WASHINGTON — With just two weeks left in the 2024 campaign, there are currently no plans for Vice President Kamala Harris to hit the road with President Joe Biden before Election Day, according to three Harris campaign officials and three White House officials House.
Instead, Biden plans to help Harris this week by privately leveraging some of his longstanding political relationships, particularly with labor leaders, and hosting official White House events that highlight his administration’s record. officials said. His schedule for the final week before the election has not yet been determined, they said.
The strategy was created in coordination between Harris and Biden aides, who at this point believe “the most important role he can play is to do his job as president,” said one of the White House officials who, just like others in this piece, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
“He is there doing the job of president, and she is campaigning,” the official said, adding: “It is clear that voters want something new.”
A Harris campaign official described Biden’s role for the remainder of the campaign as “tailor-made.”
It’s a noticeably diminished position in the 2024 campaign for a president who until a few months ago was at the top of the Democratic ticket. It comes as Harris tries to convince voters in the final days before the election that she does not represent a second Biden term but is instead a candidate for change. Harris aides believe that message could be undermined by images of her on the campaign trail with the president.
“Harris needs to position herself as a change agent, and it’s hard to do that with a sitting president at her side,” said a longtime Democratic strategist.
Harris has at times struggled to articulate how she would be different from Biden and has tried to be more definitive in recent days.
“Let me be very clear: my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.
Harris has promised “a new generation of thinking,” telling NBC News in an interview Friday that “there’s no doubt that I bring my own experiences and my own life experiences.”
Still, the Trump campaign has tried to cast him as a candidate for change by tying Harris to Biden and the obstructions of the establishment, especially when it comes to two top issues for voters: the economy and immigration.
“They have no idea what a good economy is,” Trump said during the September debate, linking Harris to Biden’s record. “And remember this: She is Biden.”
Biden’s unpopularity has also sidelined him more on the campaign trail, officials said. In a new poll from NBC News, just 25% of voters said Biden’s presidency has helped them and their families, while 45% say his time in office has hurt them. In contrast, when it comes to Trump’s time in office, 43% of voters say it has helped them and their families, compared to 31% who say his presidency has hurt them.
Biden aides have expressed concern to the Harris campaign that she is de-emphasizing the president’s achievements, according to a second campaign official and a second White House official, including lower inflation and border overruns and a high stock market. The president’s aides have argued this would help Harris, the officials said.
But the Harris team has decided to run a forward-looking campaign, which will require some distance from Biden – including physically on the road.
A Harris campaign official said the campaign’s internal data indicates that messages to voters about policies during Biden’s term, as the president did before dropping out of the race in July, were not resonating. The official said there is little desire within the campaign to have the vice president appear with Biden at events or rallies.
So while Harris will campaign this week with former President Barack Obama in Georgia on Thursday and former first lady Michelle Obama in Michigan on Saturday, Biden will hold solo official White House events focused on specific policy issues his administration has been trying to address . , such as the cost of prescription drugs during a trip to New Hampshire.
The president also plans to reach out behind the scenes this week to labor leaders in battleground states to ensure they make strong efforts to get the vote, according to a White House official.
Biden could also appear in the next two weeks at political events like the one he headlined last Tuesday with Philadelphia Democrats at a Sheet Metal Workers Hall, perhaps aimed at seniors, officials said. He is expected to continue to emphasize that Harris will not be an extension of his presidency, using himself as an example of how that separation is possible. At the event in Philadelphia, Biden said publicly that he expects Harris to “forge her own path.”
The president can also be an asset to Harris, campaign officials said, by keeping the government running smoothly — citing recent hurricane responses in Florida and North Carolina — a resolution to a potentially economically devastating dockworkers’ strike and diplomatic efforts to end Israel’s war to stand firm. and Hamas cannot spread across the Middle East.
“The White House is smart to just let him do his job,” the Democratic strategist said.
Biden last appeared with Harris at a campaign event nearly seven weeks ago, on Labor Day in early September. That’s in stark contrast to former President Obama, who headlined a series of Harris campaign events, and former President Bill Clinton, who was also running for vice president. First lady Jill Biden also headlined multiple events for the Harris campaign and will hit the road for her again in Nevada on Wednesday.
White House and campaign officials say the president understands the strategy behind his downsized role in the campaign, even if he sometimes doesn’t like it.
For Biden, who plans to remain in the US through the election after a brief overseas trip last week, his 2024 campaign role has proven to be the embodiment of one of his old political sayings: “I will campaign for you or against you , which also helps. most.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
