Democrats who were once buoyant that a well-liked President Joe Biden and popular agenda moving through Congress could propel the party to wins in 2021 are now worried that a trying few months for the President and sluggish poll numbers could impact people like Terry McAuliffe, the party’s gubernatorial nominee in Virginia, and Phil Murphy, the incumbent governor running for reelection in New Jersey.

“If people don’t wake up,” said a Democratic operative working in Virginia, “we are in trouble.”…

Still, the drama on Capitol Hill is just part of the concerns around Biden. The worries among Democrats eying 2021 races began with the chaotic pullout of American troops from Afghanistan, a decision that, while popular with most American voters, was seen as haphazard and mishandled. Those fears continued to grow when two straight monthly job reports showed sluggish growth, threatening the party’s ability to run on an economy rebounding from the economic devastation wrought by a coronavirus pandemic still ravaging the country.

“It is one of the key factors that we are monitoring,” a top operative working on governors’ races said of Biden’s popularity. “The environment is one of the major concerns. And it’s not just Biden. It is about Democrats looking like they can’t get stuff done.”