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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Biden’s growing tally of campaign offices marks a rare bright spot | |
for the president | |
By Jeff Zeleny, CNN | |
Updated: | |
5:30 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Inside ’s reelection headquarters here, a sign boasts of some of the | |
campaign’s most significant metrics: Pennsylvania, 24; Michigan, 30; | |
Wisconsin 44. | |
These are not poll numbers, but rather the latest – and growing – | |
tally of campaign offices already open in three battleground states. | |
It’s a rare bright spot in Biden’s rematch with former and the most | |
tangible example of how the campaign is using its fundraising muscle to | |
build an entirely different operation from four years ago. | |
“Our job at this point is to build infrastructure in all of our | |
pathways to victory,” said Dan Kanninen, the Biden campaign’s | |
battleground states director. “Razor-thin margins in lots of these | |
states, and I want to press the advantage against Donald Trump. They | |
have not built field infrastructure. They have not had a presence in | |
these states.” | |
Four years after the pandemic upended the 2020 presidential election, | |
Kanninen and a growing team of advisers are looking to send an | |
unmistakable message with the latest effort: This is no Biden basement | |
campaign. | |
A sprawling organization, with a mix of brick-and-mortar offices and | |
fresh technology to connect people, stands in contrast to Biden’s | |
Zoom calls and drive-in rallies of the 2020 race. | |
“We’re not sitting in court,” Kanninen said, nodding to Trump’s | |
in New York that has largely kept him off the campaign trail in recent | |
weeks. “Infrastructure, in terms of the staff and what we are | |
building, and the cash advantage is something that we want to push | |
everywhere.” | |
In a race that could again hinge on tens of thousands of votes in a | |
handful of states, the strength of the dueling campaign operations is | |
coming into sharper focus six months before the election. Republicans | |
in several battleground states told CNN that Trump is far behind what | |
the Biden team is building, pointing to and local organizing. For | |
years, several state GOP operations have been beset by internal | |
controversies that have drained resources and raised questions about | |
get-out-the-vote operations, from Arizona to Michigan and beyond. | |
A Trump adviser dismissed those concerns, telling CNN that the campaign | |
would have “the message, operation and money to win.” | |
“We have paid staffers and volunteer-powered field programs in every | |
battleground state, and they are expanding daily,” said Karoline | |
Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign. “Our aggressive and | |
experienced operation is focused on turning out votes and highlighting | |
the contrast between Joe Biden’s weakness and failures with President | |
Trump’s record of success.” | |
Back to ‘the old-fashioned way’ | |
While the campaign is unfolding with the same two major candidates on a | |
familiar map of battleground states as 2020, the race is far from a | |
sequel. Several distinct issues – from immigration to abortion rights | |
to the Israel-Hamas war – are driving the conversation, and the size | |
of the Biden organization is incomparable to four years ago when the | |
campaign shuttered its Philadelphia headquarters and worked virtually | |
after the pandemic began. | |
“It’s going to get down to knocking on doors the old-fashioned | |
way,” Biden told volunteers and staffers at a Democratic office in | |
Milwaukee last month. “No, it really is.” | |
As he travels across the country, the president has made several visits | |
to field offices that didn’t exist four years ago and often exudes | |
confidence at the elaborate operation that bears his name. | |
“We’re going to beat him again,” Biden said to campaign staffers, | |
pausing for an enthusiastic burst of applause during a stop in Nevada. | |
“But here’s the deal, you’re the ones who are going to do it. | |
It’s all blocking and tackling and making the case face-to-face with | |
voters.” | |
The traditional campaign office is alive again – 133 and counting – | |
much to the delight of loyal Biden volunteers like Ann Glass, who came | |
to see the opening of the Philadelphia office. | |
“During the 2020 election, we canvassed, knocking on doors, running | |
back six feet. Now, it’s nice to know we’ll be able to have | |
face-to-face contact,” Glass said. “We did a good job four years | |
ago. We can do a better job this time.” | |
The Trump and Biden campaigns took dramatically diverging approaches to | |
getting out the vote in 2020, with the latter largely embracing | |
Covid-19 safety protocols. But Democrats are eager to get past them. | |
“If we don’t go talk to people – unmasked – they’re not going | |
to bother to leave their houses to go vote this time,” said Sue | |
Jacobs, a Biden volunteer in Pennsylvania. | |
Lessons learned | |
The Biden campaign is working to create a hybrid system of campaigning | |
– weaving together some lessons from before the pandemic and others | |
from after – to take political organizing to the next level. One of | |
those lessons: building better and more campaign offices. | |
“I’m blown away by how beautiful it is,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, | |
Biden’s campaign manager, said at the opening of a downtown | |
Philadelphia office. “If the president was here, he often says he | |
hasn’t had campaign offices this nice, but we know it’s | |
critical.” | |
Opening field offices in nearby places like Lancaster County, | |
Pennsylvania, which Biden lost to Trump by 16 points in 2020 and is | |
expected to fall short again, not only increases the president’s | |
visibility but also is intended to drive down his margin of defeat. | |
“We want to be wherever you can win a voter,” said Kanninen, a | |
veteran operative who worked on the Obama-Biden campaigns in 2008 and | |
2012. “You have to go compete in places that you otherwise might not | |
win, but you want to lose 60-40 instead of 70-30. An office setting, | |
having volunteers there connecting with folks in a real way, makes a | |
big difference.” | |
For all of the challenges facing Biden, who is with Trump, a robust | |
organization is designed to help level the playing field and extend an | |
advantage to the president. Even among Democrats who have been | |
privately critical of Biden, the size of the campaign operation is seen | |
as a leading attribute. | |
The principal campaign committee for Biden entered April with $88.5 | |
million in its war chest, federal election records show, while | |
Trump’s main campaign account had $45.1 million. The disparity | |
underscores the vastly different campaign structures the rivals are | |
building. | |
“The advantage that we have both on time – we’re not sitting in | |
court – and infrastructure and the cash advantage is something that | |
we want to push everywhere,” Kanninen said. “This is not something | |
that you can do overnight. It takes months to do properly, and the | |
Trump campaign cannot buy that time back.” | |
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