Biden Needs To Campaign. Now.

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Joe Biden needs to campaign.

I’m going to excerpt an article below that is just one of a type. I’ve read several articles like this, all written by people who are trying to convince themselves and us that Joe Biden can win this election while staying home. They tell us that direct voter contact doesn’t matter.

But direct voter contact does matter. I know it does.

Biden needs to campaign the battleground states in a direct and highly personal way. He needs to campaign in each one of those states like he was running to be their United States Senator. What I mean by that is that he needs to shape his campaign to each state according to that state’s individual concerns as they fall within his overall message.

From US News and World Report.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden leaves after a campaign event on June 30, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware.GETTY IMAGES

HAVE YOU SEEN JOE BIDEN lately?

Probably not. Hardly anyone has. The presumptive Democratic nominee has been largely holed up at his Wilmington, Delaware, home. And with less than three months before Election Day, the campaign has given no indication he’s prepared to go out and meet voters, even as the former vice president tells donors 17 states are in play this fall. He does few TV interviews. There is not the usual filling of lawns with signs.

Biden’s visual absence from the campaign trail – driven by concerns about the coronavirus – deprives the candidate of perhaps his best asset: connecting with voters who tell him their troubles or share struggles similar to Biden’s own, such as losing family members or overcoming a childhood stutter. He has a responsible excuse – one that also serves to expose the less-careful behavior of Trump, who does travel – but it begs the question for some nervous Democrats: How can Biden make that personal connection with voters who aren’t on social media or participating in one of his myriad virtual events?

“I’ve heard a lot of people raise the question of why he isn’t doing this,” says Moe Vela, a former staffer for Biden in the White House. “I’m honestly inclined to ask the same question. Then I sit and realize he is ahead” in the polls, Vela adds. “And frankly, he is putting out plans,” unlike Trump, who offered no details when asked what his second-term agenda would be.

Biden Needs to Campaign. Now.