Washington– Joe Biden will not be on the ballot this fall.
But at least three prominent members of his administration will represent the Democratic Party in three gubernatorial races that could test Biden’s brand of resilience two years after he left the White House under a cloud of disapproval.
Two members of Biden’s cabinet – former US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland New Mexico and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra CALIFORNIA – They advanced to the at-large ballot in their state’s general election for governor this week. They join Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former senior adviser, who captured the Democratic nomination in the Georgia governor’s race last month.
Their rise comes as a bitter dispute erupts among Biden allies, including some who have worked in the White House, over the Biden family’s re-emergence into the public spotlight just five months before the high-stakes midterm elections. Hunter Biden He’s mixing it up with fans and critics on social media, while Jill Biden is Recreating the torturous saga of the last presidential race In new memoirs. Biden himself has his own book coming out later this year.
As candidates turn toward the general election phase of the midterm elections, it is unclear whether Biden’s communications will help or hurt Democratic gubernatorial candidates next November.
“I will put my experience to work for the people of our state,” Haaland told cheering supporters this week when she accepted her party’s nomination.
But she did not mention Biden’s name while reviewing her experience as a single mother, her time in Congress and her leadership of the Interior Department.
Roderica Applewhite, a former Biden White House aide, noted that some Democrats on the ballot this fall were deliberately avoiding asking the former president for help with their campaigns.
Applewhite is among the Democratic activists who have publicly criticized Biden’s public comeback in recent days — especially Jill Biden’s book tour.
“The Biden family is burning a lot of goodwill that they have built over a very long period of time in what seems like days,” she said, offering a specific suggestion for the former president and his family. “Stand aside and let us fight the battles we need to fight today.”
On the ground in California, Georgia and New Mexico, Biden alumni are navigating their relationships with Biden in different ways.
Haaland and Becerra are keen to focus on President Donald Trump in their campaign materials, but neither mentioned Biden in their initial late-night speeches to their supporters. Neither of them mentioned Biden’s name in the biographies listed on their official campaign websites.
Biden had not issued a public endorsement in the New Mexico or California contests before Tuesday’s contests either. Democrats focused on attacking Republicans during Trump’s time in power.
“It’s funny that Republicans have become so desperate to avoid talking about Donald Trump that they are now trying to go after our nominees for defending their states and getting results when they served in the executive branch,” said Kevin Donohue, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association. He said Democrats are “focused on affordability” while “Republicans are all in on Trump’s cost-raising agenda.”
But that didn’t stop Republicans from highlighting the old president for both candidates.
In fact, Republicans are actively planning to highlight Democrats’ ties to the Biden administration as a weakness in the coming weeks, according to Colleen Crompton of the Republican Governors Association.
“Deb Haaland turned her back on New Mexico to push Biden’s failed policies and New Green’s fraud,” Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who heads the campaign’s organization, said in a statement. “New Mexico deserves a leader, not a career politician who forgot where she came from.”
Georgia is another story.
Lance Bottoms notes her work with Biden on her campaign website. She requested, and received, Biden’s official endorsement ahead of the Georgia primary, which she shared widely on her campaign’s social media platforms. She also said she would invite the former president to participate in her election campaign this fall. “As I move through this state, people are missing Joe Biden more and more every day,” she told CNN.
Bottoms was the first of two candidates Biden has endorsed since leaving office, and he called her to congratulate her after she won the May 19 primary.
But even Bottoms did not highlight her time in the administration during the campaign. Ha Stump speech Mentioned regularly Her time as mayor of Atlanta and his career as a prosecutor but is quickly turning to issues like affordability and the Trump administration’s agenda.
“I talked to him this morning, so he called me to congratulate me,” Bottoms said of Biden after her primary victory. But then I pivoted immediately. “At the end of the day, we all want the same things. We want to live in great neighborhoods, we want great schools, we want access to health care.”
Americans had a dim view of Biden presidency When he left office than they did at the end Trump Barack Obama’s first or second term, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About a quarter of US adults at the time said Biden was a “good” or “great” president, while less than one in ten said he was “great.”
It was a stark example of how Biden’s legacy has been tarnished, with many members of his party viewing his Democratic presidency as merely mediocre.
Americans were similarly likely to describe both Biden and Trump as “poor” or “terrible” — about half said that characterized each president’s time in office — but about 3 in 10 said Biden was “average,” while fewer than 2 in 10 said that about Trump.
The Biden family has faced new scrutiny in recent weeks, sometimes even from former aides.
The former president’s son, Hunter Biden, has drawn criticism for his recent appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Candace Owens’ radio show. He has attracted attention by posting online about his experience with addiction and media criticism.
Former first lady Jill Biden shocked some Democrats with comments she made as part of a book tour for her memoir, “A View from the East Wing,” released Tuesday. The former first lady said in an interview with CBS News that she was “scared” by her husband’s performance during the infamous debate against Trump. The fallout eventually prompted Biden to withdraw.
Biden’s top aides “insisted that he needed to run” for re-election, she wrote in her memoir. Her memoir includes a retelling of her husband’s decision to end his candidacy and the family’s reaction to the former president’s cancer diagnosis last year.
Throughout her book tour, she faced difficult questions about the former president’s health and cognitive abilities while in office, as well as her role in pushing him to re-election despite widespread public concerns.
The former first lady called it “heartbreaking” that the Democratic Party had abandoned her husband during an interview with ABC’s “The View.”
“That’s why Joe had to make the decision to come out, because he lost the support of the Democratic Party,” she said.
Such comments sparked conflict among allies, especially after Biden’s former spokesman, Andrew Bates, asked the New York Post “why this painful party conversation should be reopened publicly now.”
“I want to say to Andrew, call me and say that to my face,” Jill Biden responded.