Former Vice President Joe Biden’s team has hired ex-Latino Victory Fund head Cristóbal Alex in what is believed to be the latest signal that the 76-year-old is readying a campaign for president in 2020, Politico reported on Wednesday.
Alex’s role within the campaign-in-waiting is presently unclear, while the longtime activist refuses to comment on the development. In 2016, Alex served as National Deputy Director of Voter Outreach and Mobilization for Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign.
The Latino Victory Fund, a political action committee that works to elect progressive Hispanic candidates, met with blowback last year for releasing an ad depicting a supporter of then-Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie attempting to run down minority children with a vehicle. Gillespie’s campaign decried the ad as “disgusting” and an “attack on the people of Virginia,” prompting the group to pull it — but without any apology.
Last Tuesday, Biden declared that his family had given him the green light to run for the highest office in the land.
“There’s a consensus,” Biden said during an appearance at the University of Delaware. “The most important people in my life want me to run.”
While Biden’s family might be supportive of a White House run, some establishment media outlets appear to already be lining up against him.
The Huffington Post attacked former President Barack Obama’s number two in a “champion” of policies “favored by Republicans” and the “corporate elite” in a lead story on March 5th.
On Tuesday, a CNN focus group features several potential Democrat voters unanimously rejected Biden as a possible 2020 Democratic nominee. Asked by CNN’s New Day anchor Alisyn Camerota for a show of hands on who would support a Biden White House run, not one of the six participants raised their hand. “I think we need a bold, strong leadership, and you’ll find that in the progressives,” one potential Democrat voter, Carol Evans, told Camerota.
“We had the standard-bearer for the kind of pragmatic centrist candidate in Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Donald Trump is now president. He is not your average political candidate, so we really need to try to think outside the box because, you know, it seems like the dude is made of rubber. Anything you throw at him just bounces off, there’s nothing that sticks,” said another focus group participant, Michael Milisits.