Harris allies seek to keep the 'Biden coalition' in the fold

As President Joe Biden fought to remain in the presidential race this summer, advisers often argued there existed a “Biden coalition” — a cohort only the incumbent could hold together. With Vice President Kamala Harris atop the Democratic ticket, there has been a shift in the focus on these voters, like white working-class voters in places like Pennsylvania, seniors and union members.

A pro-Harris super PAC has been running a series of ads — in heavy rotation during the Major League Baseball playoffs — featuring testimonials from working-class voters, as well as voters who say they previously backed former President Donald Trump, that echo Biden’s message. A coalition of labor groups targeting union members in battleground states is pointing to Biden’s term in office. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has trained his sights on keeping voters who backed Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020 in the Democratic camp with a populist, progressive pitch that leans on Biden’s accomplishments.

And Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has had a campaign itinerary that closely mirrors what Biden’s had been in this and previous election cycles. On Friday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Walz made the case to residents of Biden’s hometown for a new Democratic candidate by highlighting their shared values.

“That patriotism, that fierce patriotism, putting the American people first, is exactly what guides Kamala Harris in the course of her entire career,” Walz said at the same venue where Biden gave an economic address in April.

Biden advisers insist that the president continues to reach key constituencies, albeit in a more under-the-radar fashion. On Friday, he held an official event on tribal land in Arizona, talking to a group of voters who helped tip that state for him four years ago.

Asked who is making the pitch to Biden voters if not Biden, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., answered: “Kamala Harris.” The Harris campaign points to events like a recent stop at a union hall in Lansing, Michigan, where she highlighted the administration’s record on manufacturing and the critical role of organized labor in supporting the middle class.

Coons noted the vice president has campaigned in Pennsylvania’s biggest cities, but also in places like Wilkes-Barre, Johnstown and Erie to reach the kinds of voters Biden has long considered his base. The longtime Biden friend said that during his own recent stop in Scranton, he got multiple questions from Democratic supporters about the president, which he in turn used to make a different pitch for getting out the vote for Harris.

“Folks, this is simple. If we lose, it will kill him. Literally,” Coons recalled saying. “If we win, nothing will make him happier.”

Harris has faced a tough balancing act, demonstrating loyalty while also establishing independence from Biden, who continues to suffer in public opinion polls. She has repeatedly said in the closing weeks that her presidency would not be an extension of his. So the president’s allies say their efforts are critical in ensuring that Biden stalwarts are still hearing about the president’s economic accomplishments.

And for some voters whom Biden won in 2020, the message has shifted away from being about him.

“The paradox of this moment is that this administration … will go down as one of the most effective and transformative administrations in history,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “But there is a difference between what will be seen through a historical lens and what is being seen right now.”

Weingarten, noting that Biden tapped Harris to chair his White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, said her union and others are focused on member-to-member messaging where they act as validators for the vice president to voters who aren’t as familiar with her or who might hear countermessaging from Trump supporters.

“We know her and we’ve worked with her for the last three and a half years, and we’ve become surrogates for her in terms of who she is and what she’s about,” Weingarten said before an event in Scranton that’s part of her union’s nationwide bus tour. “We’ve become in some ways the people who can say, ‘She is us and she fights for us.’”

A series of ads from Future Forward PAC — a group formed to back Biden’s re-election that has pivoted to working to elect Harris — is running ads arguing for tax fairness, a position Biden had put front and center. The ads show a clip of Trump telling campaign donors that they’re “rich as hell” and would get tax cuts if he was elected.

In New Hampshire this week, Biden was joined by Sanders to warn what a Republican administration and Congress would mean for another signature administration accomplishment: allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.

Sanders praised Biden and Harris “for having the courage to be the first administration in the history of this country to stand up to the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.” It was one of two dozen events across the country Sanders has attended since September that were meant to highlight a progressive agenda that’s been partly realized under Biden, including stops at coordinated campaign offices in Nevada with members of the Culinary union, and with United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain in Michigan.

This weekend, Biden will travel to Pittsburgh to meet with members and leadership from LIUNA, which represents 70,000 workers in the construction and energy industry. The union has held rallies and other organizing events there and in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada targeting its own and other union members.

Behind closed doors this week, Biden has had separate meetings with union leaders in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to discuss efforts to encourage their members to support Harris. He recorded a video and robocall for the Senate candidate in his home state of Delaware, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester.

“Biden is achieving more historic results for American families and he maximizes every day in office and traveling the country spotlighting life-changing benefits and Vice President Harris’s role in delivering them,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said.