Ex-Biden officials keep him at a distance in their 2026 campaigns
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At least nine Biden administration alumni running for Congress or governor this year are keeping President Biden at arm's length in the run-up to the November elections.
Why it matters: Biden's brand is still a liability, even as Democrats salivate at the prospect of major gains against Republicans in the November elections.
- That's why many non-incumbent Democrats aren't mentioning the ex-president in their campaigns' promotional materials.
- It's a stark reversal from the 2018 midterms, when Democratic contenders across the country rushed to align themselves with former President Obama, who had left office the previous year.
- The distancing from Biden, a historically unpopular president, could signal a vulnerability for some Democrats this year in battleground races.
- It also could be an early warning sign for potential 2028 presidential candidates who were in Biden's administration, such as former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Harris.
Zoom in: Biden's ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, is trying to win a Republican-held House seat in Michigan.
- When she announced her bid in a video, she said she proudly served "under five presidents, both Democrat and Republican" as photos of former Presidents Obama and George W. Bush flashed on the screen. No Biden.
- Michael Roth, who was Biden's interim leader of the Small Business Administration, is running against Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.). His website describes him as a leader "trusted by senators, governors, mayors, and a president" — without identifying which president.
What they're saying: "Joe Biden's lingering unpopularity is proving to be a serious drag on Biden alums running in swing districts across the country," a national Democratic strategist who requested anonymity told Axios.
- "They're unable to talk about their most recent and often most high-profile job experience without alienating general election voters."
Most of the former Biden administration figures running for office this year while distancing themselves from the ex-president didn't respond to requests for comment.
- One exception was Ryan Vetticad, a former presidential management fellow at the Department of Justice who's running for a House seat in Illinois. He told Axios he left Biden out of his campaign materials because "it's not the priority for me."
- "There's a lot of things that Democrats did wrong in the 2024 cycle," he said, "so I want to chart a new way forward."
A Biden spokesperson declined to comment, but a former Biden White House official called this story "a manufactured, press-driven narrative."
Flashback: The detachment from Biden is a 180 from how Democrats approached their party's most recent president eight years ago.
- In 2018 — the first midterm cycle under Trump — Democratic congressional candidates openly embraced Obama. Biden was also a sought-after surrogate then.
Deb Haaland, who was elected to the House from New Mexico in 2018, said then that she wouldn't have had the courage to run if she hadn't worked for Obama's campaigns.
- Haaland, who was Biden's Interior secretary and now is vying to be New Mexico's governor, doesn't mention Biden on her website — instead saying that she held the Interior position "for the past four years."
- Haaland's site does mention Trump, boasting about her work with him in getting seven House bills she introduced signed into law.
Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services secretary under Biden who's running for California governor, also didn't mention the ex-president in his campaign launch video or website.
Former Sen. Doug Jones, Biden's "sherpa" in guiding Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination, is now running for Alabama governor. He left Biden off his website and his campaign kickoff video.
- But Jones told Axios: "I am proud of the work I did for my friend President Biden," and "as the campaign evolves, so too will our website and future materials."
Reality check: Other office-seekers who worked under Biden have fully embraced their connections to him — but they're running for seats viewed as solidly or likely Democratic.
- Christian Urrutia, who's running for a U.S. House seat in New Hampshire, told Axios he highlighted his work at the Pentagon under Biden on his website because "people are hungry for folks that are authentic."
State of play: In some races, Republicans already are seizing on their opponents' ties to Biden.
- Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) bashed his Democratic challenger, Cait Conley, over her work for Biden's administration, saying on social media that she was "the director of counterterrorism on the Biden National Security Council during the fall of Kabul and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan."
- Conley did not respond to a request for comment.
