President Biden’s campaign efforts to target both supporter of former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Moderate Republicans are generally slimming up.
The Biden-Harris campaign announced Thursday the hiring of Austin Weatherford — the longtime chief of staff to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger — as “director of national Republican engagement,” a Biden campaign official told CBS News.
Weatherford will lead outreach efforts to “independent and moderate Republicans who understand the danger Donald Trump poses to the country if re-elected for a second term,” according to the official.
Moderate Republicans, especially those who support Haley GOP Presidenthas been targeted by the Biden campaign since he dropped out of the primary race in March.
Even after leaving the race, Haley still won the majority of primary votes in battleground states. In some of these states, they have surpassed the 2020 margin between Mr. Biden and former President Donald Trump. In Pennsylvania, for example, Haley received 16% of the vote in the GOP primary in April, or just over 158,000 votes. Biden won the general public by more than 80,000 votes in 2020.
Last week, Biden campaign aides held a Zoom call with two dozen former GOP members of Congress, according to sources familiar with the meeting. News of the Zoom call and Weatherford’s hiring was first reported by CNN.
The Haley Voter Working Group — an anti-Trump group of Haley supporters and volunteers who are either backing Mr. Biden or undecided — is also hiring more staff in battleground states. The group has been in contact with the Biden campaign in recent months, and organized a virtual meeting with the Biden campaign the evening after Haley’s. announced May 22 they will vote for Trump.
The group’s new director will be Craig Snyder, chief of staff for former Sen. Arlen Specter, and a 30-year veteran of national GOP political consulting. Emily Mathews, another Kinzinger aide, was also recruited to join the leadership of the group.
Kinzinger himself told CBS News return in December 2023 he will return Mr. Biden in November if Mr. Trump is the nominee.
Robert Schwartz, president of the Haley Voter Working Group, noted the coalition supports Mr. Biden. new executive orders on immigration, the president’s authority gives Ukraine limited agreement using US weapons to attack inside Russia, and speech Thursday in Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day reaffirming US support to the allies.
“These actions show Biden is commanding all Americans rather than catering to the left wing of the Democratic Party,” Schwartz said. “When Biden has done everything, you know, the news about Trump is all about his personal vendetta.”
Schwartz added that if there is a significant difference in policy between the supporters of Biden and Haley, such as in the level of support for Israel, his group will try to court more than one million voters of Haley in the swing states.
The Biden campaign’s efforts to reach those voters began in early March when the president said “there is a place” for Haley’s supporters in the campaign after she left the primary race. The campaign also began running ads with a digital montage of Trump criticizing Haley. Going forward, the Biden campaign plans to appeal to voters’ concerns about possible threats to democracy and the Constitution in Trump’s second term.
As the election nears, the Biden campaign also plans to create a special outreach program for Republicans. But the campaign said discussions with voters in the field would be led by Republicans who have supported Mr. Biden, in an effort to create a more genuine conversation.
Former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia casts some doubt on whether the Biden campaign’s efforts to court disaffected Republican voters will work. “They need a hard hitter,” he said.
“Who else? The person who wants to win the GOP office will step up?” he added, referring to the potential blowback Republican candidates and lawmakers could get from Trump and his supporters if they publicly support Mr. Biden.
The Biden campaign said that while they are in contact with Republican endorsers, they are keeping a low profile and won’t make an announcement until closer to November. He sees a timeline similar to 2020, when prominent GOP endorsements are announced after the Democratic National Convention and closer to the election to maximize their impact when more voters are heard.
Despite saying in late May that she would vote for Trump, Haley called on the GOP candidate she considers to “get the votes of our party and beyond those who don’t support her.”
Trump has been highly critical of Haley during the GOP primary test between the two, and said in January the campaign “will not accept” her support. However, after a rally in the Bronx last month, Trump weak posturesaying that “I’m sure he’ll be on our team in some form.”
However, in an interview Tuesday with NewsMax, Trump expressed his disappointment with Haley “because she stayed (in the primary race) too long.”
“Remember, I beat him in his own country (primary). I beat him everywhere,” he said, adding that “some people will be very disappointed” if he chooses him as his running mate, but “some people will be fine” with that.
