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- Some Democrats are expressing concerns about the Biden campaign operation, according to CNN.
- Biden has been personally interviewing candidates for top roles, slowing the hiring process, per the network.
- Staffers said they didn’t want to make Biden appear “too political” by revving up the campaign too early.
After months of speculation, President Joe Biden calmed the jitters of most Democratic officials and donors when he announced his reelection bid in April.
Biden eagerly committed to running with Vice President Kamala Harris once again. He rallied with organized labor and the powerful AFL-CIO endorsed his 2024 campaign last month. In the second quarter of 2023, Biden and the Democratic National Committee raised a hefty $72 million for his campaign. (In comparison, former President Donald Trump raised about $35 million in the second quarter.)
But some new worries have arisen among Democrats, particularly with the Biden campaign’s pace of hiring, the lack of staffers in critical swing states, and the status of the campaign’s still-unopened headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, according to CNN.
With polls earlier this year showing a significant bloc of Democrats on the fence about a Biden reelection bid — with many grateful to the now-80-year-old Biden for defeating Trump in 2020 while still wanting a new leader from a younger generation — the president will need to retain as much support as he can from his successful campaign three years ago as he could very well face Trump in a rematch.
And while some Democrats are dismissive of a Trump comeback, many in the party still scarred by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential loss in 2016 aren’t taking anything for granted and want to see Biden pursue a more robust campaign schedule as soon as possible, per the report.
“If Trump wins next November and everyone says, ‘How did that happen,’ one of the questions will be: What was the Biden campaign doing in the summer of 2023?” an individual with a senior role in Biden’s 2020 campaign told CNN.
According to the report, the Biden presidential campaign is in many ways being led from the West Wing as the president personally interviews candidates for senior roles.
The 2024 campaign headquarters, which was set to open in Wilmington by the middle of the month, is also still not open, according to CNN. The report also noted the lack of staffers in critical swing states as well as the lack of a campaign finance director. (Biden in April named Julie Chávez Rodríguez as his campaign manager and Quentin Fulks as his deputy campaign manager.)
Advisors to the president have said they are pursuing a carefully-crafted strategy that seeks to prevent Biden from spending millions of dollars too early, while also pushing for him to appear above the partisan fray as he engages with far-right conservatives in Congress, per the report.
Biden revving up his campaign apparatus now could endanger his administration’s push to sell his signature bipartisan infrastructure bill and his economic policies in communities across the country, according to CNN.
The Biden campaign told the network that it was enjoying a “strong start.”
“Democrats are unified around his historically successful agenda,” spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement to CNN. “Put that against the MAGA Republicans seeking the presidency, all fighting each other to the extremes on an agenda that has been soundly rejected by voters time and time again. The contrast speaks for itself.”
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