This story was published in the Wall Street Journal on March 23, 2020.
Presidential campaign’s operation, shaken up by the spread of the novel coronavirus, has the candidate scrapping in-person events, staff working from home
Former Vice President Joe Biden has had a fast comeback. Now, his digital operation is trying to catch up.
His presidential campaign is bulking up its digital infrastructure, anticipating it will be necessary to compete with President Trump in the general election and spurred by a nationwide quarantine forcing the Democratic front-runner to find new ways to reach voters.
Mr. Biden’s operation is looking to bring on new staff with expertise in digital advertising, social-media content and programming, people familiar with the matter said. It is also in talks with technology vendors about how to best boost its virtual and digital engagement with supporters, volunteers and donors, they said.
“It’s a strange way to do an event, I know. We’re all getting used to it,” Mr. Biden said Friday evening during a virtual fundraiser with New Jersey donors. “But, this is going to last for a little while. This isn’t going to go away in a couple weeks.”
Mr. Biden’s campaign has been looking to expand since he became the Democratic front-runner this month, including hiring Jen O’Malley Dillon as campaign manager. But the campaign’s operations have been shaken up by the spread of the novel coronavirus, and Mr. Biden has scrapped in-person events and told staff to work from home.
The former vice president, like other candidates dealing with the pandemic, has held online events, including a live streamed town hall with voters in Illinois, a telephone town hall with supporters in three states and addresses from his home state of Delaware.
Mr. Biden said Friday during a conference call with reporters that his aides were taking steps to allow him to conduct frequent broadcasts from his Wilmington home and a nearby campaign office and to take questions from reporters.
“I want to be in daily or at least significant contact with the American people,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden’s digital team had fewer than a dozen people before it began adding staff, people familiar with the matter said. The campaign acknowledged it was smaller than most other Democratic presidential campaigns during the early primary voting, and the coronavirus has prompted it to speed its hiring for digital-focused roles.
Its finances have also changed. Mr. Biden’s campaign for several quarters raised less than competitors. He raised $18 million in February, according to a Federal Election Commission filing, but his campaign has said it has raised more than $35 million so far in March as Mr. Biden cemented his front-runner status and others dropped out of the race.
“Campaigns still have to do the work of raising money and reaching out to voters and helping people see a path forward that’s different from what they see today. And they have to do that really differently than what they’ve been planning to do,” said Betsy Hoover, co-founder of Higher Ground Labs, a left-leaning political tech incubator, and the online organizing director for President Obama’s 2012 campaign.
The Biden campaign has talked with tech vendors as it evaluates digital platforms to connect with its volunteers, donors or supporters in lieu of in-person events, people familiar with the talks said. It is hoping to mostly use other companies’ platforms since the campaign doesn’t have time to build new customized tools, the people said. “They’re looking at anything and everything,” one of the people involved in the talks said.
The campaign is also trying to reach different types of voters, especially younger people, as it shifts toward competing in the general election, people familiar with the talks said.
During the first live-streamed town hall on March 13, there were audio and technical difficulties as Mr. Biden fielded questions. “I’m sorry this has been such a disjointed effort here because of the connections,” he said, speaking into an iPhone.
The Biden campaign said it would scale-up production of digital content and experiment with methods to reach and engage voters. It also pointed to successful virtual phone and text banks during Super Tuesday and primaries later in March where Mr. Biden clinched big victories.
Some of the campaign’s most widely shared moments online involve situations where Mr. Biden has shown empathy. The campaign pointed to clips showing Mr. Biden giving a 6-year-old his lapel pin several years ago and another in which he took a selfie with a supporter in an elevator in January.
Biden campaign digital director Rob Flaherty, who joined the team in December, wrote an email to supporters Wednesday asking for their ideas on how to best engage online.
“A lot more people are at home and spending their time online than usual. So the digital parts of our campaign—the work you and I do to share the VP’s message online—matters more than ever,” according to the email.
—Ken Thomas contributed to this article.
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com