WILMINGTON — As President Joe Biden begins wrapping up his political legacy at the White House, a top ally said that the machine built around the commander in chief stands ready to support his replacement.
He announced that he will not seek re-election for a second term on Sunday via a letter issued on social media.
In a press conference Monday morning, Biden’s campaign co-chair U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) called it a “selfless and historic decision to step aside and not seek the Democratic nomination for re-election.”
He added, “It was hard for me to accept that he was going to step aside and someone else would take his place.”
The senator joined the president in endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris whom he says he knows well as they shared legislative service together for years in the Senate and in her role as vice president.
If Harris is nominated by the Democratic party during its national convention which brings in more than 4,000 delegates for the decision, she will likely be able to take on all of the assets related to Biden’s presidential campaign as she was also listed on the ticket as his chosen running mate. Together, the Biden-Harris campaign racked up more than 1,000 campaign staffers in roughly 200 offices around the country, including the headquarters in Wilmington, according to Coons.
“My expectation, my early insights into this, is that because Vice President Harris was part of the Biden Harris ticket campaigning across the country in primaries that Vice President Harris is able to transition the existing funds, I think it was on the order of $90 or 100 million, into Harris for President,” Coons estimated.
“I believe Vice President Harris, if she becomes the nominee for president which I believe she will and should, is able to take it on, the staff, the offices, the funding and, another critical point, the media buys – Biden-Harris locked in multi-million dollar media buys on television and other press outlets and newspapers months ago. A new campaign with a new presidential candidate would have to go back and redo those buys at a much higher rate closer to the election,” he continued.
While Biden’s campaign staff worked to digest the news over the weekend and into the work week, Campaign Chair and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, along with Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez attempted to reassure them on a call Sunday that their jobs in the campaign would be safe and a few new faces would be added to the mix.
Assets in the Biden-Harris campaign that could possibly be transferred to a Harris for President campaign would include those employees which Coons adamantly touted to reporters Monday morning.
“It is my hope and expectation that she will retain the more than 1,000 current Biden Harris campaign employees. These are great, energetic and talented, mostly young, people, many of whom have relocated here to Wilmington to be a part of the core team and who are excited, fired up and ready to continue the fight to elect a Democrat to the White House this December,” Coons said.
During the call, Coons reflected on his service alongside the president who calls Delaware home, calling Biden the “Most consequential president of my lifetime,” adding, “I think Joe Biden will be remembered as one of our greatest presidents.”
He detailed some of Biden’s work while in office, stating that Biden began his presidential term “in the middle of three crises to include the global COVID-19 pandemic, an economic recession and “a crisis of democracy – I’ll remind you that when President Biden was sworn in, Jan. 6th [the insurrection] had just happened two weeks before and the Capital had barely been cleaned up and put back together in time for the inauguration.”
After that moment, Coons says Biden’s leadership was historic, including milestones such as, “. . .the biggest investment in infrastructure in my lifetime, the biggest renaissance in advanced manufacturing through the Chips and Science Act that we’ve seen in decades, and most important veterans benefts bill – the Pact Act, the most consequential gun safety bill in 30 years, the largest investment in community mental health in decades and the biggest bill to combat climate change and to reduce prescription drug prices. Many of the things that few of us believed could actually be done happened because of his leadership.”
But national issues weren’t the only concern on Biden’s radar during his time in the White House, Coons explained, highlighting the ongoing war in Ukraine against Russian aggression, threats to Taiwan and other partners in the Indo-Pacific and the war in Gaza.
“We are on the very cusp of a cease-fire for hostages [in the Gaza war], a deal that President Biden has personally been involved in leading. He got the UN Security Council to endorse it. He got the G7 to endorse it and when Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu comes this week to meet with President Biden, I’m hopeful we’ll close that gap and that he will be able to move that forward and lay the foundation for regional peace,” Coons detailed.
Although Coons said he wasn’t in the room to go over the mechanics of how Biden and his staff would relay his announcement, he does anticipate a public address from Biden later this week after he has recovered more from his most recent stint with COVID-19.
“I think he will be remembered as someone that, although he is a fierce fighter, very determined, has the grit that is typical of so many from Pennsylvania that I know and respect and has shown throughout his life the ability to get back up when he is knocked down, I think choosing to step aside in this moment in his campaign is a sign of strength and a sign of his affection for our nation and his determination to make sure that a candidate that is most likely to win is on the ballot this November,” Coons told reporters.
Editor’s Note: This article has been edited to add more context from the press call with U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.).