Returning to a style of campaigning he mastered during the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden is hiding from the campaign trail as his party fights to maintain power in Congress in an election cycle that's historically stacked against Democrats.
According to new analysis and reporting from Axios, President Biden is doing less midterm campaign traveling than his predecessors Trump and Obama — and in doing so leaving the normal advantage that comes along with presidential travel and glitzy high-profile events untapped with just weeks until Americans determine the balance of power in Washington.
As Axios notes, "Air Force One can confer unrivaled advantages for sitting presidents looking to take center stage, drive local news coverage and raise money for their parties or targeted candidates all at once." But Biden isn't bringing that influence and supposed advantage to bear at the same level of his recent predecessors.
Air Force One can confer unrivaled advantages for sitting presidents looking to take center stage, drive local news coverage and raise money for their parties or targeted candidates all at once. https://t.co/ViBC4OV8Bs
— Axios (@axios) October 5, 2022
Back when Biden was vice president, then-President Obama traveled to 78 cities between January and the end of September 2010, hosting fundraisers in 16, according to Axois' reporting.
During the same period during the first midterm election cycle of his time in office, then-President Trump traveled to 57 cities and did 27 fundraisers.
And that brings us to President Biden, who has only visited 47 cities and held 11 fundraisers through the first nine months of 2022. What's more, as Axios reminds, many of Biden's trips have been to friendly liberal enclaves rather than battleground states.
When the president has visited key midterm battleground states like Georgia and Ohio, statewide Democrat candidates — such as Stacey Abrams and Tim Ryan — have avoided appearing with Biden.
"U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio's 13th Congressional District won't be appearing with Biden on Wednesday." @JoeBiden came to Ohio and @TimRyan went into hiding. But Tim Ryan votes with Biden 100% of the time. He can run from his record, but he can't hide!https://t.co/fuGPtXA1uy
— Ohio War Room (@OhioWarRoom) July 6, 2022
Part of the dip in campaign travel compared to Trump and Obama could be due to Biden's, well, diminished ability to speak clearly and without claiming to be Puerto Rican, searching for dead people, or shuffling around aimlessly on stage.
It also doesn't help that Biden's job approval has remained underwater for months due to his failure to acknowledge, address, or solve multiple crises that his policies spurred. Last week, Biden's approval dropped a full five points in just a 7-day period as gas prices began trending upward again.
Biden's Approval Plummets Five Points in One Week https://t.co/Zf3KMn5CaG
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 29, 2022
Biden has more travel planned to New York and New Jersey in the coming days and is expected to ramp up his campaign events in the final weeks before election day, but he'll have a hard time catching up with his predecessor's on the final dash, too. According to Axios, the last six weeks of their respective first midterm cycles saw Trump hit 26 cities and Obama rally voters in 14.
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