The pandemic may be in the rearview mirror, but that doesn’t mean President Biden’s reelection campaign strategy will look different from the first time around.
Much like in the 2020 campaign, Biden won’t be traversing the United States to win over the American people. Rather, he will sit back and watch GOP infighting and rely on the White House to tout his record, according to The New York Times.
President Biden has formally moved from a campaign-in-waiting to a campaign of waiting.
Despite his heavily anticipated re-election announcement on Tuesday, Mr. Biden has no immediate plans to barnstorm the key battlegrounds. Decorative bunting is nowhere to be found, and large rallies will come later.
Instead, Mr. Biden’s next steps look much like his recent ones: leveraging the White House to burnish his record with ribbon-cuttings, and willingly ceding the stage to a Republican presidential primary that is already descending into a dogfight between Donald J. Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, even before he has entered the race.
The first 24 hours, a heavily scripted period in any campaign, serve as a Biden road map for the months to come: a video announcement and an array of text messages to spur online donations; the behind-the-scenes hiring of his campaign team; an official White House event that doubled as a campaign opportunity; and a rally focused on abortion rights, headlined by the vice president, at a historically Black university. (NYT)
Shorter: Basement 2.0 https://t.co/uzBsIfwSCa
— John Gibson (@GibsonRadio) April 26, 2023
This strategy was evident in Biden's reelection announcement, which wasn't done during a live event, but rather through a video message that went out at 6 a.m. on a Tuesday morning.
The Times report confirms what many suspected.
Nailed it. His only plan is to watch Republicans destroy each other then win against whatever’s left. https://t.co/eA7LP9dHOC
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 26, 2023
A 3 minute video? Released in the dawn hours? No packed stadium? No roaring crowds? Is #BidenHarris2024 the basement campaign 2.0?https://t.co/QBV4lpLEZy
— Andrew Wilkow (@WilkowMajority) April 25, 2023
Biden did his re-election campaign announcement only on video because he is incapable of unedited interpersonal communications. This is also how he’ll campaign.
— That Michael Caputo (@MichaelRCaputo) April 25, 2023
There is no excuse to campaign from the basement. Yet. https://t.co/00I3I3tZpo