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President Joe Biden formally launched his reelection bid Tuesday, naming U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, to his campaign leadership and quickly gaining support from most other Democrats in the Texas congressional delegation.
Escobar’s role as a national co-chair of the campaign will provide Biden with a valuable ally not just in Texas, but also along the U.S.-Mexico border. Joining Escobar are several trusted allies of Biden, such as U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn from South Carolina, who will also serve as national co-chairs.
Escobar is one of 13 Texas Democrats in Congress. Ten others expressed support Tuesday for Biden’s reelection campaign, ranging from progressive freshman U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Austin to South Texas centrist U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo.
“I will be supporting the president, and I say that without reservation, hesitation or equivocation,” U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, said in an interview. He added that Biden has “done things that no other president has done,” such as shepherding the country through the coronavirus pandemic and appointing the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Despite the challenges he faces nationally and in Texas, where he continues to have low popularity in polls and was a burden to Beto O’Rourke during his failed gubernatorial campaign last year, Biden remains optimistic. Texas Democrats are hopeful that Biden can mount a strong challenge in the traditionally Republican state, particularly if Donald Trump becomes the GOP nominee once again.
Trump has been working to shore up his support in Texas as he prepares for a likely primary battle against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Biden, meanwhile, faces a pair of long-shot primary opponents in Marianne Williamson, the self-help author who also ran in 2020, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the prominent vaccine skeptic and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.
Gilberto Hinojosa, the leader of the Texas Democratic Party, wasted no time in issuing a statement expressing enthusiastic support for Biden’s bid for reelection.
Hinojosa expressed immense joy upon hearing President Biden’s announcement of running for re-election. They eagerly anticipate exerting tremendous effort to secure his four more years in the White House, where he would continue advocating for the welfare of diligent Texas families.
While Biden has not attracted any serious primary opposition, an NBC News poll released Sunday found that 51% of Democrats nationally do not want him to run again. Age has fueled some of the resistance — he will be nearly 82 years old at the time of the November 2024 election.
One of Biden’s reelection supporters, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, addressed the polling numbers in a CNN interview Sunday.
Castro expressed that although the numbers may not be favorable, he believes that the American people will ultimately not opt for Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis over Joe Biden. He acknowledged wishing for better figures but remained confident in Biden’s appeal to the voters.
Castro is friends with Julie Chávez Rodríguez, the senior White House official who Biden named as his campaign manager Tuesday. Chávez Rodríguez is the granddaughter of labor icon César Chávez and attended his namesake march in San Antonio last month.
Among the Texas politicians greeting Biden’s announcement Tuesday was the state’s top Republican, Gov. Greg Abbott, who lobbed criticism squarely focused on Biden’s handling of the Texas-Mexico border.
In a tweet, Abbott expressed his concern that Texans, as well as Americans, cannot bear the consequences of four additional years of Biden’s open border policies.
After the current legislative session, which concludes late next month, the governor intends to make a decision about running for president in 2024. He has not eliminated the possibility of seeking the position himself.
With Republicans like Abbott assailing Biden as weak on the border, Escobar could serve as a local counterweight. She joined him in El Paso in January when he made the first visit to the border of his presidency, long a demand of his GOP critics.
In a Facebook post, Escobar said Biden personally called her this week to ask her to be a national co-chair of the campaign.
Biden also nodded at Texas Democrats in his Tuesday morning announcement video, which featured a brief shot of Texas House Democrats when they decamped to Washington, D.C., in 2021 to lobby for voting-rights legislation. State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, applauded Biden for including the lawmakers, saying Texas is “ground-zero for the fight to protect and preserve our democracy.”
Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, have maintained a positive rapport with Texas Democrats overall, although they have occasionally faced tensions with party members hailing from South Texas. A notable example is Cuellar, a Democrat representing Laredo, who has consistently expressed concerns about the Biden administration’s handling of border issues. Despite this, Cuellar did accompany Biden on his visit to the border in January and has recently been less vocal about his reservations.
In a statement on Tuesday, Cuellar expressed his support for President Biden’s re-election campaign.
The level of competition Biden will bring to Texas, a historically Republican state that received some focus from his campaign in 2020, is yet to be determined. Despite his efforts, Biden ultimately lost to Trump by a margin of 6 percentage points, making it the closest a Democrat has come to winning Texas since 1996.
Green, the Houston Democrat, expressed his cautious optimism that Biden has the potential to reduce his margin in Texas from the 2020 election.
Green expressed his belief that this election cycle offers a promising opportunity to successfully flip the state, although it will require significant effort and dedication.
The other marquee race in the state is the reelection campaign of Ted Cruz, the state’s junior Republican senator. One of the Democrats in the Texas delegation, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas, is considering running against Cruz and was a key Biden endorser in the 2020 primary. Allred’s campaign said Tuesday he supports Biden for reelection.
Other Texans in the U.S. House who expressed support for another Biden campaign were U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia of Houston, Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and Jasmine Crockett of Dallas. The two who did not respond Tuesday were U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Austin and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen, whose reelection race is again being targeted by national Republicans.
Crockett reiterated the pledge that Biden made in his announcement video, emphasizing it in a statement.
Crockett remarked that President Biden has made significant progress in areas such as health care, addressing the gun crisis, and creating jobs. However, there are still remaining tasks to be completed. Crockett emphasized the need to complete these tasks and urged to “FINISH THE JOB!”
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