美国国家公共电台 NPR--Biden's campaign is getting rolling. Here's what's been happening behind the scenes

Biden's campaign is getting rolling. Here's what's been happening behind the scenes

Transcript¹

Past a maze² of low-walled cubicles³ at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, there's a sparsely⁴ decorated corner office overlooking train tracks. That is where President Biden's campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez is working these days.

"Until we get our headquarters straight," Chávez Rodríguez said. The campaign hasn't yet announced where it will be based, though Wilmington, Del., is the leading contender.

For now, the party and Biden's campaign are nearly indistinguishable. "Right now, we're really unified⁵ under one umbrella and in this building — literally⁶ one building — and continuing to grow and build from here," said Chávez Rodríguez, in her first broadcast interview since being named campaign manager.

"I'm very excited that I'm not having to function like a full start-up operation, but instead really do have the resources and the infrastructure⁷ and the people power to connect with voters as we need to," she said.

It's been almost two months since Biden launched his reelection campaign. This weekend, in Philadelphia, he will finally attend his first political rally of the 2024 race.

Hosted by the AFL-CIO and other labor⁸ unions, he is expected to scoop⁹ up a handful of early endorsements¹⁰. And while it may look like a slow start, there's been a lot going on behind the scenes at the DNC.

Long an afterthought for Democratic presidential campaigns, the DNC is now a central part of the Biden reelection strategy. Biden and his team invested in the organization between presidential election cycles, and the DNC, in turn, has invested in everything from U.S. Senate races in 2022 to the mayor's race in Jacksonville, Fla., earlier this year.

This is a big shift from the recent past, when the DNC was a mess

There are now about 300 people on the DNC staff, with a mission of year-round campaign infrastructure, aimed at getting Democrats¹¹ elected up and down the ballot¹², even in off-year elections.

Sam Cornale, the DNC's executive director, compares the organization to a race car. "I'm not here to tell you that the race car is already built and it's out running laps on the track," he said. "I am here to tell you that the chassis¹³ is in incredible shape — and that is what the Biden-Harris campaign is building on top of."

The party's operations have not always been this flush.

"The DNC, when I got there, had essentially¹⁴ been gutted," said Mo Elleithee, the party's communications director from 2013 to 2015. "There was ... not even a field director, let alone a robust¹⁵ field organization. It was $27 million in debt. The research shop had been decimated."

A couple of years later, things were not much better. "When I walked into the DNC in 2017, we had a fundraising team of three people, none of whom had any experience in actually raising money," Cornale said. "We were less than 100 staff. The word I like to use is just, 'atrophy¹⁶.'"

Obama built his own operation. Biden likes the institution

The last Democratic president, Barack Obama, took a different approach to the DNC. Rather than combining the voter lists and fundraising operations from his 2008 presidential campaign with the DNC, Obama created an organization to house his political operation called Organizing for America.

"He had lots of supporters who would never be traditional Democrats, and wanted to be outside that system," said Jim Messina, Obama's 2012 campaign manager.

Biden, on the other hand, is an institutionalist. "Biden understands the power of the DNC and understands how to build a campaign around it. And they really did spend 2021, 2022 building up the DNC, which helped in the midterm elections and helps set him up for reelection," Messina said.

The revamped DNC helped in a Wisconsin race this spring

The DNC already has joint¹⁷ fundraising agreements with every single state party and the District of Columbia. That means they can raise as much as $929,600 from each donor¹⁸ and then direct that money to battleground states where it will be needed the most.

The stronger party apparatus¹⁹ helped in the 2022 midterm elections. Now, as the 2024 race gears up, in the year before the presidential election year, the Biden campaign is focused on fundraising and working with the DNC to refine their organizing tools "so that we can reach voters where they are, and everywhere that they are," said campaign manager Chávez Rodríguez.

The DNC flexed²⁰ its new muscle this spring in Wisconsin's state Supreme²¹ Court race, investing hundreds of thousands of dollars and a lot of effort. It worked. Janet Protasiewicz, the Supreme Court candidate supported by the Democratic Party, won by double digits²².

"[The DNC] organized volunteers from across the country to make phone calls into Wisconsin Democrats and remind them to get out and cast a ballot in early April," said state party chairman Ben Wikler.

The support made "a gigantic difference," Wikler said, contrasting it to 2012, when Democrats in the state were unsuccessful in efforts to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. The recall vote was held in June of the presidential election year, but Wikler said it just wasn't a major focus of the DNC or the Obama presidential campaign.

"People in Wisconsin worked so hard, but they wound up being flooded in dark money from the Koch network and these big right wing groups," said Wikler.

The strategy resembles Republican efforts in 2016

The emphasis the Biden campaign and DNC are putting on organizing and having a robust party apparatus in place is similar to what Republicans did in 2016.

During that year's Republican nomination²³ race, the Republican National Committee had been working hard so that when the nominee²⁴ was picked, they were ready to go.

From the outside, it's hard to assess the strength of the DNC and Biden campaign approach, said Chris Carr, who was the RNC's political director in 2016.

"However, there are other factors that I would be worried about if I was at the DNC as their political director, or the campaign manager for President Joe Biden," Carr said.

He says public polls continue to flash with big red warning signs with Democratic voters saying they wish they had another option. While the Democratic establishment and the party are very much behind Biden, many Democratic voters say they are still uneasy.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

3 cubicles   

n.小卧室，斗室( cubicle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Security guards, operating inside bullet-proof glass cubicles, and speaking through microphones, scrutinized every arrival and departure. 警卫们在装有防弹玻璃的小室里值勤，通过麦克风细致盘问每一个进出的人。 来自辞典例句
• I guess they thought me content to stay in cubicles. 我猜他们认为我愿意呆在小房间里。 来自互联网

4 sparsely   

adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地

参考例句：

• Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 scoop   

n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出

参考例句：

• In the morning he must get his boy to scoop it out.早上一定得叫佣人把它剜出来。
• Uh,one scoop of coffee and one scoop of chocolate for me.我要一勺咖啡的和一勺巧克力的。

10 endorsements   

n.背书( endorsement的名词复数 )；（驾驶执照上的）违章记录；（公开的）赞同；（通常为名人在广告中对某一产品的）宣传

参考例句：

• He must make much money on those tennis shoe endorsements he does. 他替那些网球鞋珍重广告，就赚了不少钱。 来自互联网
• But celebrity endorsements remain an important promotional tool for marketers. 尽管如此，邀明星助阵仍是营销人员重要的推广手段之一。 来自互联网

11 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

13 chassis   

n.汽车等之底盘；（飞机的）起落架；炮底架

参考例句：

• The new parts may include the sheet metal,the transmission,or the chassis.新部件可能包括钢壳，变速器或底盘。
• Can chassis and whole-vehicle manufacturers co-exist peacefully?底盘企业和整车企业能相安无事吗？

14 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

15 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

16 atrophy   

n./v.萎缩，虚脱，衰退

参考例句：

• Patients exercised their atrophied limbs in the swimming pool.病人们在泳池里锻炼萎缩的四肢。
• Many hoped he would renew the country's atrophied political system.很多人都期望他能使该国萎靡的政治体系振作起来。

17 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

18 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

19 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。

20 flexed   

adj.[医]曲折的，屈曲v.屈曲( flex的过去式和过去分词 )；弯曲；（为准备大干而）显示实力；摩拳擦掌

参考例句：

• He stretched and flexed his knees to relax himself. 他伸屈膝关节使自己放松一下。 来自辞典例句
• He flexed his long stringy muscles manfully. 他孔武有力地弯起膀子，显露出细长条的肌肉。 来自辞典例句

21 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

22 digits   

n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾

参考例句：

• The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

23 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

24 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。