On March 29, President Joe Biden, Former Presidents Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton set a record breaking reelection campaign raising over $26 million in New York City.
Confronting low approval ratings and a neck-and-neck race against former President Trump, Biden is now racing to tell voters about his accomplishments, in ways big and small.
Road signs that promote his legislation are going up at construction projects financed by his $1 trillion infrastructure bill and at factories where jobs are being created by his $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act. Biden has affixed his name to emails telling Americans with student debt that their loans were being forgiven. And he is traveling to battleground states to sit down with voters who have benefited from his policies.
Polling shows that a majority of Americans disapprove of his job performance. Many Americans say they benefited more from the policies of Trump. Most concerning for Biden, his support remains underwhelming among key parts of the Democratic coalition, including Black and Hispanic Americans and younger voters, the people many of his efforts were designed to help.
Some of that negativity can be attributed to the 81-year-old president’s age, the continuous effects of the pandemic and improved views of Trump, a phenomenon that is common after presidents leave office. The war in Gaza has depressed enthusiasm among Democrats, too.
Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former official in the Clinton White House, said that Biden’s approach resembled that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who actually enacted programs like Social Security that fundamentally altered the fabric of American life.
Of course, Biden’s investments in manufacturing are already creating jobs. He has advocated for policies with more immediate effects, too, such as capping insulin prices for older people, forgiving some student loan debt and increasing tax subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance.
His campaign message has increasingly focused on expanding many of those initiatives to benefit more Americans. At his State of the Union address, Biden ran through a list of ways he would use a second term to build on the achievements of his first.
As the campaign in New York comes to close, it’s evident that President Biden has resonated deeply with voters across the state. His commitment to unity, progress, and addressing pressing issues like healthcare, climate change, and economic equity has struck a chord with New Yorkers from all walks of life. As we move forward, it’s crucial to remember the vision of unity and progress that President Biden embodies, working together to build a brighter and more inclusive future for all Americans.
