Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign
On April 25, 2019, former vice president Joe Biden released a video announcing his candidacy in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. On November 3, 2020, Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, defeated incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence in the general election.
Biden, vice president of the United States from 2009 to 2017 and previously a U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009, had been the subject of widespread speculation as a potential 2020 candidate after declining to be a candidate in 2016. His 2020 campaign positions included codifying Roe v. Wade into statute, creating a public option for health insurance, decriminalizing recreational cannabis, passing the Equality Act, providing tuition-free community college, and passing a $1.7 trillion climate plan embracing the framework of the Green New Deal. Biden supported regulation of fracking as opposed to a complete ban on the practice.
Biden entered the race with very high name recognition. From his campaign announcement up to the start of the elections, he was generally regarded as the Democratic front-runner. He led most national polls through 2019, but did not rank as one of the top three candidates in either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary. After underperforming expectations in those contests, he suffered a decline in his polling and lost his frontrunner status to Bernie Sanders. Biden started regaining ground after winning second place in the Nevada caucuses and, on February 29, 2020, he won a landslide victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary, which reinvigorated his campaign. In March, ten of Biden's former competitors endorsed him, bringing the total number of such endorsements to twelve. Biden earned enough delegates on Super Tuesday to pull ahead of Sanders. On April 8, after Sanders suspended his campaign, Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In June, Biden reached the required number of delegates to become the nominee. On August 11, Biden announced that U.S. senator Harris would be his vice presidential running mate. On August 18 and 19, Biden and Harris were officially nominated at the Democratic National Convention. Throughout the 2020 election, national opinion polls conducted generally showed Biden leading Trump in favorability. On Election Day, the Biden-Harris ticket defeated the Trump-Pence ticket. Biden's narrow wins in the blue wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were considered key to his victory. These states all had swings from voters who had previously voted for Trump in 2016 yet went for Biden in 2020. Biden and Harris won the popular vote, and won the electoral vote by a margin of 306–232. Biden and Harris were sworn in on January 20, 2021.
Background
Previous presidential campaigns
Biden's 2020 presidential campaign was his third attempt to seek election for president of the United States. His first campaign was made in the 1988 Democratic Party primaries where he was initially considered one of the potentially strongest candidates. However, newspapers revealed plagiarism by Biden in law school records and in speeches, a scandal which led to his withdrawal from the race in September 1987.He made the second attempt during the 2008 Democratic Party primaries, where he focused on his plan to achieve political success in the Iraq War through a system of federalization. Like his first presidential bid, Biden failed to garner endorsements and support. He withdrew from the race after his poor performance in the Iowa caucus on January 3, 2008. He was eventually chosen by Barack Obama as his running mate and won the general election as vice president of the United States, being sworn in on January 20, 2009.
Speculation
Vice President Biden was seen as a potential candidate to succeed President Barack Obama in the 2016 presidential election. On October 21, 2015, following the death of his son Beau, Biden announced that he would not seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.During a tour of the U.S. Senate with reporters on December 5, 2016, Biden refused to rule out a potential bid for the presidency in the 2020 presidential election. He reasserted his ambivalence about running on an appearance of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on December 7, in which he stated "never say never" about running for president in 2020, while also admitting he did not see a scenario in which he would run for office again. He seemingly announced on January 13, 2017, exactly one week prior to the expiration of his vice presidential term, that he would not run. However, four days later, he seemed to backtrack, stating "I'll run if I can walk." In September 2017, Biden's daughter Ashley indicated her belief that he was thinking about running in 2020.
Political action committee
American Possibilities, a political action committee created by Biden in June 2017.Time for Biden, a political action committee formed in January 2018, seeking Biden's entry into the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
Considering his options
In February 2018, Biden informed a group of longtime foreign policy aides that he was "keeping his 2020 options open".In March 2018, Politico reported that Biden's team was considering a number of options to distinguish their campaign, such as announcing at the outset a younger vice presidential candidate from outside of politics, and also reported that Biden had rejected a proposition to commit to serving only one term as president. On July 17, 2018, he told a forum held in Bogota, Colombia, that he would decide if he would formally declare as a candidate by January 2019. On February 4, with no decision having been forthcoming from Biden, Edward-Isaac Dovere of The Atlantic wrote that Biden was "very close to saying yes" but that some close to him are worried he will have a last-minute change of heart, as he did in 2016. Dovere reported that Biden was concerned about the effect another presidential run could have on his family and reputation, as well as fundraising struggles and perceptions about his age and relative centrism compared to other declared and potential candidates. Conversely, his "sense of duty", offense at the Trump presidency, the lack of foreign policy experience among other Democratic hopefuls and his desire to foster "bridge-building progressivism" in the party were said to be factors prompting him to run.
Campaign
Announcement
On March 17, 2019, at a dinner in Dover, Delaware, Biden accidentally revealed that he would run for president in 2020.On April 19, 2019, The Atlantic reported that Biden planned to officially announce his campaign five days later via a video announcement, followed by a launch rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or Charlottesville, Virginia. Subsequent reports indicated that Biden's plans remained uncertain, with no known launch date, locations for campaign rallies, or permits for an event in Philadelphia. On April 23, it was reported that Biden would formally enter the race two days later.
On April 25, 2019, Biden released a video announcing his candidacy for president of the United States. Following a three-week tour, Biden held a campaign rally in Philadelphia on May 18, 2019.
On May 22, the magazine Ebony reported that Biden had begun assembling his 2020 presidential campaign team, to be headquartered in Philadelphia. His team included campaign manager Greg Schultz and director of strategic communications Kamau Mandela Marshall, who both previously worked in the Obama administration, as well as other senior advisors from the Obama administration. Additionally, on May 31, the Biden campaign announced that Congressman Cedric Richmond would join the campaign as the national co-chairman.
Key people
- Steve Ricchetti, campaign chairman
- Mike Donilon, chief strategist
- Greg Schultz, 1st campaign manager
- Jen O'Malley Dillon, 2nd campaign manager
- Anita Dunn, senior advisor
- Symone Sanders, senior advisor
- Ron Klain, former chief of staff to the vice president, senior advisor
- Valerie Biden Owens, sister of Joe Biden, senior advisor
Economic policy
- Jeffrey Zients, former director of the National Economic Council
- Jared Bernstein, former chief economics advisor to Joe Biden
- Heather Boushey, economist
- Ben Harris, former chief economist and chief economic advisor to Vice President Joe Biden
Fundraising and strategy
According to a Politico article, the Biden campaign was operating on the premise that the Democratic base is not nearly as liberal or youthful as perceived. Privately, several Biden advisers acknowledged that their theory was based on polling data and voting trends, contending that the media is pushing the idea of a hyper-progressive Democratic electorate being propagated by a Twitter bubble and being out of touch with the average rank-and-file Democrat. In April 2019, Biden told reporters, "The fact of the matter is the vast majority of the members of the Democratic Party are still basically liberal to moderate Democrats in the traditional sense." Biden also described himself as an "Obama-Biden Democrat". An unspecified Biden adviser said, "There's a big disconnect between the media narrative and what the primary electorate looks like and thinks, versus the media narrative and the Twitter narrative the Democratic primary universe is far less liberal. It's older than you think it is." From April 25 to May 25, 2019, Biden's campaign spent 83% of his total $1.2 million Facebook ad funding on targeting voters 45 years and older. No other top 2020 Democratic candidate has pursued a similar strategy in the primary.
Biden, along with Bernie Sanders, was often perceived as the candidate with the best chance of defeating Donald Trump in the general election. According to The Washington Post, this may be because of his more moderate policies, or it may be because voters or party leaders believe a white male candidate is more "electable". Joe Biden said that his late son Beau should be running instead of him if he were alive. Biden led most national polls through 2019. The Biden campaign came to rely on volunteer groups such as the Biden Digital Coalition for their social media presence and for tracking disinformation.
The campaign raised $70 million during the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The campaign and DNC combined raised a record $365 million in August 2020, compared to $154 million by Trump and the RNC. Biden raised another $383 million in September 2020, breaking his own record from the previous month.