Pundits Unsure That Joe Biden Can Ride Goodwill To 2020 Democratic Nomination

Name recognition would catapult former Vice President Joe Biden to the front of the Democratic pack should he decide to campaign for the Oval Office, but local politicos wondered if lingering goodwill toward "Uncle Joe" would translate to votes in 2020.

Biden is inching ever closer to a 2020 presidential bid, buoyed this week by support from his family. He told a crowd at the University of Delaware on Tuesday that, "The most important people in my life want me to run." National Journal reporter Hanna Trudo also tweeted Tuesday that sources told her Biden had made job offers in New Hampshire.

Democratic strategist Scott Ferson said Biden "instantly becomes the contrast to (President Trump)," if he enters the race.

But a 2020 bid would open the "much beloved vice president" up to the "bright light of scrutiny," Ferson said.

Biden would be the second elderly white man to enter the race, months after Democratic voters sent a wave of youth and diversity to Congress.

Ferson noted Biden entering the race could make it tougher for the other older male in the race: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose launch already "wasn't great." Sanders is 78. Biden is 76.

Biden would also be viewed as a more moderate and establishment candidate in a race where candidates are running with more populist ideals.

Democratic New Hampshire House Speaker Steve Shurtleff said Biden "still has a lot of support" in the Granite State.

While Shurtleff has not picked a candidate, he said he looks to Biden "as someone who could probably unite the country" and "bring bipartisanship back to the U.S. Congress."

Biden topped a recent University of Massachusetts Amherst poll of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters with 28 percent supporting him. Twenty percent of those surveyed supported Sanders, 14 percent supported Sen. Kamala Harris and 9 percent supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Biden would "start as the front-runner based on name identification and the reservoir of goodwill he enjoys among Democrats," University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala said.

But, Scala said, he's "not convinced that voters' good feelings for Biden will convert to their loyalty in next year's primary."

Biden is "not a prohibitive favorite," Scala said.

"Obviously none of his rivals waited to see what he would do before they made their decisions about running. That tells you something right there," Scala said.

-Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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