Biden’s library team has the daunting task of raising money for the 46th president’s legacy project at a moment when his party has become fragmented.
WASHINGTON — Former President Joe Biden has chosen to establish his presidential library in Delaware and has enlisted a team of former aides, friends, and political allies to undertake the significant task of fundraising and selecting a location for the museum and archive.
The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation recently sanctioned a 13-member governance board to lead the initiative. This board comprises individuals like former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, long-serving advisor Steve Ricchetti, notable Democratic fundraiser Rufus Gifford, and others closely associated with the one-term president and his spouse.
Biden’s library team is faced with the challenging endeavor of garnering funds for the 46th president’s legacy at a time when his party is experiencing divisions about future directions, and many prominent Democratic donors have ceased their contributions.
There is also uncertainty over whether corporations and major donors, who traditionally support presidential library initiatives regardless of the former president’s affiliation, will hesitate to contribute since President Donald Trump regularly criticizes Biden and attacks groups perceived as left-leaning.
The political climate has changed
“Certainly, there are individuals — those who may not have previously considered such issues are beginning to do so,” remarked Gifford, appointed as chairman of the library board, to The Associated Press. “Nonetheless … we will not create a budget or set a target that we believe is unattainable.”
The cost of presidential libraries has soared over the decades.
The construction of the George H.W. Bush library cost approximately $43 million upon its 1997 opening. Bill Clinton’s project was about $165 million. George W. Bush’s team achieved its $500 million fundraising target before the library’s dedication.
The Obama Foundation has set a whopping $1.6 billion fundraising goal for construction, sustaining global programming and seeding an endowment for the Chicago presidential center that is slated to open next year.
Biden’s library team is still in the early stages of planning, but Gifford predicted that the cost of the project would probably “end up somewhere in the middle” of the Obama Presidential Center and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Biden advisers have met with officials operating 12 of the 13 presidential libraries with a bricks and mortar presence that the National Archives and Records Administration manages. (They skipped the Herbert Hoover library in Iowa, which is closed for renovations). They’ve also met Obama library officials to discuss programming and location considerations and have begun talks with Delaware leaders to assess potential partnerships.
Private money builds them
Construction and support for programming for the libraries are paid for with private funds donated to the nonprofit organizations established by the former president.
The initial vision is for the Biden library to include an immersive museum detailing Biden’s four years in office.
The Bidens also want it to be a hub for leadership, service and civic engagement that will include educational and event space to host policy gatherings.
Biden, who ended his bid for a second White House term 107 days before last year’s election, has been relatively slow to move on presidential library planning compared with most of his recent predecessors.
Clinton announced Little Rock, Arkansas, would host his library weeks into his second term. Barack Obama selected Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side as the site for his presidential center before he left office, and George W. Bush selected Southern Methodist University in Dallas before finishing his second term.
One-termer George H.W. Bush announced in 1991, more than a year before he would lose his reelection bid, that he would establish his presidential library at Texas A&M University after he left office.
Trump taps legal settlements for his
Trump was mostly quiet about plans for a presidential library after losing to Biden in 2020 and has remained so since his return to the White House this year. But the Republican has won millions of dollars in lawsuits against Paramount Global, ABC News, Meta and X in which parts of those settlements are directed for a future Trump library.
Trump has also accepted a free Air Force One replacement from the Qatar government. He says the $400 million plane would be donated to his future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and put on display as a museum piece, once he leaves office.
Others named to Biden’s library board are former senior White House aides Elizabeth Alexander, Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón and Cedric Richmond; David Cohen, a former ambassador to Canada and telecom executive; Tatiana Brandt Copeland, a Delaware philanthropist; Jeff Peck, Biden Foundation treasurer and former Senate aide; Fred C. Sears II, Biden’s longtime friend; former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; former Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young; and former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell.
Biden has deep ties to Pennsylvania but ultimately settled on Delaware, the state that was the launching pad for his political career. He was first elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and spent 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate before serving as Obama’s vice president.
The president was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he lived until age 10. He left when his father, struggling to make ends meet, moved the family to Delaware after landing a job there selling cars.
Working-class Scranton became a touchstone in Biden’s political narrative during his long political career. He also served as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania after his vice presidency, leading a center on diplomacy and global engagement at the school named after him.
Gifford said ultimately the Bidens felt that Delaware was where the library should be because the state has “propelled his entire political career.”
Elected officials in Delaware are cheering Biden’s move.
“To Delaware, he will always be our favorite son,” Gov. Matt Meyer said. “The new presidential library here in Delaware will give future generations the chance to see his story of resilience, family, and never forgetting your roots.”
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