Biden campaign in year-end memo argues democracy on the line in 2024

The Biden campaign on Thursday outlined its arguments and strategy for the president’s reelection bid, focusing heavily in a year-end memo on the threat former President Trump poses to democracy.

Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez laid out how the campaign is building out its operation in key states and fine-tuning its message as the calendar turns to a presidential election year. The memo made clear that a central focus will be on warning voters about the threat Trump, the likely GOP nominee, poses to democracy and basic freedoms.

“There are deep fears about our freedoms being eroded and our democracy being dismantled — election denialism, efforts to undermine our country’s democratic institutions, and forces that aim to restrict the right to vote itself. All at the direction of Donald Trump, who remains a real and credible threat to our democracy,” Chavez Rodriguez wrote.

“As we look toward 2024, the American people should expect to hear more from President Biden, Vice President Harris, and our campaign drawing this important and sharp contrast — but also about how this fundamental difference between the candidates impacts our future,” she added.

Polling has shown a close race between Trump and Biden, both of whom are on track to be the likely nominees for their respective parties. A New York Times/Siena College poll released this week found Biden leading Trump by 2 percentage points among likely 2024 voters, while a Fox News poll conducted in the same window found Trump leading by 4 percentage points.

Chavez Rodriguez wrote that the public should expect to hear more from Biden and Vice President Harris drawing a clear contrast between the campaign’s beliefs and those of Trump. She specifically referenced Trump taking credit for bringing about the end of Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s right to an abortion; Trump’s support for tax cuts for the wealthy; and his proposals to curtail transgender rights, among other proposals.

The Biden campaign has in recent days highlighted Trump’s comments that he would not be a dictator except for on his first day in office, as well as the former president’s comments that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country, which Biden officials have compared to Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric.

The campaign detailed how it planned to scale up its efforts in the new year, thanks largely to a massive war chest Biden has accrued while GOP donors have split their money among Trump and other primary candidates. Biden closed the third quarter of 2023 having raised $91 million for the campaign, and the president has been on a fundraising blitz in recent weeks to close out the year.

Chavez Rodriguez said the campaign would have staff in place in every battleground state by mid-January, and she hinted that Biden and Harris would ramp up travel around the country in the new year. Harris is already set to kick off an abortion-focused tour of battleground states in January.

“We are treating this election like it will determine the fate of American democracy — because it will,” Chavez Rodriguez wrote. “Every single day, Donald Trump and the extreme MAGA Republican party are telling us the quiet part out loud: If they take power, they will do everything they can to dismantle American democracy and continue stripping Americans of their hard-fought and fundamental freedoms.”