden to hold Israeli leaders accountable amid a major escalation in the Middle East. Marking over 100 days of the war in Gaza, Sanders introduced a resolution to require the State Department to issue a report on whether Israel is breaching international human rights standards in its attacks on Gaza. The fighting erupted on Oct. 7 when the militant group Hamas attacked Israel. 

The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has divided Biden’s Democratic base, with Sanders warning the president’s foreign policy is deterring younger voters. 

Among young voters under 30, 45% disapprove of Biden’s handling of the conflict, according to a poll from The New York Times and Siena College from December. Comparably, 37% of overall registered voters approve of his response to the Israel-Hamas war. 

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Biden is losing groups with independent and Democratic voters as well, taking issue with his economic plan despite the inflation rate dropping off. Immigration has been one of Biden’s biggest vulnerabilities for the president — causing blue city mayors to turn on their party’s president amid a growing number of asylum-seekers arriving by bus and plane. 

Meanwhile, Trump is coming off a record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses ahead of New Hampshire’s primary in three days.