Biden campaign begins intensive outreach campaign with eye on second term

The White House is framing the 2024 campaign this way: stability versus chaos.

And they want allies and outside groups to help spread that message. 

As President Biden launches his reelection campaign, top White House aides and Democratic officials have met with allies and outside groups in closed-door sessions in recent days to discuss the president’s agenda and how he plans to win a second term, sources tell The Hill. 

Allies who have attended the meetings with top officials have said a major part of Biden’s strategy is to “act presidential” to contrast with the infighting and chaos on the Republican side.

“It’s the Rose Garden strategy,” a participant in one of the meetings said, adding that Biden’s approach will be to “be the president.”

“Let the guys on the other side have it out.” 

The strategy is a similar approach to the one Biden took in 2020 when he opposed former President Trump. After four years of controversy surrounding Trump, Biden campaigned on returning Washington to normal and having a president who kept his head down and intentionally remained out of the spotlight. 

Biden’s approach “has more gravitas now,” one Biden ally said. “He can use the bully pulpit to also show that contrast of calm and collected versus chaotic and crazy. He can use that to his advantage.” 

Biden also appears to have a more united party than in past years, the ally pointed out. 

This year, after Biden launched his reelection bid, Democrats — who had appeared splintered in the last two election cycles — quickly rallied behind Biden.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who opposed Biden during the 2020 Democratic primary, rushed to endorse his former rival this year. 

“The last thing this country needs is a Donald Trump or some other right-wing demagogue who is going to try to undermine American democracy or take away a woman’s right to choose, or not address the crisis of gun violence, or racism, sexism or homophobia,” Sanders told the Associated Press in an interview about his endorsement. “So I’m in to do what I can to make sure that this president is reelected.”

Biden’s senior aides have made a concerted effort to reach out to progressives, one campaign official said. They added that the week of the campaign launch, aides reached out to more than 5,000 key stakeholders across the coalition, including labor unions and groups of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  

In one session last week, a day after Biden officially announced he was running again, prominent television analysts and strategists — including Donna Brazile and Paul Begala — gathered at the White House with some of the president’s top advisers to discuss Biden’s accomplishments and his forthcoming agenda, sources tell The Hill.

“They told us that their agenda was about stability,” the participant said. “I hadn’t heard it articulated quite that way before.”  

A senior administration official said the daylong briefings — the second time television analysts gathered this year — were scheduled over a month in advance in conjunction with the White House correspondents’ dinner when many of the invitees were in town from across the country, and the proximity to the campaign announcement occurred by happenstance.  

The day included briefings from senior staff on a string of issues including the president’s economic accomplishments and implementation as well as messaging around default, reproductive rights, foreign policy and Vice President Kamala Harris’s work, the senior administration official said.

The senior officials — which included White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt, Admiral John Kirby, Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice, Director of Legislative Affairs Louisa Terrell, Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard, White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams, deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian, Senior Director for Transborder Security Katie Tobin, and Stephanie Young and Kirsten Allen, senior aides to Harris — also discussed a communications strategy for the coming months. Each session included a lengthy question-and-answer session with the television analysts, where they were able to get clarity on specific questions or share feedback. 

The day ended with a happy hour in White House chief of staff Jeff Zients’s office. 

Biden remains underwater in polling, a sign of his vulnerability in a general election.

A PBS-Newshour-Marist poll last month revealed only 4 in 10 Americans approve of how Biden is handling the country.

The president also faces an enthusiasm gap when it comes to support, according to a USA Today/Suffolk poll out late last month. 

The poll showed 43 percent of Biden’s voters say they are less excited about throwing their support behind him during the 2024 race. 

The Biden campaign official told The Hill that outreach was a key priority in the early days of the campaign. 

Biden officials also hosted a briefing with social media influencers on the heels of the reelection announcement, the official said. And they’ve conducted outreach to more than 230,000 volunteers and supporters from the 2022 midterms, including in key states such as Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Florida, to “reconfirm their support for 2024 and activate volunteer efforts in the coming weeks.” 

The official also said they have engaged in recent ways with more than 225,000 Biden-Harris “super volunteers” who were “critical” to their victory in 2020 and in the 2022 midterms. 

The early outreach is important to the success of the campaign, a participant in one of the briefings said. 

“We’re a big tent party with a lot of different voices and it’s vital to get everyone on the same page, singing the same notes,” the participant said.