Topping the list as Biden’s campaign manager will be Julie Chávez Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser who also served as the deputy campaign manager for his 2020 presidential campaign.
The granddaughter of the late labor leader Cesar Chávez, Rodriguez will leave her role as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to lead Biden’s campaign at a time when Democrats fear they are losing crucial ground with Latino voters.
Meanwhile, Quentin Fulks will join the campaign as deputy campaign manager. Fulks, who spearheaded Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-Ga.) 2022 reelection campaign, also previously served as campaign manager for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and as a political strategist for Emily’s List, a pro-abortion political action committee.
Campaign Launch
Although Biden had been outspoken about his intention to run for reelection, he waited until April 25, the four-year anniversary of his 2020 campaign launch, to make a formal announcement.“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are,” Biden said in a video posted in the early morning on Twitter. “The question we are facing is whether, in the years ahead, we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to be, and I think you do, too.
“This is not a time to be complacent,” he added. “That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
To win the presidency, Biden will need to fend off challenges from fellow Democrat contenders Marianne Williamson, an author he defeated for the nomination in 2020, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.
Biden may also need to win a rematch against former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate.
In response to Biden’s announcement, Trump released a statement criticizing his successor’s record, noting that under Biden’s leadership, the United States has reached “the worst inflation in half a century” and that its cities “have been overrun with homelessness, drug addicts, and violent criminals.”
“Law enforcement is weaponized against law-abiding conservatives or Republicans, or people they just don’t like,” he said. “Our children are being indoctrinated and mutilated by left-wing freaks and zealots. The senior ranks of our military have gone completely woke, and our military is suffering greatly.
“With such a calamitous and failed presidency, it is almost inconceivable that Biden would even think of running for reelection.”
Trump added that he would “restore our nation’s dignity” and “Make America Great Again” if he is elected in 2024.
