WASHINGTON – Barack Obama launched his long-shot presidential bid in 2007 with a rallying pledge to build “a more hopeful America,” then pulled off an historic victory by expanding the Democratic base with large numbers of young people, white voters from the North, and minorities.
It was a new road map for success for the party and in 2020, all the top candidates in the Democratic race tried to follow it. Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, has come closest to reassembling that uncommon coalition, even though his campaign hasn’t had the money to pull together the organization most assumed was necessary to do it.
Boosted largely by overwhelming support from one key component of the coalition — Black voters — Biden in recent weeks pulled off a stunning turnaround from disappointing candidate to surging front-runner. But veteran political operatives warn he has much more to do, particularly in bringing in young and Latino voters, if he wants to follow the Obama road map, not just to the nomination but to the Oval Office.
“Biden has a lot of work ahead,” said Michael Ceraso, who worked on campaigns for Obama and for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016. “Obama had a way of breaking ceilings because of the Obama machine way of organizing and because of how Obama inspired people.”
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