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Friday, Jan 16, 2026

Grandma's Encounter with Biden: One Woman's Persuasive Story of Survival and Affordable Care Act

Grandma's Encounter with Biden: One Woman's Persuasive Story of Survival and Affordable Care Act

Andrea Dyess, 57, from Racine, Wisconsin, is a strong supporter of Joe Biden after meeting him in May. While trying to catch a glimpse of Biden's motorcade with her grandchildren, a campaign worker invited her to join the president at a community center.
Dyess shared her cancer survival story with Biden, who helped push the Affordable Care Act as Barack Obama's vice president.

She expressed her support for Biden's re-election and has since shared her experience with numerous friends, family, and even urged young people to register to vote.

Campaign officials describe a recent encounter between President Joe Biden and voters as representative of his "retail" politician style, which involves one-on-one interactions, shoulder thumps, hugs, and even FaceTime calls to moms.

This approach contrasts with Donald Trump's mass rallies, which feature stagecraft, classic rock, anti-immigration rhetoric, and predominantly white audiences.

Biden's smaller, more diverse events are arranged with invitation-only audiences and kept private to avoid protests.

Biden, 81, has spent decades perfecting this personal approach, preferring it over large speeches.

The Biden campaign is using a multi-pronged approach to boost his approval ratings and win voter support in the upcoming midterm elections.

This strategy includes celebrity endorsements, political surrogates, traditional ads, and official events to highlight Biden's policies on NATO, infrastructure funding, and other key issues.

However, the campaign is facing pressure as Biden's approval ratings have dipped to near two-year lows, despite strong economic growth and stock market highs.

Voters are reportedly concerned about higher prices and are not fully aware of Biden's efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and other essentials or his support for unions fighting for higher wages.

The campaign officials believe that US media is too fragmented to effectively reach voters on these issues.

The Biden campaign is reaching out to various networks, including friends, surrogates, small businesses, podcasts, and TikTok stars, to discuss issues and policies in an effort to win over millions of Americans in the November elections.

According to pollster Charles Franklin, these smaller events are more effective for Biden as he doesn't have the same level of support or "groupies" as Trump.

Republicans, on the other hand, criticize Biden's lack of large rallies as evidence of his physical and political fragility, and describe his campaign events as small and boring.

Trump's campaign, in contrast, plans to continue holding larger and better events.

The Biden campaign identifies local people with specific issues aligned with his policies or demographics he wants to reach, invites them to meet Biden, films the interactions for YouTube videos and campaign ads, and encourages participants to make their own social media posts.

These interactions aim to go viral and reach more voters.

Ben Wikler, head of Wisconsin's Democratic Party, explains that the goal is not just to create a perfect setting but also to ensure that the interactions are shared beyond the room.

An example is Biden's meeting with 9-year-old Harry Abramson in Milwaukee, who wrote to Biden about his stutter.

President Joe Biden, who stuttered as a child, shared his strategy for dealing with difficult words during a visit to a North Carolina family's home.

The interaction was captured on video and went viral after being shared on social media platforms like TikTok, Reddit, and TV stations.

One Reddit user jokingly commented, "Imagine telling your friends you got speech lessons from the president of the United States." The visit was part of Biden's "kitchen table" series where he meets with regular families in swing states.

The teenage son of the family, Christian Fitts, posted a video of the interaction on TikTok, which received over one million likes and thousands of comments, leading to millions more views.

A comment about President Joe Biden standing at the fridge went viral on social media with nearly 50,000 likes, expressing skepticism rather than endorsement.

Tracking the digital impact of such strategies is challenging due to the limitations of new tools for TikTok content, the privacy of most Facebook posts, and the uncertainty of voter intentions.

Teddy Goff, co-founder of marketing firm Precision Strategies, views smaller events as a smart move, as they are more likely to receive local media coverage and reach a larger audience than a Trump rally with a smaller turnout.

The text discusses the unpredictability of relying on individuals to spread the Biden message through their social media.

Sheree Robinson, a Black mother of five from Racine who received help from Biden's American Rescue Plan to earn her High School Equivalency Diploma, was invited to ride in Biden's limousine during his May Wisconsin visit.

She posted a video on Facebook showing her with Biden, using an obscenity to promote herself, but later called into a local radio program to share a positive experience and promote Biden's policy.

The Wisconsin Democratic party is using her story in digital ads.

The text also mentions that social media tends to focus on negative or awkward moments rather than positive ones.

The Democratic presidential campaign of Joe Biden is significantly outspending incumbent Republican Donald Trump's campaign on digital media advertising in Wisconsin, according to an analysis by Priorities USA.

Biden's campaign has spent $2.2 million on digital ads in Wisconsin since January, while Trump's campaign has only spent $1,500.

However, a compilation of Wisconsin polls by FiveThirtyEight currently shows Trump with a slight lead in the state.
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