Send in the Surrogates
After the State of the Union, Biden should take advantage of the Democrats’ deep bench.
OLD AND BUSTED: Sleepy Joe. New hotness: Jacked-up Joe.
Joe Biden did a lot to shore up his weaknesses in his State of the Union address on Thursday. Before the speech, the main criticism of him from Republicans (and many voters, including Democrats) was that he was old and lacked the sharpness and energy to be president.
Then came the SOTU. He addressed his age directly at the end of the speech, observing that with age comes wisdom. And he’s started addressing his age directly in his ads, even joking about it. This is a good start—a necessary first step to reassure voters that he can do the job.
But it’s insufficient. It’s not enough for Biden to reassure voters that he might survive until 2029. He also has to demonstrate that the team around him—the key figures in his administration and the Democratic party—are young and energetic enough to carry forward his vision for the future.
This problem requires the Biden team’s particular attention because Vice President Kamala Harris is even less popular than Biden—and with an 81-year-old president, the role of VP looms large in voters’ minds.
Democrats have built an impressive bench of governors and congressional leaders over the past three election cycles. They should flood the zone with assets. Several members of Biden’s cabinet are young and capable. Americans should be on a first-name basis with all of them.
When Biden said he’d be a “bridge” to a new generation, it’s now clear he didn’t mean by being a one-term president. That’s done. But he can still fulfill this promise by making the stable of young talent surrounding him the face of tomorrow’s party—and of his re-election.
Thankfully we’re starting to see some of that, too. But it’s important that the Biden camp make this a core pillar of its 2024 strategy.
IN THE HAZE OF THE “insane criminal wannabe dictator vs. old guy” discourse, people have missed some broader trends:
Most “normal” Republican politicians have been either run out of the party or co-opted by Trump.
Many of the voters who once supported those erstwhile normal Republicans are increasingly moving away from Trump’s GOP and voting for Democrats.
Democrats have been pretty good about putting up candidates in competitive races that these right-leaning independents and soft GOP voters can vote for.
And as a result, Democrats have a large stable of candidates who’ve won multiple races in swing states and swing districts and are poised to become national stars.
There is a lot of credit to go around to savvy young pols who helped create this formula: Gretchen Whitmer, Raphael Warnock, Jared Polis, Josh Shapiro, Andy Beshear (in Kentucky of all places), Mark Kelly, Abigail Spanberger, Elissa Slotkin, Mikie Sherrill, Wes Moore, and a whole bunch more.
Until this week, Gavin Newsom was the only one I saw regularly making the media rounds to go on offense on Biden’s record.
One of the things Biden accomplished last week was to make it easier for Democrats to campaign with and for him. He led with popular issues that unite most Americans and divide or embarrass Republicans, like supporting Ukraine and protecting access to IVF. He also called on Republicans to pass the border security bill they wrote, in effect out-flanking them on immigration.
Warnock, who won four statewide elections in two years (thanks to Georgia’s runoff system) and now has his seat secure until 2028, was on TV this weekend in the classic attack-dog role usually played by the incumbent vice president. Maybe that was scheduled before the speech, but Biden certainly gave him more to work with.
Georgia isn’t the only swing state with safe senators who could help Biden. In Arizona, Mark Kelly isn’t up for re-election until 2026. Ditto Gary Peters in Michigan. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania is set until 2028.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who may be the best communicator in the Democratic party, was on Fox News Sunday this week defending not only the Biden administration’s transportation policy, but also its border policies, its entitlement reforms, and the economy. Biden gave Buttigieg a hand by mentioning the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” thanks to which
46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities—modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems. Removing poisonous lead pipes so every child can drink clean water without risk of getting brain damage. Providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you live.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo can give chapter and verse about how the Biden administration is being tough on China while protecting American economic competitiveness. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm—who, by the way, used to be governor of Michigan—can talk about how Biden got Congress to pass the biggest investment in green energy in American history.
You get the gist. It’s a mystery to me why Biden and his fellow Democrats haven’t been trumpeting their achievements like this for years, but better late than never.
WHEN YOU CAN’T RELY on a single generational political talent to carry a message, it’s incumbent to fill that void with a crowd of people who can.
And it goes both ways: The rising stars who should be carrying Biden’s message have their own selfish reasons to want to be out there. They need name ID, recognition, and a chance to make a national reputation. Politicians are ambition creatures; these Dems should act more like it. Why cede the field to Newsom?
BIDEN SEEMS PREPARED TO MAKE his re-election a choice between himself and Trump, rather than just a referendum on the past four years. This is probably a smart strategy for the first election in more than a century pitting an incumbent president against a former president who’s acting like an incumbent.
But it’s not enough for Biden to run against Trump. Democrats also have to run against Republicans. And Biden can’t do both by himself. He needs surrogates to help get his message out. And he needs them to show voters that the future of the Democratic party beyond him is sane, normal, and broadly acceptable.