Biden’s campaign changes course, will start knocking on voters’ doors
WASHINGTON — The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will begin knocking on doors of prospective voters this weekend after saying for months that such action was unsafe and unnecessary during the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden’s aides have been critical of President Donald Trump’s campaign for its use of canvassers to contact potential voters, saying Republicans were putting the health and safety of Americans at risk amid a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 207,000 people.
Instead, the Biden campaign has focused on connecting with voters virtually, touting the metric of“meaningful conversations” — of which they say they had 5.9 million during September — rather than on the numbers of doors knocked.
Butwith fiveweeks to go before Election Day, and with ballots already being cast in many states, the Biden campaign said it decided to expand into in-person canvassing, largely focused around its get-out-the-vote operation. The move comes after Republicans have built a far bigger in-person political operation during the pandemic, knocking on19million doors.
“Our volunteers are fired up and have exceeded every goal we’ve set,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’malley Dillon said Thursday. “We’re nowexpanding on our strategy in a targeted way
that puts the safety of communities first and foremost and helps us mobilize voterswho areharder to reach by phone nowthatwe’re in the final stretch and now that Americans are fully dialed-in and ready tomake their voices heard.”
Republicans have built a substantial political apparatus in battleground states even as Democrats have avoided activities such as door-knocking and have not opened in-person offices. Republican officials — along with some Democrats privately — say those efforts could make a difference in driving up Republican turnout in key battleground states even as Trump lags Biden in the national and key state polls.
“First the Biden campaign said
door knocking endangered people’s lives. Then just a couple of weeks ago, they said door knocking didn’t have any impact in elections,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said. “What changed? They know they’re being hopelessly outworked on the ground and down-ballot Democrats in key states have been freaking out about it.”
O’malley Dillon had previously said the campaignwas not knocking doors because it wasn’t needed and it was no longer the “gold standard,” as the campaign focused on Trump’s coronavirus response. Last month, the Biden campaign attacked Trump and his team for showing up on voters’ doorsteps and said it had
knocked on zero doors because it was not safe and prospective voters did not want visitors.
This weekend, several hundred Biden canvassers will be going out in Nevada, Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. A Biden campaign adviser said 6,000 people had shown interest in knocking on doors in Pennsylvania.
Republican Party officials say their volunteers have knocked on the doors of 19million voters they believe are likely Trump voters, either talking to the resident or leaving a piece of literature if no one answered.
Republicans have also opened about300offices across the country.