Biden launches fundraising to build presidential library in Delaware

Washington – Former president Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in Delaware and has tapped a group of former assistants, friends and political allies to start with the heavy lift of fundraising and finding a site for the museum and the archive.

De Joe and Jill Biden Foundation approved a 13-person administration of the Governance last week, which is responsible for managing the project. The board includes the former State Secretary Antony flashesold advisor Steve Ricchetti, Productive Democratic fundraising Rufus Gifford and others with deep ties with the chairman of one term and his wife.

The Biden library team has the discouraging task of raising money for the Legacy project of the 46th president at a time when his party has become fragmented about the way ahead and many Great democratic donors have stopped writing checks.

It is also to be seen whether companies and institutional donors who have donated historically Presidential library projects – Regardless of the party of the former president – will be hesitant to contribute, with president Donald TrumpBides malignant On a daily primary and rescue groups, he considers leaning on the left.

“There are certainly people – people who may not have thought about those kinds of issues who are starting to think about them,” said Gifford, who was appointed chairman of the Library Board, to The Associated Press. “That said … we are not going to create a budget, we are not going to set a goal for ourselves that we cannot believe that we can touch.”

The costs of presidential libraries have risen in recent decades.

The construction costs of the George HW Bush library amounted to around $ 43 million when it was opened in 1997. The costs of Bill Clinton cost around $ 165 million. The George W. Bush team came across his $ 500 million fundraising goal before the library was dedicated.

The Obama Foundation has been established no less than $ 1.6 billion fundraising goal For construction, supporting global programming and sowing a donation for the Chicago Presidential Center that is planned to open next year.

The Biden library team is still in the early stages of planning, but Gifford predicted that the costs of the project would probably end “somewhere in the middle” of the Obama Presidential Center and the George HW Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

Biden Advisers have met civil servants who operate 12 out of 13 presidential libraries with a presence of bricks and Mortier who manages the National Archives and Records Administration. (They have skipped the Herbert Hoover library in Iowa, which is closed for renovations). They have also met Obama library officials to discuss programming and location considerations and started discussions with Delaware leaders to assess potential partnerships.

Construction and support for programming for the libraries are paid with private funds donated to the non -profit organizations founded by the former president.

The first vision is that the Biden Library includes a compelling museum that describes the four years in function of Biden.

The bid also want it to be a hub for leadership, service and civic involvement that include educational and event space to organize policy meetings.

Biden, who ended his bid for a second term of the White House 107 days before last year’s elections, has been relatively slow to go with the planning of the presidential library compared to most of his recent predecessors.

Clinton announced that Little Rock, Arkansas, would organize his library for weeks in his second term. Barack Obama selected Jackson Park on the south side of Chicago as the site for his presidential center before leaving the office, and George W. Bush selected Southern Methodist University in Dallas before completing his second term.

One-man George HW Bush announced in 1991, more than a year before he losing his re-election offer that he would establish his presidential library in Texas&M University after he left the office.

Trump was usually quiet Plans for a presidential library After losing Biden in 2020 and has stayed since his return to the White House this year. But the Republican has won millions of dollars in lawsuits against Paramount Global” ABC NewsMeta and X in which parts of those settlements are aimed at a future Trump library.

Trump has also accepted a free Air Force One replacement from the government of Qatar. He says that the $ 400 million plane would be served to his future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was kept out of use and shown as a museum piece as soon as he leaves the office.

Others named after the Biden library board are former senior white house assistants Elizabeth Alexander, Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón and Cedric Richmond; David Cohen, a former ambassador in Canada and Telecom Executive; Tatiana Brandt Copeland, a philanthropist in Delaware; Jeff Peck, treasurer of Biden Foundation and former assistant of the Senate; Fred C. Sears II, the old friend of Biden; former labor secretary Marty Walsh; Former Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young; and former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell.

Biden has deep ties with Pennsylvania, but eventually settled on Delaware, the state that was the launch platform for his political career. He was first chosen in the New Castle County Council in 1970 and spent 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate before he served as vice president of Obama.

The president was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Where he lived until the age of 10. He left when his father, who had trouble making ends meet, moved to Delaware after landing a job there selling cars.

Working-class Scranton became a touchstone in the political story of Biden during his long political career. He also served as a professor to the University of Pennsylvania After his vice -presidency, leading a center about diplomacy and global involvement in the school named after him.

Gifford said that the bidens eventually thought that Delaware was where the library should be because the state “pushed his entire political career.”

Elected officials in Delaware cheer the step of Biden.

“For Delaware he will always be our favorite son,” said Gov. Matt Meyer. “The new presidential library here in Delaware gives future generations the chance to forget his story about resilience, family and never to forget your roots.”