WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has been hiding in plain sight all along.
The contours of the 2024 campaign that Biden will formally launch with a video on Tuesday will look a lot like his messaging and policy moves from the past few months: Play up accomplishments from his first two years, draw a sharp contrast with Republican policies he deems extreme, and brush off worries about his age.
Biden, aides contend, has essentially been campaigning since Republicans took control of the House last year, focused on showing Americans how his administration is implementing massive new infrastructure, technology and climate laws, and portraying Republicans as in the grip of the far right at a time when Washington is nearing a crucial fight over raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
While advisers say Biden’s activities and message in coming months will be largely indistinguishable from what he’s been doing over the last six months, the frame of reference will inevitably shift as voters increasingly tune in to 2024 political dynamics.
“President Biden is delivering and making the strong case for reelection before, during and after any formal campaign announcement,” said Democratic consultant and former Biden spokesman Scott Mulhauser. “Rather than throwing darts at calendars, let’s focus on the President doing his job and doing it well, from an investing in America tour, an economy humming and unemployment at historic lows to a home run of a State of the Union, an expertly pulled-off Ukraine trip and more.”
He added: “These wins on economic and political fronts onward are what success looks like, how incumbents win and matter far more than a campaign kick-off event.”
Aides are planning for Biden’s launch video to be released Tuesday, the four-year anniversary of his first successful campaign launch. He was expected to select Julie Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser, to manage his reelection campaign, according to two people familiar with deliberations.
“I told you I’m planning on running,” Biden told reporters Monday. “I’ll let you know real soon.”
Biden has taken his time in making official his candidacy for reelection not because he’s wavered in his commitment to run, a half-dozen aides and advisers said, but because there was little incentive to do it sooner.
Incumbents — with the exception of former President Donald Trump, who filed for reelection on his Inauguration Day — tend to hold off…