Washington— President Joe Biden is going small to win November. With 10 months till Election Day, the Democratic incumbent prefers small events like trips to boba tea stores, family kitchens, and barbershops over large rallies.
Never much of an orator, Biden is playing to his retail politician skills from over 50 years in service. His team believes TikTok videos and Instagram stories may reach voters better than TV commercials and speeches in a changing media landscape.
Last month in Raleigh, North Carolina, Biden brought Cook Out burgers and fries to a “kitchen table conversation” at the home of Eric Fitts, a local schoolworker who received student loan forgiveness from the administration.
The closed-door visit was captured by Biden's team and distributed in edited clips online. But the president's team's highlight was unplanned. Fitts' son Christian posted a 57-second TikTok video of Biden's drop-by, featuring the president appreciating photographs on the family's fridge and his limo leaving their driveway.
The tweet immediately garnered millions of views, and Biden's team was glad to direct reporters to it despite not using TikTok owing to national security concerns. “You have to go to the places where people are,” said Biden deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty. He noted that campaigns find it tougher to contact voters in an era when consumers consume media on sites that suit their inclinations.
These voters are younger, more racially diverse than the general population, and uninterested in a Biden-Trump rematch. “We have to widen the aperture of what the president's time is good for, who he's talking to and why,”
Biden began the presidential election year with two major addresses at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and Charleston, South Carolina, to frame the November race. His team says he'll continue to organize set-piece events, especially when people tune in in the summer, but they cherish smaller connections more.
Trump and GOP detractors have used Biden's meandering comments at larger gatherings to suggest that the 81-year-old president cannot serve another four years in office. Instead of retail events, Trump prefers rallies before enormous throngs of followers who wait hours to get in or sporting events. Biden's go-small tactic is intended to show the public a different side of the president and increase his poll numbers.
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