President Biden’s recently announced 2024 reelection bid is sticking to the same themes that helped Democrats fare better than expected in last year’s midterms: MAGA extremism and abortion rights.
Mr. Biden honed in on the dual topics during an address to more than 150 of the Democratic National Committee’s top donors on Friday. The 80-year-old White House incumbent said the upcoming presidential campaign would be a choice between “freedom” and “extremism.”
“MAGA Republicans are trying to take us backward,” said the president. “But together, we’re not going to let them do it. Not an inch back. Instead, our agenda is going to continue to bring us forward and build on the progress we made. And we must finish this job.”
The speech was one of Mr. Biden’s first as an announced candidate for reelection. Mr. Biden told the assembled donors their support would be necessary up and down the ballot in 2024, especially as Republicans were mobilizing behind new abortion restrictions.
“This is not your father’s Republican party,” said Mr. Biden. “Let’s protect a woman’s right to choose and codify Roe v. Wade.”
While Mr. Biden has touted his administration’s “12 million brand new jobs” and capping the price of some prescription drugs, the president said MAGA extremism and the GOP’s push for abortion restrictions presented a renewed battle for the “soul of the nation.”
Mr. Biden relied heavily on such rhetoric during his 2020 White House race and the 2022 congressional midterm elections. During both campaigns, Mr. Biden repeatedly invoked former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement as a foil.
“They fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights,” Mr. Biden said at Pennsylvania’s Independence Hall last September. “MAGA forces are determined to take this country backward … to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.”
Republicans say the message remains divisive and is unfitting for a president elected to serve all of America.
“Biden and Democrats are doing what they do best – dividing Americans, dodging questions, and lying about the damage they have done to our country while families suffer the consequences,” said Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. “Republicans are united to beat Biden and his disastrous agenda in 2024.”
Yet, Mr. Biden’s allies note the message seemed to work in 2022. Despite nearly 40-year high inflation and low presidential approval ratings, Republicans failed to deliver a “red wave.”
“While Democrats did lose the House last year, it was only narrowly and they expanded their majority within the Senate,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic political strategist. “Republicans nominated candidates that were hard-right on abortion, that were election deniers and they paid the price.”
Democrats are hoping for a similar outcome in 2024 as Mr. Trump continues to lead polls as the presumptive favorite for the Republican presidential nomination.
“Remember 2022, the midterm elections, when we were supposed to get our clock cleaned,” Mr. Bidne told the DNC donors. “Because of your help, it never happened, and we met the moment again and again … And we’re going to do it again in 2024 together.”
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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