As President Joe Biden fought to stay in the presidential race this summer, advisers often argued that a “Biden coalition” existed — a cohort that only the incumbent could hold together. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris has won the Democratic ticket, there has been a shift in focus on these voters, such as white working-class voters in places like Pennsylvania, seniors and union members.
A pro-Harris super PAC has run a series of ads — which rotate widely during the Major League Baseball playoffs — featuring testimonials from working-class voters, as well as voters who say they previously supported former President Donald Trump, that reflect Biden’s message. A coalition of labor groups targeting union members in battleground states points to Biden’s tenure. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has set his sights on keeping voters who supported Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020 in the Democratic camp with a populist, progressive tone that leans on Biden’s performance.
And Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has had a campaign platform that closely mirrors what Biden had been in this and previous election cycles. On Friday in Scranton, Pennsylvania – Biden’s hometown – Walz made the case for a new Democratic candidate by highlighting their shared values.
“That patriotism, that fierce patriotism, putting the American people first is exactly what has guided Kamala Harris over the course of her entire career,” Walz said at the same location where Biden delivered an economic speech in April.
Biden advisers emphasize that the president continues to reach key constituencies, albeit in a more under-the-radar way. On Friday, he held an official event on tribal land in Arizona, where he spoke to a group of voters who helped that state win for him four years ago.
When asked who is making the pitch to Biden voters, if not Biden, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said: “Kamala Harris.” The Harris campaign points to events such as a recent stop at a union building in Lansing, Michigan, where she highlighted the administration’s record on manufacturing and organized labor’s critical role in supporting the middle class.
Coons noted that the vice president has campaigned in Pennsylvania’s largest cities, as well as places like Wilkes-Barre, Johnstown and Erie, to reach the kind of voters Biden has long considered his base. The longtime Biden friend said he received multiple questions from Democratic supporters about the president during his own recent stop in Scranton, which he in turn used to set a different tone for voting for Harris.
“Folks, this is simple. If we lose, it will kill him. Literally,” Coons recalled. “If we win, nothing will make him happier.”
Harris has faced a difficult balancing act, demonstrating loyalty while establishing his independence from Biden, who continues to suffer in public opinion polls. She has said repeatedly in recent weeks that her presidency would not be an extension of his. So the president’s allies say their efforts are critical to ensuring the Biden faithful still hear about the president’s economic performance.
And for some voters Biden won in 2020, the message has shifted from being about him.
“The paradox of this moment is that this administration … will go down as one of the most effective and transformative administrations in history,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “But there is a difference between what we will see through a historical lens and what we see now.”
Noting that Biden had asked Harris to chair his White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, Weingarten said her union and others are focusing on messaging among members, acting as validators for the vice president for voters who that are not. who knows her or perhaps hears counter-messages from Trump supporters.
“We know her and we’ve worked with her for the last three and a half years, and we’ve become surrogates for her in terms of who she is and what she stands for,” Weingarten said before an event in Scranton that is part of the national bus tour of her union. “We’ve become, in some ways, the people who can say, ‘They’re us and they’re fighting for us.'”
A series of ads from Future Forward PAC — a group formed to support Biden’s re-election and dedicated to electing Harris — features ads advocating for tax fairness, a position Biden had prioritized. The ads show a clip of Trump telling campaign donors that they are “rich as hell” and that they would get tax cuts if he is elected.
This week, Biden was joined by Sanders in New Hampshire to warn what a Republican administration and Congress would mean for another administration achievement: allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.
Sanders praised Biden and Harris “for having the courage to be the first administration in the history of this country to stand up to the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.” It was one of 20 events across the country that Sanders has attended since September that were intended to highlight a progressive agenda partially realized under Biden, including stops at coordinated campaign offices in Nevada with members of the Culinary Workers Union and with United Auto Labor President Shawn Fain in Michigan.
This weekend, Biden travels to Pittsburgh to meet with members and leaders of LIUNA, which represents 70,000 workers in the construction and energy industries. The union has organized rallies and other events there and in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada aimed at its own and other union members.
Behind closed doors, Biden met separately this week with union leaders in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to discuss efforts to encourage their members to support Harris. He recorded a video and robocall for the Senate candidate in his home state of Delaware, Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester.
“Biden is delivering more historic results for American families and he is maximizing every day he is in office and travels the country, highlighting life-changing benefits and Vice President Harris’ role in them,” said spokesman Andrew Bates from the White House.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
