Biden launches a fundraising push to build his presidential library
Former President Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in Delaware and has tapped a group of former aides, friends and political allies to begin the heavy lift of fundraising and finding a site for the museum and archive.
The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation, this past week, approved a 13-person governance board that is charged with steering the project. The board includes former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, prolific Democratic fundraiser Rufus Gifford and others with deep ties to the one-term president and his wife.
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Biden’s library team has the daunting task of raising money for the 46th president’s legacy project at a moment when his party has become fragmented about the way ahead and many big Democratic donors have stopped writing checks.
It also remains to be seen whether corporations and institutional donors that have historically donated to presidential library projects, regardless of the party of the former president, will be more hesitant to contribute, with President Donald Trump maligning Biden on a daily basis and savaging groups he deems left-leaning.
Political climate
The cost of presidential libraries has soared over the decades.
The George H.W. Bush library’s construction cost came in at about Ksh 6.4 billion when it opened in 1997. Bill Clinton’s campaign cost about Ksh 24.7 billion. George W. Bush’s team met its Ksh 75 billion fundraising goal before the library was dedicated.
The Obama Foundation has set a whopping Ksh 240 billion fundraising goal for construction, sustaining global programming and seeding an endowment for the Chicago presidential centre that is slated to open next year.
Biden’s library team is still in the early stages of planning, but Gifford predicted that the cost of the project would probably “end up somewhere in the middle” of the Obama Presidential Centre and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Private money builds them
Construction and support for programming for the libraries are paid for with private funds donated to the nonprofit organisations established by the former president.
The initial vision is for the Biden library to include an immersive museum detailing Biden’s four years in office.
The Bidens also want it to be a hub for leadership, service and civic engagement that will include educational and event space to host policy gatherings.
Biden, who ended his bid for a second White House term 107 days before last year’s election, has been relatively slow to move on presidential library planning compared with most of his recent predecessors.
Others named to Biden’s library board are former senior White House aides Elizabeth Alexander, Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón and Cedric Richmond; David Cohen, a former ambassador to Canada and telecom executive;
Tatiana Brandt Copeland, a Delaware philanthropist; Jeff Peck, Biden Foundation treasurer and former Senate aide; Fred C. Sears II, Biden’s longtime friend; former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; former Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young; and former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell.
Biden has deep ties to Pennsylvania but ultimately settled on Delaware, the state that was the launching pad for his political career. He was first elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and spent 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate before serving as Obama’s vice president.
The president was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he lived until age 10. He left when his father, struggling to make ends meet, moved the family to Delaware after landing a job there selling cars.
Working-class Scranton became a touchstone in Biden’s political narrative during his long political career. He also served as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania after his vice presidency, leading a center on diplomacy and global engagement at the school named after him.
Gifford said ultimately the Bidens felt that Delaware was where the library should be because the state has “propelled his entire political career.”
Elected officials in Delaware are cheering Biden’s move.
“To Delaware, he will always be our favorite son,” Gov. Matt Meyer said. “The new presidential library here in Delaware will give future generations the chance to see his story of resilience, family, and never forgetting your roots.”
