United States: Joe Biden's difficult, contained campaign

Text by: Anne Corpet Follow

After spending more than a month stuck in the White House due to a pandemic, the president resumed his travels. Donald Trump has traveled to Arizona, Pennsylvania, and will be in Michigan this Thursday. Three key states ahead of the presidential election. His opponent Joe Biden, however, remains confined to his home. How can the former vice president campaign under these conditions?

Publicity

From our correspondent in Washington,

The confined Biden campaign has struggled to start. His first interventions, from the basement of his Delaware house, were almost inaudible and not always technically successful. The former vice-president did not already arouse tremendous enthusiasm before the arrival of the pandemic and he who excels in direct contact with his constituents, who is often celebrated for his empathy, is deprived of one of his main assets in the absence of meetings.

Uneven means

The ex-vice president will remain trapped at home until the formal lifting of the containment order in his state, Delaware. Meanwhile, Joe Biden tries to breathe new life into his virtual campaign. He has doubled the number of his digital team and has been much more present for ten days on social networks. He strongly denounces the President's management of the pandemic and repeats that if someone more responsible had been in the White House, the crisis would have been less severe.

But the Democratic candidate is obviously much less visible than President Donald Trump, and he also has less means: 103 million dollars (just over 94 million euros) to campaign according to the latest figures, against 255 million ( nearly 234 million euros) for the Donald Trump camp.

Barack Obama's show of support

To compensate, Joe Biden displays his support, and in particular that of Barack Obama. The former American president, who continues to be extremely popular in the United States, is increasingly involved in the campaign. Barack Obama multiplies online interventions to extol the qualities of his former vice-president. Other Democratic leaders are mobilizing, including the former candidates for the primaries. Together they are trying to compete against the strike power of the American president on social networks. And their support is essential: nearly 80 million people follow the president, for example, on Twitter, compared to less than six million for Joe Biden.

His running mate soon revealed

One event will shine a spotlight on Joe Biden's campaign; it is the announcement of the name of his running mate which should normally take place in June. It will be a woman, Joe Biden is committed to it. Several names circulate with insistence: that of African-American women first of all like Kamala Harris, senator from California, or Stacey Abrams, an elected representative of Georgia. But Joe Biden could turn to personalities in the Midwest, a field that Democrats must reclaim. Amy Klobuchar senator from Minnesota is in the running. There is also a lot of talk about Gretchen Wythmer, the governor of Michigan who distinguished herself by her management of the pandemic.

Another possibility is that Joe Biden chooses someone well anchored to the left to attract the electorate of Bernie Sanders. In this case, Elizabeth Warren could appear on the ticket. Whatever Joe Biden chooses, it will indeed be a key moment in the campaign; it will in any case attract mass media attention.

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• United States
• Joe Biden
• USA elections 2020

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