As he maintains his lead atop the Democratic primary, Joe Biden has leaned on a fairly simple strategy: sometimes less is more.
The former vice president’s presidential campaign has, since its onset, done its own thing.
As Biden’s rivals crafted their launch strategies, the former vice president still hadn’t publicly made up his mind about running. When the most press-averse contenders put themselves in front of reporters, Biden stayed largely under the fray. And as staffers fielded all sorts of candidate survey requests, the current Democratic frontrunner’s replies were often absent.
“Unfortunately, Joe Biden chose not to answer this question from Iowans,” a pop-up image with Biden’s face and accompanying text appears on question pulled from a progressive group’s candidate survey in the first caucus state.
Nearly all top-tier contenders answered the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement’s questionnaire earlier this year about topics important to voters ahead of the next election. Biden’s campaign reportedly asked for an extension to complete the survey after launching their bid around the time the questions were sent out. But they never submitted responses, and stopped communicating with the group all together, according to a news report at the time.
In choosing not to respond early on, Biden’s campaign—which still leads the primary field in nearly all polls—set the groundwork for a trend that’s persisted throughout his candidacy. Since launching, Biden has skipped out on multiple chances to respond to lighthearted asks and more nuanced policy queries that can provide a window into his thinking.
The latest case came this Monday, when The Daily Beast reported that six Democratic candidates responded to a 15-question survey about health care policy. AIDS United, a non-profit organization working to end the HIV epidemic in the United States, received detailed plans from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX). But despite Biden’s previous pledge to end the epidemic within five years of being elected, he did not respond to the group’s questions.
A source familiar with the discussions said they are hopeful Biden would still respond but noted his absence as the primary’s current frontrunner.
Biden’s reticence in responding to these types of questionnaires is not uncommon. In any election cycle, the front-running candidate invariably receives more inquiries than others, and has to pick which questions to dedicate resources to. But Biden’s frontrunner status is not regarded as particularly secure. And his aversion to answering questions risks making his hold on the primary lead even more tenuous.
A Biden campaign official noted more than a half-dozen surveys they have responded to, including from the Citizens Trade Campaign, the AFL-CIO, and Moms Demand Action Gun Sense, among others. In one survey put out by the Council on Foreign Relations to which Biden’s campaign responded, several other candidates had not yet replied. The campaign is in the process of answering additional requests, the official noted.
In jockeying for the Democratic nomination, one of the strongest groups of support Biden pulls from is African-Americans, who are disproportionately affected negatively by the country’s current criminal justice system. Several candidates have released plans to tackle the issue, including Biden. The former vice president unveiled his proposal in July, which is more comprehensive than some other candidates’ proposals.
But just a month prior to that, the data-driven website FiveThirtyEight asked 23 presidential candidates six yes or no questions about criminal justice policy. Similar to the AIDS United survey, nearly all of the top-tier and several lower-tier candidates responded, including Sanders, Warren, Harris, Booker, Buttigieg, and others. Biden’s campaign did not respond.
On immigration, another one of the biggest election issues heading into 2020, Biden largely did not respond or gave unclear answers to questions posed by The Washington Post to every campaign.
In one question, the Post asked: “Do you support the option of detaining asylum-seeking families together in non-prison settings until their asylum claims can be processed, or should they always be released into the country while awaiting a decision?” Biden was placed in the “no response” category.
In a separate instance, Biden was placed in the same category for failing to answer the question, “Do you support extending the existing physical barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border?”
Not every survey that Biden has ducked has been serious.
The New York Times posed 18 questions to 21 Democratic candidates on topics ranging from “How many hours of sleep do you get a night?” to “Describe the last time you were embarrassed. Why?” and “What is your comfort food on the campaign trail?” The outlet noted that Biden “declined to participate despite repeated requests since late April.”
Asked about their candidate’s apparent reluctance to answer questions, the Biden campaign declined to comment on record.
