Biden prepares to launch reelection bid as soon as next week

President Joe Biden may announce his 2024 reelection bid as soon as next week, timed to the four-year anniversary of his successful run for the White House, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Advisers to the president are considering launching the bid on Tuesday with a video reelection message and fundraising appeal. But the plans are not yet finalized and the date could change, according to the people briefed.

Biden, who at 80 is the oldest man to ever serve as president, has long signaled his intent to seek another term. But the timing of his expected announcement has shifted and been subject to some internal debate.

Some in the president’s orbit, seeing his standing buoyed by Democrats’ strong showing in last year’s midterms, saw no reason to rush his reelection declaration, pointing to a lack of intraparty challengers and a chaotic Republican primary field. But others have pushed for an announcement sooner than later, to begin fundraising for an expensive campaign — and to silence the constant questions about Biden’s 2024 intentions.

Advisers had originally looked at an April launch date — noting that President Barack Obama picked that month to announce his own re-election — but then toyed with moving it up following Biden’s State of the Union address in February. Recent discussions in Biden world slid the launch to later in the spring or summer but April 25, the anniversary of Biden’s 2019 announcement, long stood as an informal target.

Making the announcement in a low-key video message with fundraising solicitation would echo how the Obama-Biden ticket unveiled its bid in 2011.

The White House declined to comment Thursday. Some Biden advisers cautioned that nothing would be official until the president himself said it, and there are members of his inner circle who have harbored doubts that he would run again.

The Washington Post first reported on the possible timing of the announcement.

Biden does not expect to face a serious primary challenge, though some in the Democratic party have voiced concerns about his age. If he wins again, Biden would be 82 when he takes the oath of office for a second time. He would be 86 when he leaves the White House.

Advisers to the president have long telegraphed that the president, were he to run, would not ramp up a barnstorming general election campaign until next year. Instead, he would likely follow the example of several other sitting presidents by using a Rose Garden strategy in 2023, mixed with official and political events and travel to tout his administration’s accomplishments.

But officially launching the campaign would allow Biden to begin fundraising ahead of next year’s general election, which could feature a rematch with the man he beat in 2020, former President Donald Trump.

Biden, who captured the presidency in his third bid for the White House, is famously indecisive, a habit exacerbated by decades in the über-deliberative Senate. He publicly took his time mulling a decision against running in 2016 and to launch his run in 2020. He missed two self-imposed deadlines before choosing Vice President Kamala Harris as a running-mate.

Biden’s team is bullish on the president’s legislative record — which includes massive infrastructure, climate change and health care plans — forming the backbone of his reelection campaign, as well as job growth and his stewardship of the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

High inflation, a fragile economy and Biden’s middling approval numbers are vulnerabilities, aides concede. And his age looms as an issue and could put more of a focus on Harris in this next campaign.

Trump’s possible return stands as a primary motivation to run again, as Biden has declared his predecessor an existential threat to the republic. The president would campaign this time against a backdrop of divided government, with the Republican-controlled House promising to impede his agenda and investigate his administration and family.

Aides have not said when Biden would hold his first campaign-style event. His schedule next week includes hosting the president of South Korea for a state visit and appearing at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He and his team also may meet with prominent Democratic donors in Washington.

Eugene Daniels, Eli Stokols and Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.