Biden allies retaliated against a Dem who called for him to step aside

Democrats in Michigan cut off a vulnerable House Democrat from a major part of campaign operations after she called last week for President Joe Biden to step down from the ticket.

Officials reversed that decision Thursday, after facing questions from POLITICO.

Rep. Hillary Scholten , a first-term Democrat who flipped a traditionally Republican seat in 2022, was booted last week from a coordinated effort between the Biden campaign and the state party to elect candidates up and down the ticket, according to four people with knowledge of the situation, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about private discussions.

It happened soon after she called for Biden to step aside, those people said, which angered many Democrats behind the scenes. The Biden campaign was contacted by POLITICO Wednesday evening; Scholten was reinstated Thursday morning.

"Rep. Scholten is welcome at the coordinated campaign and we look forward to campaigning with her this fall,” said Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, when asked about Scholten’s removal from the coordinated campaign.

The initial decision to remove Scholten from the joint effort — which would have essentially cut her off from the combined field effort between the presidential, Senate and House races — came from the Michigan state party, according to two people familiar with the discussions. If she had remained excluded from the coordinated effort, it could’ve meant that when Democratic organizers were campaigning in her district, they would tout Biden and the party’s Senate nominee — but not Scholten.

The Michigan Democratic Party declined to comment. But two people familiar with discussions said Scholten had specifically infuriated state leaders when she spoke out against Biden — on the same day that the president was already visiting Michigan — without informing them of her plans, according to the two people.

The organization responsible for her removal, known as a “coordinated campaign,” is both partly funded by and in close contact with the Biden campaign.

The move to cut ties with Scholten angered fellow Democrats behind the scenes, according to a half dozen House Democrats and campaign operatives, who saw it as retaliation from the top of the ticket for Scholten’s calling for Biden to step aside. It came up in multiple calls and group chats among other at-risk members and their senior aides.

"This decision was made in Wilmington, full stop,” a Democratic operative who's worked on competitive House races said. “Punishing her isn’t just petty and vindictive, it’s self-defeating."

An official for the Biden campaign denied that: “This did not come from Wilmington.”

It’s common for candidates of the same party who are sharing a ticket to pool their resources in what’s known as a “coordinated campaign” focused on the party’s ground game and get-out-the-vote efforts. As a key battleground state, Michigan’s campaign is focused heavily on the presidential race and also includes congressional candidates, among others.

If Scholten had stayed off the coordinated campaign, it would have meant, for example, that when its door knockers traversed West Michigan to pass out campaign literature, they may not have included material for Scholten.

In Michigan, coordinated campaign planning is hashed out at regular meetings, from which Scholten had recently been excluded, according to two people familiar with the dynamics.

A person directly familiar with the situation said Scholten had been uninvited because the meeting included discussion of Biden’s campaign strategy, and the congresswoman no longer backed the Biden ticket. But, this person said, retaining Scholten’s district is essential to Democrats’ chances to win back the House, and she would have still appeared on campaign literature this fall.

Other Democrats have been intensely following the fallout from Scholten’s decision as they other members weigh whether to call for Biden to step aside. So far about twenty lawmakers have publicly opposed the president, and only a handful of them hold seats considered at-risk in the fall. Among them: Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Eric Sorenson (D-Ill.).

Craig also feared retribution from her state’s coordinated campaign after calling for Biden to step aside, according to three people familiar with her thinking.

She told other Democrats that she feared she’d be removed from her state’s coordinated campaign, those people said. Craig was never booted from the campaign, and a Biden campaign official said it was never under consideration. Craig’s office did not immediately comment.

“We have one of the longest-standing coordinated campaigns in the country,” said Ken Martin, the head of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party in Minnesota. “The one thing we don't do is kick people out of the coordinated campaign.”