Joe Biden may not know whether he is running for president yet, but some of the vice president’s supporters think they know when he will decide.
Biden supporters note that he has embarked on a six-stop speaking tour in the South. Although he is slated to talk about topics such as community colleges and the Iran deal, he draws large crowds to what would otherwise be low-key speaking engagements. Biden is also meeting with high profile Democratic donors while in Miami.
Then Biden is scheduled to march with AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka at the Pittsburgh Labor Day parade. Following this major appearance, Biden will work with President Obama to keep Congress from rejecting the Iran deal. Then, as the highest ranking Catholic in the Obama administration, he will play an instrumental role in Pope Francis’ visit to Washington, D.C. at the end of the month. These weeks of good press lead right up to the two weeks before the first Democratic debate and Biden supporters say this would be a “natural place and timeframe for him” to get into the race.
“I think that over the course of September the vice president has a lot of things on his plate that he needs to actually be focused on,” an adviser to the Draft Biden PAC told the Washington Examiner. “I think that it’s fair to say that he is going to focus on the job first then what his future plans are second.”
“We’re prepared to continue this organization for as long as the vice president needs,” the adviser said, as he believes Biden will likely come out and tell the public if he chooses not to run. “This is somebody who is authentic and honest, he is not going to lead the American people on. He is undergoing a very deliberative process as to whether or not he thinks this is in the best interest. And at the end of that process we will know very quickly whether he wants to do this or not.”
Delaware DNC delegate Karen Kirkpatrick-Valentine has known Joe Biden since she was ten years old and counts herself a longtime supporters. She said she also “heard that he would announce by the by the end of September,” adding that “My gut tells me that he has answer the end of the month and my gut tells me that he will run,” but either way “he’ll have an answer in a few weeks.”
Biden’s office will provide no timeline. “The Vice President has not made a decision about his political future,” said the office in a statement. “Anyone speculating that he has made a decision is wrong.”
This push for Biden to enter the race comes at a time when Hillary Clinton is falling behind in both Iowa and New Hampshire polls, partly due a to controversy surrounding the handling of confidential information on an unsanctioned private email server. The vice president on the other hand, although he has not announced yet, has the highest favorability rating of any candidate, Republican or Democratic. According to a September Des Moines Register poll, 79 percent of Democratic voters view the Biden favorably.
