Washington Post Anticipates Huge Upswing in Volunteer-led Activism

Washington Post article

Wednesday's Washington Post article reports that the Biden campaign is ready to launch in earnest in March.  The article reflects the Biden Harris campaign's approach to the Nov 2024 election and its reliance on the muscle of the grassroots community.

Successful grassroots movements rely on the strength of preexisting relationships and the availability of experienced leaders.  The 2012 Obama campaign recruited and organized 2.2 million volunteers via 10,000 neighborhood teams led by 30,000 volunteer leaders.  Will the Biden campaign be able to leverage existing volunteer groups in every battleground state to build a network that rivals Obama's groundbreaking field organization?

The Post notes that Democrats also enjoy a still vibrant network of grass-roots groups around the country, which have remained engaged since 2018 and are largely able to coordinate with the Biden campaign.

From the article:

— "Democrats also enjoy a still vibrant network of grass-roots groups around the country, which have remained engaged since 2018 and are largely able to coordinate with the Biden campaign. Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, spoke last week to Swing Left, a network of volunteers. She invited people to join the campaign’s “I’m On Board” organizing effort."

— 'The campaign of Rep. Tom Suozzi, who recently outperformed polli'ng by about eight points in a special election on New York’s Long Island, credits these groups with giving him a huge advantage, as have other campaigns in special elections in recent years.'

— 'Suozzi’s campaign team said about a third of the door-knocking, letter-writing and phone-calling that took place in that race came from groups outside the district, such as the Massachusetts-based Swing Blue Alliance. Democrats widely believe that the opposition to Trump will solidify, powering volunteer efforts despite the misgivings about Biden’s candidacy.'

— “In the past few years, fear of MAGA has helped fuel the building of the most powerful grassroots machine the Democratic Party has ever had,” Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist who now works with local activist groups, said in a statement. “Their money and hard work will ensure the Biden campaign is the biggest and strongest Presidential campaign Democrats have ever run.”

Amen.

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