Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are locked in a high-stakes homestretch to the presidential election. But an obvious person has been much quieter on the campaign trail: the sitting president.
President Joe Biden has been largely absent from the campaign trail this fall, appearing only in strategic scenarios like labor union events in Pennsylvania.
Several Democrats in key battleground areas argued that Biden’s presence could help in some spots, whereas in others it could be a liability. They told NOTUS they’re still enthusiastic about the job he’s done as president, but they’d like him to stick to it.
“Biden is really not on the front burner for us right now,” said Mary Arnold, the co-chair of the Democratic Party in Columbia County, Wisconsin. “What I’m thinking — and probably what other people are thinking — is that the guy’s running the country, you know? I mean, I don’t think it’s appropriate to take time off from his job as president to be campaigning.”
Biden said on Monday that he’s still playing an active role in the campaign.
“I’ve done a lot of surrogacy,” Biden told reporters after voting in Delaware on Monday. “I’ve also had to be president at the same time. I’ve been to all the battleground states, I’ve been campaigning, but I also had to continue my job as president.”
“I’ve been on the trail, we talk all the time, and they’re asking me where they think I should be to help them most. I’m going to be in Pennsylvania, going to head to Scranton and a few other places,” he added.
Biden has made recent stops on the campaign trail, including one at a Democratic dinner in Philadelphia where he said Harris would “cut her own path” as president like he did after serving as Barack Obama’s vice president. He also appeared at an event on Saturday at a union hall in Pittsburgh where he delivered pizza and thanked union workers on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign.
On Sunday, Axios reported that Biden has not been making appearances with Harris because her team considers him a “political liability” and the campaign is reluctant to tie the two together due to the president’s low approval rating. The Harris campaign did not answer a question from NOTUS about how it decides when and where Biden should appear on the campaign trail.
“Vice President Harris is grateful for President Biden’s support and appreciates that he is campaigning for her,” said Harris spokesperson Ian Sams in a statement to NOTUS.
Biden’s more targeted role is different from that of Obama, who engaged in historic campaigning for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and has spent recent days out on the trail as one of Harris’ highest-profile surrogates across several battleground states.
“It doesn’t make sense that [Harris] needs or should have [Biden] right next to her because it doesn’t give her that independence and her own sort of credibility and vision going forward,” said Amanda Renteria, the political director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “I think it’s smart that every surrogate has a phase with the candidate, and we’ve moved beyond the Biden phase of this campaign.”
Biden appearing on the campaign trail with Harris now “doesn’t give you the image of her moving forward,” Renteria said.
Biden, who endorsed Harris immediately after dropping out of the presidential race, has taken steps to help Harris win. His team pointed to several instances where the president campaigned on her behalf, including recording fundraising videos and robocalls and past joint travel they’ve done together, such as for a Labor Day event.
Sam Talarico, chair of the Democratic Party in Erie County, said there’s no better place for Biden to appear than at a union event in Pennsylvania. Even though Biden hasn’t been “too visible,” Talarico said he’s an “asset in most places in Pennsylvania.”
“He’s still Scranton Joe, after all,” he said.
But he acknowledged that might not be the case elsewhere, and other Democrats agreed.
Lewanna Tucker, chair of the Democratic Party in Fulton County, Georgia, argued that Biden would be ineffective at breaking through to young Black men, which the Harris campaign has been making efforts to reach.
“I think that we’re looking for something fresh,” Tucker said. “[Biden] should continue to go where he has a stronghold, but I think that if he wants to come to Georgia, it needs to be a part of rural Georgia where they’re not maybe getting as much play at the moment.”
Cassandra Conover, chair of the Democratic Party in Nash County, North Carolina, said his presence could still be helpful in reaching die-hard Biden fans.
“There’s still a group of people that were hurt by Biden not staying in the race,” Conover said. “That is a block of people that I believe that he will reach, that nobody else can reach.”
Biden also can still create political headaches for Democrats. They experienced one when the president used Trump’s infamous “lock him up” line against him last Tuesday at a small campaign event in New Hampshire. (He quickly said that he meant it “politically.”) Conservatives were quick to attack Biden and Harris for it.
Annette Magnus, a Nevada-based Democratic strategist, said Biden is not a hindrance or danger to the Harris campaign despite that specific comment. He’s done “everything humanly possible” to help Harris, and like every incumbent, there are natural things that follow him, and she agreed that the president may be a more effective surrogate in some scenarios than others.
“As someone who has lived in a battleground state my entire life, this cycle we are being inundated with a diversity of surrogates by the Harris campaign,” Magnus said. She added that is critical in an election like this one.
And in an election cycle fueled by the battle over reproductive rights, Biden’s record of touting his support for them pales in comparison to that of Harris — an “attractive” and “relatable” candidate who has been “outstanding” with her messaging on the issue, Talarico said.
“Joe Biden, for whatever reason — probably because it’s more of a generational thing — he was hesitant to even say the word ‘abortion.’ And Kamala Harris is addressing it head on,” Talarico said. “I think people are really excited about that.”
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Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.