Ridin’ With Biden – Leadership Lessons From His Campaign

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ll have seen that Joe Biden was elected by American voters as the next President (and no, we won’t entertain baseless nonsense about fraud here).

It’s the world’s toughest job interview. It’s years of gruelling campaigning under intense media scrutiny whilst trying to formulate plans and policies for what follows after the election – when the hard work really starts.

Whilst minds far smarter and more politically astute than mine will no doubt be dissecting the results and campaigns for years to come, here are my own leadership takeaways from the campaign.

Build A Diverse Team

Biden is an old white dude. He was up against an old white dude with a VP that’s also an old white dude. Americans are diverse, and their (mostly white, straight, male, old) representatives in DC do not reflect the rest of the country.

And his campaign recognised that. In Kamala Harris, you have the first female POC VP. In the supporting cast, you see stronger LGTBQ+ representation with rising star Pete Buttigieg and the first openly trans woman, Sarah McBride, ever elected to the senate. Stacey Abrams single-handedly delivered Georgia, and Ritchie Torres became the first openly gay black congressman. The ‘Squad’ of AOC, Omar, Pressley, and Talib comfortably secured re-election. Slowly but surely, DC is catching up with the rest of the country.

It has paid off for the Democrats. In key battleground states that flipped Democratic it looks like the wins were clinched by increased voter turnout by minorities, who overwhelmingly voted for Biden. Nationally, he won more votes from black voters than Obama did and more votes from women than Clinton did. Even if the delivery was from an old white guy, Biden’s inclusive messaging struck a chord vs divisive rhetoric for a diverse electorate.

Overcome

Whichever side of political aisle you stand on, no man should ever have to go through what Biden has in his personal life. Losing his first wife and daughter in a tragic car accident soon after becoming a senator. Losing his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 as Joe was readying a run for 2016. His ‘88 presidential campaign was derailed by a life-threatening health problem of his own, and he lost out to a generational talent in Obama in ‘08.

To be knocked down several times, and have the sheer resilience to get up off the mat to fight again shows admirable persistence, and you can only imagine his leadership will be better for having met with triumph and disaster in his life.

Biden articulated this himself when on the ropes in the primaries: “I’ve been down before,” Biden said. “I’ve been down politically, personally. And I’ve gotten back up. I’ll be damned if I’m going to go down when the whole country’s at stake here.”

Be Open To New Ideas

Let’s be honest, Biden wasn’t the most inspiring choice for a lot of people. Many felt he was an establishment centrist (although the Overton Window and what would be classed as centrist has shifted dramatically over the years) when they were looking for a revolutionary leader. The democratic primaries – and the popularity of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders – undoubtedly shifted Biden’s policy positions to the left with respect to climate, whilst retaining a moderate message for broader appeal.

Interestingly, going against usual norms, his policies tacked further to the left after accepting the nomination. His political platform is the most progressive of any presidential candidate ever. He first became a senator in 1972 almost 50 years ago and his positions have evolved, and continue to, over time.

A mark of a leader is being willing to admit that you’ve been wrong in the past and adapt to changing times whilst sticking to your core values.

Debate, Decide, And Support

The 2016 primary, in which Hilary Clinton edged Bernie Sanders, left many in the Democratic Party bitter, and they weren’t afraid to show it. It drove a wedge right through the party at a time when it needed to unify behind a candidate.

Whilst the democratic primary was just as hotly contested this time around, the destructive in-fighting was far less prevalent. You had everyone across the party supporting the candidate, even if they disagreed with some of his policies. This critical unity ensured all focus could be on securing a win for the party against the opposition.

For leaders, the lesson here is to foster a culture and processes to debate the merits of ideas, make a decision, and then get everyone behind it – whether they got their way or not.

Build A Community

In the 2000s, the internet became a battleground state that Democrats lost in 2016 and won handily in 2020.

Nobody saw Biden becoming a powerhouse when it came to fundraising, and credit has to go to the Biden team for overhauling campaign and fundraising infrastructure to make Biden the most well-funded candidate ever.

Trump still outspent Biden in ads, particularly on Facebook. But what the Biden team, reinvigorated by the hire of Obama’s campaign manager O’Malley Dillon, did do was mobilise a huge number of grassroots volunteers to register voters and then to spread the gospel of mail in voting. The digital team grew 15x in size after the primaries. This led to reaching voters with authentic content where they would be. Gen Z were sharing videos on Tik Tok, whilst ‘Get Your Booty To The Polls’ made waves in Georgia with black voters. Even Biden ‘gets it’ – apparently he came up with the iconic, gif-able aviator sunglasses schtick.

Build a community based on values, create ambassadors out of them and let their creativity flourish.

Leverage Your Superstars

For Biden, Obama was always going to be an ace up the sleeve but it had to be played strategically. Too much Obama, and the contest would be viewed through the prism of Obama’s achievements and failings. That, in part, was HIlary Clinton’s downfall. The world wasn’t working for a lot of Americans and she represented the status quo.

That being said, when you have one of the world’s most popular public figures on your side it’s a case of when, where, and how to deploy him. Whilst the majority of Biden’s messaging to the electorate was appealing to the better angels of their nature, Obama was used late in the campaign as a conduit to deliver gloves-off messaging about Trump’s character flaws.

Likewise, there’s a reason that Biden didn’t fight dirty in the debates by going after Trump’s children when the topic of nepotism was brought up. They had others on the team doing the media circuit so that Biden could be seen as going high when they went low, to borrow Michelle Obama’s (and subsequently Melania’s, probably) turn of phrase.

Put you A-players in the game when it counts, and leverage their strengths.

Don’t Be A Dick

It’s hard to ignore the poetic justice in the results at a state level.

Trump’s shooting from the hip endears him to those who hate polished career politicians, but it no doubt contributed to his downfall in key battleground states. During the campaign, he mocked the late John Lewis (Georgia), the late John McCain (Arizona), and fanned the flames of his base when a plan to kidnap Governor Gretchen Witmer (Michigan) was uncovered. Democrats flipped all three states by thin margins, and that might well have been the difference.

If Trump had enacted restraint, instead launching a volley of ad hoc attacks at anybody and everybody – even those where there really was no political capital to gain from it – he could well have been staying in the White House beyond January.

So yeah, don’t be a dick.

Final Thoughts

And here we are. From a twice failed presidential candidate running low on cash and support in the primary, to underwhelming Democratic nominee, to fundraising juggernaut, and finally to record breaking president-elect. A journey mired with tragedy and strife, pushed forward by a progressive supporting cast that saw an unfancied 78 year old oust his incumbent competitor from the Oval Office.