This midterm season, Biden, 83, is keeping a low profile and staying mostly off the campaign trail as Democrats prepare for November. Obama and Kamala Harris are doing the heavy lifting instead, and party insiders have growing concerns that Biden’s health could weigh down the effort.
Since being diagnosed with advanced, metastatic prostate cancer, Biden has kept a limited public schedule, and a source in his political circle says he has endorsed candidates and helped Democrats raise money. He has, however, appeared at just a handful of political events this year.
He spoke at a reception celebrating his 2020 South Carolina primary victory in February, and he addressed a Maryland Democratic Party event in June.
Obama is cutting ads for Senate and gubernatorial candidates. He is helping the party fundraise and preparing to hit the trail during the closing stretch of the midterm campaign. Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee, is campaigning across key battleground states.
Obama and Harris Carry the Load
Michigan recently played host to a stop by Harris, who arrived with Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. Biden has also backed other candidates.
- Endorsed former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor, who won the Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nomination
- Backed Dan Koh, who captured the Democratic nomination in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District
- Wrote on social media last month about voting defining American freedom
As the final Fox News poll shows, Biden departed office in January 2025 with 42% approval and 57% disapproval. Among Democrats, his favorable rating stood at 71% in a CNN poll from May, though it was 25 points below Obama’s.
The Concern Over Biden’s Role
Michael Ceraso, a longtime Democratic strategist, told Fox News Digital that some members of the party’s elite and fundraising class are concerned that “if Biden were to be pushed out there in any sort of way for virtual or in-person opportunities, he could be a liability.”
Ceraso was direct when he spoke: “I do not think Biden has the same level of charisma as Vice President Harris and former President Obama, and if I’m organizing an event to get thousands of people to come out, I would not do that around Biden.”
Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona pushed back, telling Fox News Digital, “There are still a ton of Americans who love Joe Biden.” She said Biden’s health is stifling requests for campaign trail appearances.
Cardona emphasized: “I guarantee you no one would try to bother him to come campaign for them while, at 83 years old, he is battling cancer and in the toughest fight of his life.”
Trump and fellow Republicans are repeatedly blaming Biden for high gas and diesel prices, despite polls indicating most Americans point fingers at Trump and his administration. Some Democrats still blame Biden for Trump’s 2024 re-election, arguing he did not get out of the race in time to allow Harris to mount a successful campaign.
Ceraso said Biden left a “bad taste with some Democrats, especially within the party’s elite and fundraising class.” Biden ended his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in their 2024 rematch.
At the time of publication, a representative for President Biden did not reply after Fox News Digital asked for comment.
What This Means for the Midterms
Obama and Harris are stepping up to fill the gap left by Biden’s limited schedule. Democrats are counting on them to energize voters, even as party insiders question whether Biden’s presence would help or hurt the campaign effort.
The open question is whether President Obama and Senator Harris can overcome the doubts surrounding Vice President Biden’s role.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs Obama and Kamala Harris doing the heavy lifting for Democrats this midterm season, and it is against Biden’s limited public schedule freezing today’s leaders in place. The danger is not Biden’s health, but what a reduced schedule means for the party: the paper is against letting the biggest names dictate the field, and against a campaign shaped by one man’s illness. When the biggest firms ask to be regulated, the paper asks who those rules would lock out; here, one man’s reduced schedule is shaping a whole campaign, and the paper is against that arrangement.
The paper backs narrow rules against direct harm, such as forcing companies to disclose safety failures they hid, and it opposes broad rules that hand the market to the incumbents. Biden’s reduced schedule is a moat, not a safeguard, and the open question is whether Obama and Harris can overcome the doubts surrounding Vice President Biden’s role.
Source material: “Biden conspicuously absent from campaign trail as Obama, Harris step up for midterm push,” Fox News.
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