Whisperer tour

Biden embarks on working class whisperer tour

A Midwestern swing this week will take the former vice president to at least six states — five of which Donald Trump carried.

By NATASHA KORECKI

Joe Biden stepped into a union hall here on Tuesday, spinning another folksy tale, this one about his uncle from Scranton, Pa., who would tell him: ‘Joe, you’re labor from belt buckle to shoe sole.’”

Two days into a big Midwestern push this week that will take him to at least six states — five of which President Donald Trump carried — the former vice president was in familiar form, reminding Democrats of the lane he’ll occupy if he decides to run for president in 2020: the party’s ambassador to the working class.

With a Youngstown, Ohio, visit Monday and two Wisconsin rallies Tuesday, Biden has traveled to 22 states to campaign for 60 candidates. In recent weeks, he’s showcased his versatility as a surrogate. He’s stumped in Indiana for Sen. Joe Donnelly; in Florida for Sen. Bill Nelson; and for House candidates in Orange County, Calif., Kentucky and upstate New York. The former vice president even squeezed in a visit to London, where he delivered a foreign policy speech.

The breadth of the former vice president’s travel schedule is a testament to the broad-based appeal he’d bring to the 2020 race, as comfortable landing in Trump country as in a liberal college town like Madison.

Hours before his Milwaukee event, Biden had a university crowd in the state capital roaring with laughter after he referenced the 2010 landmark health care bill signing in which a microphone caught him telling then-President Barack Obama it was a “big f---ing deal.”

“Thank God my mom wasn’t alive when I whispered in Barack’s ear,” Biden said, then made the sign of the cross to whistles and howls in the audience.

After Tuesday’s dual stops in Wisconsin, Biden visited Iowa, his first trip to the first presidential state, where in Cedar Rapids he campaigned for gubernatorial candidate Fred Hubbell and with Democrat Abby Finkenauer, a coordinator of volunteers for Biden’s 2008 Iowa campaign who is attempting to win back a key swing district where Trump scored a decisive victory in 2016.

“Biden is a bridge. Biden’s a guy who communicates well in a way that people can relate to,” said Larry Grisolano, a Democratic media consultant with AKPD Message & Media who worked with Biden during his first presidential run in 1987 and again for the Obama-Biden team in 2008 and 2012. “For Democrats, that’s a great asset for us in the homestretch to a big election.”

Grisolano said Biden has long demonstrated a unique ability to connect to working-class voters, in part because of his Scranton roots.

“What I think he does that sets him apart is he can also reach out to people who are not traditional Democrats, people who have drifted away from the party in the last election or so,” Grisolano said. “He’s a powerful weapon for the party in that way.”

The chatter around Biden’s possible 2020 candidacy has added an element of buzz to some of his stops, where crowds swarmed him after his talks. Biden took his time leaving the Laborers Union hall here, shaking hands, placing his hand on a pregnant woman’s stomach as an offer of good luck, and holding up supporters’ cameras himself to take group selfies.

When asked about a potential 2020 run, the former vice president told POLITICO: “I haven’t made up my mind. I will at the beginning of next year. But I don’t know,” he said. Asked how he’s feeling about the possibility, he added: “Well, it’s a family decision.”

In Madison on Tuesday, Biden rallied the crowd by echoing a civil rights-era mantra: “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I hope you are too.”

He took a somber tone when he described a series of violent or threatening acts that occurred over the past week, including the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and pipe bombs mailed to CNN and various Democrats, including Biden himself.

“Three times this past week, the forces of hate have terrorized our fellow Americans, for their political beliefs, for the color of their skin for their religion,” Biden said. “A series of a bunch of explosive devices were sent to a bunch of us; our kids, our grandkids could have picked them up. Folks, this is not who we are.”

For Democrats nostalgic for the Obama years, Biden made sure to drop reminders of his relationship with the former president.

“By the way, Barack and I really are friends; all those memes are basically true,” he said in Madison. “But I want to make it clear, Barack made the first friendship bracelet, not me.”

“Our families are very close … it’s a family affair,” Biden went on. “He really is as decent as he appears, and Michelle is one of the finest first ladies in American history.”

At this week’s first stop in blue-collar Youngstown, Ohio, he led an energized rally and successful fundraiser, said David Betras, the Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman. Like Iowa and Wisconsin, Ohio is the home to competitive gubernatorial and congressional contests.

“He’s ‘Uncle Joe’ to everyone. He’s real. He’s authentic. He is the best retail politician I’ve ever met in my life, and I’ve met a lot of politicians,” Betras said. “It’s not a white man’s show. It’s a working person show. I’m tired of people thinking there is only a white working class. Hispanics are working class. Blacks are working class. And gays are working class. And working-class people are working class. Joe has the ability to touch a nerve with people who work with their hands for a living; that’s his appeal. It’s not just white guys, it’s everybody.”

For James Macon, an African-American laborer and president of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Milwaukee, Biden served up a dose of refreshing reality.

“He’s going to tell you the truth; he’s not going to tell you what you want to hear,” Macon said after Biden’s Milwaukee event. “He’s to the point. He don’t sugarcoat anything. Lot of politicians sugarcoat things and tell you what you want to hear. He’s not that type of person. I respect him for that.”