He’s ahead in most of the Democratic 2020 primary polls, but former Vice President Joe Biden has been silent on whether he’ll enter the race to challenge President Donald Trump — until now.
On Tuesday, Hanna Trudo, the national politics reporter for National Journal revealed that Biden has finally made job offers to campaign staff in New Hampshire, the first state on the Democratic primary schedule.
Scoop: @JoeBiden has made job offers in New Hampshire, a source directly familiar tells me.
— Hanna Trudo (@HCTrudo) February 26, 2019
“Scoop: @JoeBiden has made job offers in New Hampshire, a source directly familiar tells me,” Trudo tweeted.
A senior reporter at Huffington Post added just a short time later that Biden is also picking up staff in another early primary state, South Carolina.
Adding to this: Joe Biden has also made job offers in South Carolina, a source tells me. https://t.co/0V54h3Io27
— maxwell (@maxwellstrachan) February 26, 2019
“Adding to this: Joe Biden has also made job offers in South Carolina, a source tells me,” according to Huffington Post reporter Maxwell Strachan.
The pickups follow a busy several weeks for Democratic presidential contenders, many of whom made their first trips to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, hoping to build a firm foundation among early primary and caucus voters a year ahead of time. Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) both reportedly have staff on the ground in Iowa, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), also considered a front-runner (for now), is focusing her efforts on New Hampshire.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has been taking the airwaves by storm, building up name recognition, and preparing to launch major efforts in both the midwest and the northeast, where he’s long been among the strongest candidates. Sanders competed well in the Iowa caucuses in 2016, posting an unexpectedly strong finish against then-presumptive candidate Hillary Clinton. Neither ended up getting a majority of Iowa caucus votes. Sanders went on to handily win the New Hampshire primary, but couldn’t compete with Clinton’s command of Democratic “superdelegates.”
Biden has been considered among the best potential challengers to Trump since the first rumors of the 2020 campaign began surfacing, perhaps as early as January of 2017, and, according to Politico, recent polling shows him well ahead in nearly every early primary state, even though he’s been coy about whether he plans to throw his hat into the ring.
Biden will face some problems. Politico also reports that more granular polls, taken at the same time as big name polls in key states, show Biden with less of a lead than expected and most Democratic voters still unsure of who to support in the 2020 contest.
“While most polls show the former vice president hovering around 30 percent of the Democratic primary vote, well ahead of second-place Sen. Bernie Sanders, two recent surveys paint a starkly different picture — raising the question of whether Biden is a real front-runner or just has big name-recognition,” Politico says. “Those polls show far more Democratic voters undecided about which candidate to support, and they pegged Biden’s backing at a much less intimidating 9 to 12 percent.”
That’s still better than most Democratic candidates can hope for now. And despite concerns about Biden getting into the contest “too late,” as CNN reported Monday, the Democratic primary is still technically a wide-open field. The first primary debates won’t come for another several weeks.
Biden’s most challenging hurdle may be less about campaign staff, financing, and name recognition, than about his demographic information. It’s not clear an older, wealthy, white male is the right pick for the identity politics-obsessed Democratic Party.