
The president will give a speech at a DNC event in Maryland on Thursday as he attempts to maintain the party’s control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections, following a string of legislative triumphs.
However, inflation continues to be stubbornly high and his approval rating is chronically low, sometimes even worse than that of the candidates he intends to support. The fact that Mr. Biden is the oldest president in American history at 79 has caused discomfort among Democrats.
As his party’s leading candidate, he will have to aggressively counter Republican assaults at a time when nearly three-quarters of people believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction. Additionally, it will include dealing with the scorn of some Democratic contenders, some of whom have stated that they would prefer Mr. Biden to stay aside.
When Vice President Biden visited Ohio in July, Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat running for the Senate, cited scheduling issues as his reason for declining to join the president. Mr. Ryan, a moderate, is engaged in one of the nation’s fiercest campaign battles in a crucial swing state.
Izzi Levy, Ryan’s spokesperson, claimed that the congressman didn’t want to campaign with the president.
She stated, “We haven’t been interested in him or any other out-of-state surrogates,” pointing out that Mr. Ryan had a higher level of support in Ohio than Mr. Biden had. That won’t be changing anytime soon, in my opinion.
The president’s advisors in the West Wing are placing their faith in him to support Democratic candidates despite the obstacles to his popularity. They point out that gas costs have decreased for several months, the coronavirus has subsided as Mr. Biden predicted, and he has helped the Democratic Party achieve significant victories on issues like climate change, medicine prices, and corporate taxes. His supporters hope that his announcement of billions of dollars in student loan relief on Wednesday would inspire young voters.
No one, according to White House strategists, is in a better position to compare Democratic ideas with those of what the president refers to as “ultra-MAGA Republicans,” a term used to highlight the influence that former President Donald J. Trump still holds and the number of Republicans who support his conspiracy theories to annul the 2016 election.
The F.B.I. raid on Mr. Trump’s Florida residence earlier this month to recover secret papers has brought him more attention at a good time for Mr. Biden and raised new concerns about the former president’s unconventional — and potentially illegal — actions. However, it has also made it more difficult for the White House’s messaging to stand out in the deluge of news coverage on Trump.
Advisors said that Mr. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and members of the cabinet would disperse across the nation for events meant to highlight the president’s accomplishments in a strategy brief distributed by the White House this month.
Anita Dunn, a top communications adviser, and Jen O’Malley Dillon, a deputy chief of staff for the White House, wrote in a memo that the president would deliver two messages that would complement one another: a reminder that Democrats “beat the special interests” in passing legislation that almost all Republicans opposed, and a criticism of the extreme policies supported by Mr. Trump and his allies.
The email from Ms. O’Malley Dillon and Ms. Dunn to Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, stated that “our polling shows that messages that stress that the president and congressional Democrats overcame special interests tests well.” “Our objective for the coming weeks is straightforward: take our message, one that we know appeals to certain groups, and reach Americans where they are,”
Some of Mr. Biden’s allies are counting on him to do just that.
Four months ago, strategists and analysts claimed that the Democratic Party was doomed and had all but written off their chances of winning the autumn elections. Now, political consultants and donors at Way to Win think that by vehemently promoting the successes of Congress and the Biden administration, Democrats may avert historic political defeat – and even succeed.
Way to Win argued that Democrats should acknowledge that “Americans are bombarded and overwhelmed with crises” in a 34-page presentation for grassroots organisations and political activists at the beginning of this month, but emphasised that “Trump Republicans will take us backward by overturning the will of the people, controlling our lives, and ruling for the wealthy few.”
In an interview, Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, a group founder and author of the presentation, said that Mr. Biden might play a significant role in spreading that message if he went above and beyond the typical campaign strategies that have so far failed to improve his support ratings.
Right, Biden has always been a workhorse during his entire career rather than a show pony? stated Ms. Fernandez Ancona. “I believe he needs to use every tool at his disposal, including new media, such as podcasts, TikTok, and influencers, in addition to more conventional political tactics like press and stumping. You ought to leave in a different manner.