Liberal group relying on policy not personality to mobilize members behind Biden

“We need to build a grassroots electoral movement made up of Democrats from different backgrounds and different lived experiences that can unite and excite Americans. And that is where you come in,” the Massachusetts senator said on the call.

Thursday’s session is the latest installment of a weekly series launched in August after PCCC pitched issue-based volunteer opportunities to Biden aides. This iteration specifically targeted Florida seniors on Social Security. Florida voters older than 65 are a crucial demographic for Trump in a state he desperately needs to win if he wants to be re-elected in the fall.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s granddaughter, even promoted the PCCC event, aided by the Alliance For Retired Americans and Social Security Works.

PCCC’s partnership with the Biden camp is part of an ongoing mission to promote the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee’s liberal policy positions, no matter how recently they were adopted.

Organizers believe a policy rather than personality-focused approach is the best way to encourage the party’s activist base to up their engagement ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, whether by donating or volunteering. They also hope to continue pushing the two-term vice president further to the Left on causes seen as critical to energizing their membership, including climate change, healthcare, and student debt, though they’ll hold off applying any real pressure until Nov. 4 if Biden becomes president-elect.

Adam Green, PCCC’s co-founder, spoke about the goals of his group and other liberals during a Democratic convention sideline conversation with California Rep. Ro Khanna, a congressional ally.

“What we’ve seen with membership is the number of people willing to volunteer for Biden almost quadrupled when they noted they’re both helping to defeat Trump and advancing an issue they care about,” Green said.

It’s a tactical shift from when PCCC coaxed Michigan voters to “strategically” cast their ballot for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the state’s March 10 primary after Warren dropped out of the race following Super Tuesday.

Before Sanders bowed out of contention as well, Biden extended an olive branch and began compromising on some of his policy stances, calling for free public college and university for low-income students, $10,000 in student debt forgiveness, and a lower Medicare eligibility age requirement. The pair then formed the Unity Task Force to compile recommendations that later informed the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform.

For Green, the coronavirus pandemic underscored the importance of the liberal agenda.

“Joe Biden, I will give him credit, he’s embraced these progressive policies, as I mentioned, especially around the context of coronavirus relief,” he said. “My reading of that is not that it’s a political move intended to be a little hat tip to progressives, like kumbaya unity. My sense is that he genuinely grasps the enormity of his pandemic.”

Stephanie Taylor, Green’s colleague, echoed his sentiments but emphasized Trump’s influence on the calculus.

“Between the economy and the coronavirus, people’s lives depend on replacing Donald Trump with Joe Biden in the White House,” she said during the only other Biden-PCCC event in July.

PCCC’s work seems to be mirrored in some post-convention polling that suggests Biden is growing in popularity with the electorate. A CNN-SSRS survey published this week showed 45% of respondents backing Biden were voting for him as opposed to against Trump, a jump from 38% in early August and 37% in June.

Yet the fear of Democratic disunity, or at least disillusionment, after divisive 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton still haunts the party.

One donor asked 2020 vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris this week how the campaign was bringing Warren and Sanders fans into the Biden fold.

Harris told the virtual gathering Democrats had “really fallen in line,” establishing a united front against Trump.

“The party really has coalesced in a way that we needed to,” the California senator said, praising Warren and Sanders for contributing “in a very substantial way to what ended up being the Democratic platform.”