At Nantucket retreat, Biden family weighs run for second term
President Joe Biden and his family are tackling a weighty question during their Thanksgiving holiday retreat to the chilly quiet of Nantucket: whether he’ll seek a second term in 2024.
A final decision won’t be made on the Massachusetts island, where the Bidens are staying at a home owned by Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein while enjoying beach walks, local restaurants and shopping. But the president and his closest relatives will discuss a potential re-election bid there and during the Christmas holidays, current and former aides say.
The president and first lady Jill Biden arrived Tuesday at Nantucket, where they have regularly spent Thanksgiving dating back to before Mr. Biden was vice president. A few close family accompanied them, including Mr. Biden’s daughter Ashley and his son Hunter, who is expected to be a target of House Republican investigations in the next two years.
Mr. Biden has the wind at his back, after his Democratic Party enjoyed a historically successful midterm election. His aides widely expect him to run again, and his team is moving forward as if a final announcement is a formality. But the president has said his family will have an outsized say in the decision, which isn’t expected until next year.
“If his heart is in it, they are there for him. It is highly unlikely they will not support him,” said Michael LaRosa, a former aide to Jill Biden. “He’s running. And I don’t know who else but him should be running. He’s proven himself to be not just an effective campaigner, but an effective executive.”
Mr. Biden has repeatedly said he intends to run and has cited only his family or a surprise development, such as a health crisis, as deterrents. The holiday getaway gives him the chance to weigh that decision outside of Washington.
“My intention is that I run again. But I’m a great respecter of fate. And this is, ultimately, a family decision,” Mr. Biden said earlier this month, adding a decision could come “early next year.”
The Bidens are a fixture on Nantucket. The area skews Democratic, as does New England, where the party swept U.S. House and Senate midterm races. But there are GOP
pockets on the island: Republican Senate candidates Herschel Walker, J.D. Vance and Mehmet Oz all raised money there.
But the smattering of protesters and Trump supporters who often harry Mr. Biden on his travels elsewhere in the country are absent in Nantucket. Cheers and encouragement greeted his every move; people lined up at restaurants for a chance to dine near him and huddled over their phones to compare photos after he passed by. The local pharmacy sells Joe Biden action figures.
Jill Biden, shopping on her own Friday morning, drew a crowd of onlookers outside each shop she popped into. “We love you!” one
woman shouted.
After lunch, as the president and first lady walked a few blocks through town and posed for a photo with one shopkeeper, bystanders shouted “we love you Mr. President!” and “no red wave, no red wave” — a reference to Republicans’ fizzled expectations of broad midterm gains.
But even among a friendly audience, Mr. Biden’s age is an issue. The president turned 80 on Nov. 20, making him the first octogenarian to occupy the White House. An admirer shouted “happy birthday” to him as he was shopping.
He would turn 82 the month of the 2024 election and would be 86 at the end of a second term.