“Discouraged,” “pathetic” and “pessimistic” were some of the words offered by a focus group of men — all of whom voted for Biden in 2020 — when asked to fill in the blank for the sentence: “I feel ___ about how things are going in the country.”

“Not a lot of good words on this list,” said Terrance Woodbury, the chief executive officer and founding partner of HIT Strategies, a liberal-leaning public polling firm that facilitated the group. Woodbury’s organization specializes in reaching marginalized voters — who were key to Democrats sweeping both the presidency and both chambers of Congress following the 2020 election.

This group of disillusioned Biden voters, surveyed during a two-hour session conducted virtually last week, discussed a range of topics, from voting rights, to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, to border security and the legal challenges facing former President Donald Trump.

[Republicans have an opportunity to defeat Biden in 2024. The question is whether their voters will prioritize that. — Ed]