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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/joe-biden-delaware-ele
ction-stephanie-hansen.html


Joe Biden Campaigns for Delaware Candidate in Crucial State Race

By ALEXANDER BURNS <https://www.nytimes.com/by/alexander-burns>FEB. 22, 2017

Photo
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. with the Reeves family while
campaigning in Newark, Del., for Stephanie Hansen, a Democrat who is
running for the State Senate. CreditMark Makela for The New York Times

NEWARK, Del. — Joseph R. Biden Jr.
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/joseph_r_jr_biden/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
is
pleading again with the voters of Delaware. His brow furrowed and his voice
urgent, he urges them in a new television commercial to rouse themselves to
the polls.

“This race is consequential,” the former vice president says in the ad.
“It’s all about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey,
it’s going to be O.K.’”

He won Delaware seven times as a candidate for the United States Senate and
twice as Barack Obama’s running mate, but Mr. Biden has now thrown himself
into a contest fought on the smallest of political stages: an off-year
special election for a seat in the Delaware State Legislature.

With his party’s control of the small state in peril, he has returned to
the campaign trail, barely a month after leaving office, with a zeal that
has surprised even local Democrats: Mr. Biden has raised money for
Stephanie Hansen, the Democratic nominee in a State Senate contest this
Saturday, and appeared in her radio ads and knocked on doors alongside her.

Last weekend, he bounded around a neighborhood in Newark, Del., hugging
voters, grasping them by their elbows and imploring them to support Ms.
Hansen, a former county legislator.

“We need her to control the Senate!” Mr. Biden, 74, told one person on
Saturday. He goaded another: “We’ve got to get Stephanie in here. Come on,
help us out, O.K.?”

Under normal circumstances, a single legislative race in a low-key suburb
might inspire little interest from national Democrats, much less draw in a
former vice president. But with President Trump in the White House and
Republicans holding power in Congress, Democrats have looked to a handful
of deep-blue states as the last arenas where they can advance liberal
policies on issues like education and health care. Delaware is one of just
a few states where Democrats hold the governorship and both legislative
chambers.
Photo
Mr. Biden posing with ShopRite employees while campaigning for Ms. Hansen,
right.CreditMark Makela for The New York Times

Should Republicans capture the vacant State Senate seat this Saturday, they
would take a majority in the chamber and deny Democrats the power to make
policy unfettered, even in a traditional stronghold like Delaware.

So with Mr. Biden leading the way, Democrats have spared no effort in the
race. Money has poured in to support Ms. Hansen, including some from states
like New York and California: She reported raising more than $300,000 over
the last three weeks, several times the normal budget of a Delaware
legislative race. Ms. Hansen’s opponent, John Marino, a real estate broker
and a retired New York City police officer, raised less than one-sixth of
that.

Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in the district, but turnout is
unpredictable in special elections, and Mr. Marino nearly pulled off an
upset win in 2014, the last time the seat was on the ballot. He lost by two
percentage points to Bethany Hall-Long, a Democrat who gave up the seat
after winning a race for lieutenant governor in November.

In addition to Mr. Biden, Ms. Hansen has been joined on the trail by
Delaware’s Democratic governor, John Carney; its two Democratic senators,
Thomas R. Carper and Chris Coons; and Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland
governor and presidential candidate. Labor unions and an outside group,
First State Strong, which has not disclosed its donors, have also spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting Ms. Hansen.

Mr. O’Malley called the investment in Delaware a sign that Democrats were
“waking up to the reality that we’ve got to rebuild our party” at the state
level. He said they had grown too complacent about state-level elections
during Mr. Obama’s administration and suffered staggering losses as a
result.

Republicans now control 33 governorships and have full control of the
government — holding the governor’s office and the Legislature — in 25
states.

“Sometimes, as Democrats, we kid ourselves into thinking the only office
that matters is the presidency and the only legislature that matters is the
United States Senate,” Mr. O’Malley said. “But you can’t be a national
party if that’s the warped perspective you maintain.”
Photo
Mr. Biden and Ms. Hansen greeting Josh Brindle and Kelly Abbott. A victory
by Ms. Hansen in a special election on Saturday is crucial for Democrats to
keep control of the Delaware State Senate.CreditMark Makela for The New
York Times

Campaigning door to door on the same afternoon in Melody Meadows, a
Newark-area neighborhood of brick split-level homes and quiet cul-de-sacs,
Ms. Hansen said she was sharply aware of the high stakes in the race. “Oh,
my gosh, there’s a lot of pressure,” she said.

She said she had been caught off guard by what she described as an
uncommonly large number of Democrats eager to help, including the former
vice president. She said her campaign had appealed to Mr. Biden after
hearing a rumor that Mike Pence, his Republican successor, might campaign
for Mr. Marino. After appearing at a fund-raising event, Mr. Biden offered
to do more.

“He said to me, ‘I’d be happy to come down and go door-knocking with you,”
Ms. Hansen recalled. “I said, ‘Are you serious?’”

Mr. Marino has enjoyed no such surge of support from national Republicans.
Mr. Pence has not appeared, and a spokesman did not respond to an email
asking if he had seriously considered a visit.

Mr. Marino did not respond to multiple voice mail messages.

Charles Copeland, chairman of the Delaware Republican Party, said there had
never been any plan to bring in out-of-state Republicans like Mr. Pence. He
suggested Democrats might have “started that rumor to get Joe Biden to come
out and campaign.” And he said it showed weakness on the part of the
Democrats that they had to work so hard to retain the seat.

He predicted that Mr. Biden’s involvement would matter little. “I think the
impact is zero,” Mr. Copeland said. “People don’t vote for a candidate
because somebody else who plays for that guy’s team, or that woman’s team,
says, ‘Vote for them.’”

It is unclear if the former vice president’s swift return to electoral
politics in Delaware signals anything about his future. Mr. Biden, who
declined to be interviewed, has mused about running for president in 2020
and has urged Democrats to compete hard for the blue-collar white voters
Mr. Trump won over last year.
Photo
Mr. Biden’s help for Ms. Hansen is considered important because he won
Delaware seven times as a candidate for the United States Senate and twice
as Barack Obama’s running mate.CreditMark Makela for The New York Times

Kate Bedingfield, an aide to Mr. Biden, said the former vice president
viewed state and local officials as controlling “some of the most
meaningful decisions in government — decisions that have the most impact on
people’s lives.”

“He’s committed to helping ensure that leaders who understand the
challenges facing the middle class get elected at all levels,” Ms.
Bedingfield said. “He’s known Stephanie for many years and has campaigned
with her in the past, and he believes she will be a first-rate leader.”

As he strode through Newark last weekend with Ms. Hansen, Mr. Biden, clad
in a tweed jacket and sunglasses, was plainly in his element, warmly
greeting Delawareans who voted for him for much of their adult lives. One
couple, Bernard and Joan McKeehan, told him they had been following his
career since 1971. Don Lutte, 79, a retired schoolteacher, said after
meeting Mr. Biden, “He talked to me like he knew me.”

As Mr. Biden patrolled the neighborhood, one voter called out to him:
“You’d better run against Trump.”

Ms. Hansen has subtly tied the race to Mr. Trump in some of her
advertising, using video of protests against the new president. Though she
insisted that many of the crucial issues in the race were local — like
funding for public schools and fighting drug addiction — she acknowledged
there was considerable symbolic importance, too, for demoralized Democrats
in Mr. Biden’s home state.

She said many of her conversations with voters began as venting sessions
for liberal-leaning voters seething about Mr. Trump and riveted by the news
from Washington.

“I will come up to houses and you can hear in the background MSNBC, CNN —
people are glued to their TV sets,” Ms. Hansen said, “because you never
know what craziness is going to pop up during the day.”

Against that uneasy mood, Ms. Hansen said she hoped to close the race on a
relatively upbeat note, with a final pair of campaign mailings. One would
feature a photograph of her with a lovable pet — a big, friendly farm dog
that belongs to a close friend. (Her own dog died about a year ago, Ms.
Hansen explained.)

The other campaign mailing, Ms. Hansen said, would show her with Joe Biden