Biden announces 2024 reelection campaign

By Leinz Vales, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Mike Hayes and Maureen Chowdhury, CNN

Updated 5:37 p.m. ET, April 25, 2023
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6:13 a.m. ET, April 25, 2023

JUST IN: Biden announces he's running for reelection in 2024

From CNN's Kevin Liptak, Arlette Saenz and Maegan Vazquez

President Joe Biden speaks about his proposed federal budget for the 2024 fiscal year at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 9.
President Joe Biden speaks about his proposed federal budget for the 2024 fiscal year at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 9. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden formally announced his bid for reelection Tuesday, setting off a battle to convince the country his record merits another four years in the White House and his age won't impede his ability to govern.

In a video released early Tuesday, Biden framed next year's contest as a fight against Republican extremism, implicitly arguing he needed more time to fully realize his vow to restore the nation's character.

"When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are," he said in the video, which opened with images of the January 6, 2021, insurrection and abortion rights activists protesting at the US Supreme Court.

"The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer," Biden says in voiceover narration. "I know what I want the answer to be and I think you do too. This is not a time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for reelection."

Biden's official declaration ends any lingering doubts about his intentions, and begins a contest that could evolve into a rematch with his 2020 rival, former President Donald Trump. He enters the race with a significant legislative record but low approval ratings, a conundrum his advisers have so far been unable to solve. Already the oldest president in history, he also confronts persist questions about his age.

The launch comes four years to the day Biden made his 2020 bid official. That race became a mission to restore the country's character and prevent Trump from achieving a second term.

Biden's fourth and final presidential campaign will rest on similar themes. Just as he did in 2020, Biden is making an appeal to the nation's ideals, particularly with the specter of Trump's return.  

His announcement video warns against "MAGA extremists" who he says are "dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love."

"Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they've had to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedoms. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights," he says. "And this is our moment."

But Biden's campaign will also ride on promoting the achievements made during the first two years of his presidency — and an argument he needs more time to "finish the job."

"I know we can," he says.

Read more about Biden's 2024 bid here and watch the video announcement below:

6:18 a.m. ET, April 25, 2023

Biden to name senior White House adviser Julie Chavez Rodriguez as campaign manager

From CNN's Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny, Jeremy Diamond and Phil Mattingly

White House Intergovernmental Affairs director Julie Chavez Rodriguez stands outside the White House, Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Washington, DC.
White House Intergovernmental Affairs director Julie Chavez Rodriguez stands outside the White House, Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Evan Vucci/AP)

President Joe Biden is poised to name Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser, to oversee his reelection campaign, two senior Democratic advisers tell CNN.

While Rodriguez will formally manage the campaign, the effort will also be largely guided from the West Wing, where top aides Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti will also play central roles.

Rodriguez, the granddaughter of labor icon Cesar Chavez, has been a longtime Democratic adviser who is close to Biden.

CBS News was the first to report the expected decision.

7:41 a.m. ET, April 25, 2023

Top Democratic donors and fundraisers invited to meet with Biden this week

From CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Arlette Saenz

Top Democratic donors and fundraisers have been invited to meet with President Joe Biden in Washington this week, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

The huddle with top donors was the latest signal that Biden was ramping up for a reelection campaign.

The top funders of Biden’s last presidential campaign are being invited to join him at an event in Washington next Friday, just days after the four-year anniversary of his 2020 presidential campaign announcement. Details are still taking shape, but the event is expected to be held off White House grounds.

The event is not being billed as a fundraiser but rather an effort to rally donors as Biden gears up for a reelection announcement.

The invitation list includes donors and bundlers who raised more than $1 million for Biden during his 2020 presidential campaign, the two people familiar with the matter said, as well as other top Democratic fundraisers.

Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Phil Murphy of New Jersey have also been invited to attend given their past roles as donors and relationships with the president, one of the people said.

The New York Times first reported news of the invitations.

6:05 a.m. ET, April 25, 2023

Biden will name Warnock campaign manager as top campaign deputy

From CNN's Phil Mattingly 

Quentin Fulks, who managed Sen. Raphael Warnock's re-election campaign in 2022, stands for a portrait outside the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in February.
Quentin Fulks, who managed Sen. Raphael Warnock's re-election campaign in 2022, stands for a portrait outside the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in February. (Charles Krupa/AP)

President Joe Biden will name Quentin Fulks as his deputy campaign manager, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Fulks, who ran Sen. Raphael Warnock’s successful 2022 Senate campaign, will serve as the top deputy for Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who CNN has reported will be named the campaign manager.

Biden is scheduled to appear at a building trade union conference on Tuesday afternoon in his first public appearance after the reelection announcement.

The scheduled remarks in Washington will serve double as an official policy and agenda speech, as well a recognition of his administration’s close ties to labor. The move also echoes Biden’s schedule four years ago Tuesday, when he launched his 2020 campaign in a video before attending a union event.

There are still a number of key personnel decisions to be made in the weeks ahead, the people noted, but the official naming of Rodriguez and Fulks, along with the co-chairs, will serve as markers for a campaign that after months of being built quietly by Biden’s closest advisers, is set to rapidly expand into a full-scale operation in the months ahead in the lead up to 2024.

Biden’s posture, the people said, will in the near term closely track with the messaging and travel efforts he’s pursued in the first quarter of 2023.

Coming up: He is set to host the South Korean president for a State Visit on Tuesday and Wednesday and will travel to Japan and Australia at the end of next month. 

Biden and his top White House advisers will remain intensively engaged on the escalating battle over the debt ceiling with House Republicans.

Still, the campaign’s soft launch will include a major fundraising push and an immediate effort to lay the political groundwork for the months ahead, the people said.

Top Biden donors and bundles have been invited to Washington on Friday and advisers have been mapping out a fundraising and spending plan that CNN has reported could total $2 billion over the course of the election cycle between the campaign and aligned outside groups. 

11:33 a.m. ET, April 25, 2023

Takeaways from Biden's State of the Union address — and how it served as a preview of his 2024 bid

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, February 7. His message was one of unadulterated optimism — even in the face of open hostility from some House Republicans.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, February 7. His message was one of unadulterated optimism — even in the face of open hostility from some House Republicans. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/Reuters)

When President Joe Biden took to the House Chamber in February for his annual State of the Union address, his message was one of unadulterated optimism — even in the face of open hostility.

The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his 2024 candidacy.

A majority of Americans say he hasn't accomplished much, many Democrats aren't thrilled at the prospect of him running for reelection and he faces clear disdain from most Republicans.

But Biden powered through. Delivering what was widely viewed as a test run for his reelection announcement, Biden claimed credit for progress made during his first two years in office while stressing the job isn't finished.

He faced sometimes-unruly Republicans, with whom he spiritedly sparred from the podium on spending cuts. The feisty display drew cheers inside the White House and offered the best preview to date of the energy Biden hopes to bring to the campaign trail soon.

The speech carried a strain of populism rooted in strengthening the middle class -- vintage Biden, but delivered at a pivotal moment for his political future.

No president enters his State of the Union wanting to recite a laundry list of accomplishments and proposals, but -- almost inevitably -- the speech often veers in that direction. Biden's was no different, even as the president sought to tie everything together with a refrain of "finish the job" — a phrase that appeared 12 times in his prepared text.

Rather than tout any one accomplishment, however, Biden hoped to address the national mood, one that remains downbeat even as the economy improves and the country attempts to return to normal amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read key takeaways here.