An Army of Influencers: This Is How Biden Plans to Promote His Re-Election in 2024

U.S. President Joe Biden recently announced his unofficial candidacy for the 2024 elections, but he set out a new plan to promote him in his re-election for a new presidential term.

According to the American Axios website, Biden has developed a digital strategy that will rely on hundreds of social media influencers who will promote him, including on TikTok and Instagram.

Regarding the goals of this step, the website said that its aim is to strengthen Biden’s position among young voters, who play a decisive role in the Democrats’ success in the elections.

Joe Biden’s followers on social media don’t compare with Donald Trump’s, especially on YouTube and Facebook.

This highlights the duplicity in dealing with the TikTok platform. On the one hand, Biden is close to signing a bill that would completely ban TikTok as an unsafe party, and on the other hand, he uses the app to support his election campaign.

In the 2022 midterm elections, Biden outperformed Trump by 26 points in the proportion of young voters between the ages of 18 and 29, and Democrats outperformed Republicans by 28 points.

 

Unofficial Candidacy

U.S. President Joe Biden said on April 10, 2023, that he intends to run for the presidential elections in 2024, but he is not ready to announce that yet.

“I’m considering running…but we’re not ready to announce that yet,” Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Today Show.

The network said that Biden’s remarks come as senior White House advisers prepare to make a final decision on launching his re-election campaign, several sources familiar with the discussions told the network.

Biden has not officially declared his candidacy for the 2024 election because no major Democratic challenger is emerging, his now-indicted predecessor is consuming the political spotlight, and a major clash with congressional Republicans over spending is looming.

Biden’s inclination to procrastinate on an official announcement, according to a source familiar with his thinking, has been fueled in part by Republican infighting, particularly with former President Donald Trump directing some of his harshest attacks to an as-yet-unannounced primary foe, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Outside the White House, pro-Biden political action committees and Democratic operatives fully expect him to run. They said they haven’t heard anything from Biden-world to suggest otherwise.

Last October, Biden announced that he intends to run for a new presidential term, but he made it clear that he had not made an official decision to do so yet.

Inside the White House, Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and Senior Adviser Anita Dunn—in consultation with other senior Biden aides—have been running point on preparations for a re-election campaign.

Multiple sources said that names that have emerged for potential senior roles on the campaign include Jenn Ridder, National States director for Biden’s 2020 campaign, and Sam Cornale, executive director of the Democratic National Committee. Preston Elliott, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s former campaign manager; Julie Chavez Rodriguez, director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; and Quentin Fulks, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock’s ex-campaign manager, are also said to be up for possible senior jobs.

Other names in the mix include Emma Brown, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly’s former campaign manager; Roger Lau, deputy executive director at the DNC; Addisu Demissie, former campaign manager for New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign; Mitch Stewart, founding partner of 270 Strategies; and Rob Flaherty, director of digital strategy at the White House.

Other recently departed White House officials, including former chief of staff Ron Klain and ex-communications director Kate Bedingfield, have also suggested they are prepared to assist the campaign.

 

An Army of Influencers

In a related context, Axios reported on April 9, 2023, that Joe Biden plans to rely on hundreds of influencers on social media for his re-election campaign for President of the United States.

The website stated that this step aims to strengthen Biden’s position among young voters who play a decisive role in the success of the Democrats in the elections, and to counter the huge numbers of followers of former President Donald Trump’s accounts on social media if he wins the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

It added that Biden’s digital strategy team would reach out to influencers across the United States to target people who aren’t followers of the White House or Democratic Party’s social media accounts or who aren’t interested in traditional media.

It indicated that part of Biden’s digital staff focuses on influencers and independent content makers, as the employees work officially in the White House, and not in the Biden campaign, as it is clear that reaching young and suburban voters is a priority for the Biden team.

Rob Flaherty, director of digital strategy at the White House, was named team leader, indicating the importance the Biden team places on the digital strategy team, according to Axios.

It also pointed out that the Biden team is working to create a dedicated briefing space in the White House for influencers to meet with the president in person or remotely, in a step that would be unprecedented and indicates that the traditional press briefing room is no longer the administration’s only message center.

The Biden team seeks to work with influencers in local communities in conjunction with its visits to those areas, and TikTok and Instagram will be the main platforms for promoting the campaign, given their widespread presence in the United States, especially among young voters.

It is noteworthy that the number of TikTok users in the United States today exceeds about 150 million people.

Among the influencers used by the Biden campaign on TikTok are Harry Sisson, Vivian Tu, and Heather Cox Richardson.

Harry Sisson is a 20-year-old student at New York University who runs a TikTok account with 600,000 followers and provides daily commentary on American politics.

Vivian Tu previously worked for the American bank JPMorgan Chase, is 29 years old, and runs a page called YourRichBFF, through which she provides financial advice to more than two million followers on TikTok, and she was previously chosen by Forbes magazine in its list for innovative youth under the age of 30.

Heather Cox Richardson, 61, writes a popular newsletter on the blogging platform Substack and has a large number of Twitter followers.

Credit: Al-Mayadeen

 

Biden’s Popularity

Ironically, this step (Biden’s entry into the popular TikTok app) comes at the same time that the White House indicated its desire to sign legislation banning TikTok or forcing its sale due to the app’s owner’s ties to the Chinese government and concerns about access to app user data, according to Axios.

After the news spread, questions arose among observers about the possibility of the U.S. government retracting the ban on the app, despite the failure of the recent appearance of TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, before Congress to alleviate the doubts of U.S. lawmakers, in addition to the increase in tension in the South China Sea.

However, until now, all indications suggest that Biden will continue his efforts to complete the ban on the application, while continuing to use it in advertising and promoting his election campaign in lost time.

It is noteworthy that due to existing concerns, a ban has been imposed on the use of TikTok at the federal level, and similar restrictions have been imposed by local authorities in more than 30 U.S. states.

This news also comes at a time when the U.S. President’s popularity is declining. In a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS released on April 6, 2023, just a third of Americans said Biden deserves to be reelected, with a majority in his own party saying they would like to see someone else as the Democratic nominee for president next year.

A poll conducted by NBC News also showed that 44% of Democrats want Biden to step aside so that someone else can run for president next year, while 25% say they want Biden to seek a second term, and 30% do not prefer any of the two options yet.

Biden’s popularity has declined slightly, approaching the lowest point in his presidency last March, while his administration is trying to show a sense of stability and is faced with a set of bank failures, as well as inflation, which is still high.

According to another poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, there have been modest changes in support for Biden over the past several months; Biden achieved an approval rating of 38% in the new poll, after scoring 45% in February and 41% in January.

Last February, a Gallup poll indicated that Biden faces difficult challenges in the United States and abroad, as tensions persist with China and Russia.

Overall approval of Biden’s performance remains low on six major issues. Although Biden has not officially announced that he will seek re-election, he is expected to do so and will likely need higher approval ratings to win another term.