Joe Biden formally launched his reelection campaign on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, casting the race as a battle for the soul of America, much as he did four years earlier.
“This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection,” the 80-year-old president said in a launch video.
If Biden wins a second term, he would be 82 on Inauguration Day in 2025, extending his record as the oldest person to hold the office. His age is the campaign’s clearest vulnerability. In an NBC News poll released that Sunday, 70% of Americans and 51% of Democrats said he should not run again.
His answer, in part, is the record. Across his first 20 months, he steered three large bills through Congress with only a thin Democratic majority: a pandemic relief package, the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act, and a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law.
It is also to keep quiet. Biden holds fewer news conferences each year than any president since Ronald Reagan, and he gave fewer interviews in his first two years than any modern predecessor. His aides are unapologetic; they see traditional media as outdated. His stock reply to the age question is to tell skeptics to watch him.
He named Julie Chávez Rodríguez, granddaughter of the labor leader Cesar Chávez and a White House official, as campaign manager, and told union members in Pittsburgh he sees the country “through the eyes of the working people.”
The likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is 76 and seeking a third straight nomination while he faces criminal charges in New York. A mid-April Wall Street Journal poll put Biden ahead of Trump in a head-to-head matchup, 48% to 45%.
Sources
- Biden’s Quiet Re-election Strategy – The New York Times
- Joe Biden announces 2024 reelection campaign
