Maura Healey should invite Biden to a Boston rally, as other Democrats run away

Maura Healey ought to show some true grit and invite Joe Biden to a “We Love You, Joe” rally in Boston.

While Democrat candidates elsewhere in the nation are distancing themselves from the troubled president, who has cratered in the polls, Healey, the Democrat candidate for governor, could give Biden a boost.

And, with close to 90% of the people believing that the country is on the wrong track, Biden could use a helping hand, especially coming from Massachusetts Democrats who have strongly supported him in the past.

Healey, the two-term attorney general, is running unopposed in the Democrat primary and is a heavy favorite to win the governor’s office in the November election. She has been a strong Biden supporter and in heavily Democrat, progressive Massachusetts has little to lose — and a lot to gain — in hosting an event or a rally for Biden.

She would have to sponsor a presidential visit on her own. She could easily get people like former Massachusetts U.S. Sen. John Kerry, now Biden’s climate change czar, and former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Biden’s Secretary of Labor, to pitch in. Both owe Biden for their jobs, and both have campaigned in Boston and in the state extensively in the past.

All the state’s nine Democrat members of the U.S. House could also play a role in a Biden visit. All nine support Biden, as do U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Eddie Markey.

A warm reception for Biden could help the Democrats in the upcoming Congressional elections as well. Should the Republicans win control of the House in the 2022 election, all nine members of the House will lose their appointed House committee positions, including Springfield Rep. Ritchie Neal, the chairman of the important House Ways and Means Committee.

Democrats could also prevail on Barack Obama, Biden’s former boss, to attend a Boston rally for Biden. While he may not be a registered Massachusetts voter, he is a resident with a $14 million waterfront estate on Martha’s Vineyard.

Ordinarily it is a president who sweeps into a state to give a candidate for governor or Congress support through political rallies and fundraising. In Biden’s case the opposite is true. The candidates are not running toward Biden, they are running away from him.

The latest case in point is Biden’s trip to Ohio last week for a speech in Cleveland. Democrats running for statewide office not only ignored his arrival and speech, but they were also nowhere to be found.

Ohio U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, running for the U.S. Senate, and Nan Whaley, running for governor, snubbed Biden by finding other places to be during Biden’s visit. And it was not the first time Democrats have distanced themselves from Biden in Ohio. They also ignored his visit to the state when he toured a manufacturing plant in Cincinnati in May and again in February when he gave a speech in Lorain on infrastructure.

In January, progressive Democrat Stacey Abrams, running for governor in Georgia, failed to appear at a Biden speech in Atlanta, as did other Democrat candidates. Abrams, like the others, claimed a scheduling conflict. Some observers nodded at that, some winced, others smirked.

Still, nothing stops Biden. He has been campaigning for office for close to 50 years. He can’t stop. According to his new press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, who said en route to Ohio, “He will go wherever he needs to go to talk directly with the American people.”