Democratic congressional candidate Adam Frisch on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to step down as his party’s presidential nominee, saying that Biden’s performance in last week’s debate made clear that the country needs a “new generation of leadership.”

Frisch, the Democratic nominee in Colorado’s Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District, told Colorado Politics that neither Biden nor former President Donald Trump should be their party’s White House nominees.

“It has been clear to me for some time — and the debate only reinforced it — neither candidate should be running for president,” Frisch said. “We need a president that can unite America to realize our nation’s unlimited potential.”

We deserve better,” Frisch said. “President Biden should do what’s best for the country and withdraw from the race.”

Added Frisch: “I thank President Biden for his years of service, but the path ahead requires a new generation of leadership to take our country forward.”

Frisch told Colorado Politics that he’s focused on his congressional race but decided to weigh in on the presidential lineup after witnessing Biden and Trump’s first debate.

“The fact that we have all these important issues, and we have two candidates arguing about their golf handicap was the nail in the coffin,” Frisch said. “I had to speak up.”

Amid increasing calls for the 81-year-old Biden to step aside, the Democrat and his top advisors appear to be digging in. The Associated Press reported that the president’s family is determined that he stay in the race, following a family summit held over the weekend at Camp David.

Frisch’s statement came less than an hour after Texas Rep. Lloyd Dogget became the first Democratic member of Congress to publicly call for Biden to step aside, saying Biden failed to “effectively defend his many accomplishments” in the president’s rough performance in last Thursday’s debate.

According to a CNN poll released Thursday, three-quarters of U.S. voters said Democrats would have a better chance of winning the presidency in November with someone other than Biden as the party’s nominee. The poll, conducted in the three days following the June 27 presidential debate, found Trump leading Biden by 6 points, 49% to 43%, consistent with the lead Trump has held in the same poll since last fall, CNN reported. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Frisch is making his second run in the GOP-held district, which covers Colorado’s Western Slope and parts of Southern Colorado. After Frisch came within 546 votes of unseating Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in 2020 — in the closest congressional race in the country — Boebert moved across the state this year to another district, where last week she became the Republican nominee and appears likely to win another term in Congress.

“From Day One, I’ve been trying to focus on CD3, and I’ve told people starting back in February 2022 that I don’t care who people voted for for president in 2016 and 2020, or how they vote for county commissioner or city council,” Frisch said.

“All I ask them is to think about, for the sake of their families, their businesses and their community, who do they want representing them in the U.S. House, to work on water, securing the border, tackling spiraling costs and the rural aspects of health care.”

But that changed after Biden’s halting appearance on the debate stage, Frisch said.

“I’m asked all the time now — and it’s not like DC people are asking me. I’m being asked by people in Durango and Montrose and Ridgeway,” he said. “And I would say, 90% of the people I’ve spoken to over the pasts few hundred miles, over the past couple of days — Democrats, as well as independents and Republicans — are not happy with where we are as a country.”

In last Tuesday’s primary, Republicans nominated first-time candidate Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, to run for the seat Boebert currently holds.

The nonpartisan analysts at Inside Elections rate the 3rd CD as “Lean Republican,” a couple of steps more favorable to the GOP than the House’s 10 toss-up seats but still considered in play.

Trump carried the 3rd CD over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by 15 percentage points in 2016, but Trump’s margin was cut nearly in half in 2020, to an 8.3 percentage point lead over Biden.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of Biden’s top allies, said Thursday on MSNBC that it’s a “legitimate question” for voters to ask whether Biden’s halting appearance during the debate was “an episode or is this a condition.” She stressed that the question should be posed for both Biden and Trump.

Editor’s note: This developing story will be updated.