Wilmington: A place to run for president in 2024. What to expect from Biden's headquarters

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that his reelection campaign headquarters will be based in Wilmington, opting for the hometown that kickstarted his political career over the city of Philadelphia that helped him clinch the 2020 election. 

With just over 70,000 people, Wilmington is the smallest city to host a presidential campaign in 30 years – if not longer. The campaign will have a physical presence in downtown Wilmington, with staffers expected to start working out of Delaware as early as next week.

“My family’s values, my eternal optimism and my unwavering belief in the American middle class as our nation's backbone comes from my home – from Delaware,” Biden said in a statement. “That’s why there is no better place for our reelection campaign to have its headquarters. This election will be about standing up for those values." 

Four years ago, Biden’s presidential campaign was based in Philadelphia, a city that was key in delivering his presidential victory in 2020. Yet Wilmington became his informal headquarters with the onset of the pandemic, ultimately leading to Delaware hosting the announcement of Vice President Kamala Harris as Biden’s running mate and later, the Democratic National Convention. 

DELA-WHERE?Wilmington as Biden's 2024 campaign HQ? Here's what staffers will find and should expect.

Presidential candidates often choose their self-identified hometown city as their campaign headquarters. For Hillary Clinton, it was Brooklyn, New York, and with former President Barack Obama, it was Chicago. 

For Biden, it is Wilmington – a city he took the train home to every night when he represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate for decades. Wilmington carries a strong emotional weight for Biden: His political ideology was formed here, and his two children and first wife are buried here.

So far into his presidency, Biden regularly travels home to visit his grandchildren in Wilmington or to his oceanfront home near Rehoboth Beach.

There’s been speculation by national media for months that Wilmington will be the campaign headquarters, with some Democratic operatives grumbling privately about the prospect. 

Kate Bedingfield, former White House communications director for the Biden administration, said Wilmington was discussed as a possible location in 2020.

“It was a very spirited debate between Wilmington and Philadelphia four years ago,” she said, “so it feels very meaningful that he's now going to have the opportunity to headquarter the reelect in Wilmington.”

Yet Delaware’s largest city doesn’t carry the same electoral importance as Philadelphia. In 2024, Pennsylvania is once again seen as a key state to win in order for Biden to remain in the White House. 

The president will visit Philadelphia on Thursday, the sixth time since 2021, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

“Having the campaign headquartered in Wilmington,” Bedingfield said, “is reinforcing a really fundamental piece of what the president believes that public service is all about, which is … serving the families that he raised his kids alongside in Wilmington, Delaware.”

U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a co-chair of the reelection campaign, said in a brief interview that Delaware “represents all of America.”

“We're urban, we’re suburban, we’re rural, coastal,” Blunt Rochester said. “We have demographics that mirror the country.”

“Pennsylvania is still important; it's his birthplace,” she added. “And it's right up the road.”