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How Biden Plans to Steamroll the 2020 Democratic Field

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How Biden Plans to Steamroll the 2020 Democratic Field
By Gabriel Debenedetti

A few weeks ago, as the ranks of Democrats running for president ballooned, Joe Biden sat down in private with Terry McAuliffe. Both the former vice-president and the former Virginia governor were openly considering joining the field, but McAuliffe had made it clear to his friends and allies atop the party that he’d likely hold off on running if Biden was going to get in. Not only was Biden vastly better known than McAuliffe, he figured, but also, if the Delawarean committed to suitably representing the centrist Democratic perspective, there wouldn’t be much room for the Virginian in the race. The notoriously garrulous pair, who’ve known each other for years, caught up like old pals. By the end of the conversation, Biden had an offer on the table for McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, multiple Democrats briefed on the meeting told New York. I’m almost certainly going to run, Biden said, so lead my money-raising efforts. He wanted McAuliffe — one of politics’ legendary big-money fundraisers, and a close Clinton family friend — to join his campaign in a role akin to finance chairman. McAuliffe, still weeks away from publicly passing on a run of his own, demurred.

But Biden was armed with a phone and something vaguely approximating a plan, and as his launch approached, he was undeterred. While the team of strategists around the former vice-president has spent recent months constructing a political machine that they hope can steamroll over a historically broad primary field, Biden — who’s now scheduled to formally enter the race on Thursday — has been doing what he’s most comfortable doing: catching up with old friends and allies, looking to gather their support for Day One.

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http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/how-joe-biden-plans-to-steamroll-the-2020-democratic-field.html

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