Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to run for re-election as President of the United States in 2024. The question for a long time was when he would officially announce it. On his recent trip to Ireland, he said it was “relatively soon”. And this Thursday, several US media outlets, led by the Washington Post, have given assurances that the President plans to launch the campaign next week.
The capital newspaper is even more specific: Biden’s team wants to officially start the election campaign next Tuesday with the publication of a video with the announcement. Tuesday is a date that has been speculated about because it has been four years since the current president launched the campaign that took him to the White House after defeating Trump in the 2020 election.
The official launch of the campaign allows Biden to begin raising funds, but at the same time places certain restrictions on him. But above all, Biden is looking for a moment where he can monopolize some celebrity, and finding a window on the hectic American scene isn’t easy.
Biden doesn’t expect to have strong candidates that will overshadow him in the Democratic Party primary. The only notable candidate, more for his last name than his real options, is currently environmental advocate and anti-vaccine Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 69, son of former New York Senator, United Attorney General and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who assassinated in 1968 and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, who had met the same fate five years earlier. The Democratic Party also redrawn the main calendar to match Biden’s wishes.
Although the president’s popularity in the polls is low, there is no better alternative in sight for the Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris is even less popular. And finally, Biden has been winning elections (as a candidate for senator, vice president and president) for half a century. He defeated Donald Trump back in 2020, now the most likely Republican rival. Even last November’s general election, which the Democrats were at times predicted to be disastrous, brought the party its best result in the White House in 20 years.
Also, Biden could try to focus on selling his tenure while potential Republican rivals channel their energies into attacking one another. Trump, on the other hand, has a busy court calendar that, while bringing him to close ranks within his party, alienates him from independent and moderate voters.
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If he wins in November 2024, Biden would begin a second term at age 82 and complete it at age 86. As the first 80-year-old President of the United States, age has already become a prominent issue in the 2020 campaign.
When asked if he would present himself in the plural, he replied in the press conference after the November 8 general election, looking at his wife Jill Biden: “Our intention is to present ourselves again.” In December it was leaked that at the dinner in the White House on the occasion of the state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, the two Presidents and the First Ladies toasted the 2024 election campaign (Biden, teetotaler, raised his glass with Coca Cola). After February’s State of the Union address, he was questioned again and said he hadn’t made the “decision” yet. “I’m not ready for that,” he said in a television interview. Later that month he assured that he was sticking to his performance plans and that there would be an announcement “relatively soon” on the recent trip to Ireland.
Now it is his turn to sell his management. Achievements of the first half of his tenure include the Infrastructure Act designed to encourage microprocessor manufacturing and his Stern climate, tax and health package, opportunistically (and misleadingly) named the Anti-Inflation Act. Biden calls for the effect of these measures to be transferred to citizens.
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