Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producer Raymond Rapada. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren LEAH HUNT-HENDRIX, like other Democrats, is worried about President JOE BIDEN’s chances against DONALD TRUMP. The co-founder of Way to Win, a network of progressive donors that has spent tens of millions of dollars in recent elections, has seen the polls. Key parts of the Democratic base are turned off by Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and want a ceasefire in the Middle East. So she’s getting behind an unconventional solution: a new effort by progressives to persuade voters to write in “Ceasefire” on their ballots next week in New Hampshire’s unsanctioned presidential primary. “Biden is alienating a majority of his own party right now over his backing of Israel’s war in Gaza,” she said. “He needs to earn back support from Democrats so that we don’t lose to Trump in November.” On Wednesday, activists officially kicked off the campaign, which they described as a “spontaneous” grassroots effort loosely made up of hundreds of people across the country — and growing fast. They said they have reached out to New Hampshire voters by phone and via text. They have lawn signs that say, “WRITE-IN: CEASEFIRE” with their website address. They haven’t formed a PAC yet, but they might. The project has no chance of gaining majority support. It has few followers on social media and is getting off the ground mere days before New Hampshire’s primary. It’s also dwarfed by a parallel effort to push voters to write in Biden’s name after he left himself off the ballot (more on that in a bit). Nevertheless, the actual existence of this movement is another sign of discontent over Biden’s Israel policy. It also is an implicit indictment of the campaigns being waged by Biden’s Democratic opponents, Rep. DEAN PHILLIPS (D-Minn.) and self-help author MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, both of whom have failed to gain traction among voters, even as many of them are galvanized by anti-war sentiment. For months, progressives have tried to force a reckoning in the Biden administration over the war. In fact, some of the same people behind the write-in effort previously tried, unsuccessfully, to convince former Rep. ANDY LEVIN (D-Mich.) to run against Biden as an anti-war presidential candidate. ANDRU VOLINSKY, who served two terms on New Hampshire’s executive council, first proposed the idea in a letter to the editor in the Concord Monitor last month. Prospective voters have since reached out to him, he said, intrigued by the idea. But he claimed other Democrats, who instead want voters to write in Biden’s name, are miffed. “I can tell from my personal interactions that people are paying attention,” said Volinksy, BERNIE SANDERS’ New Hampshire legal counsel in 2016, adding that some of his friends who are working on the Biden write-in effort have asked him to “be quiet.” “So I am feeling that there’s some traction to this effort to make our voices heard,” he said. At Biden’s behest, the Democratic National Committee changed the presidential nominating calendar, replacing the Granite State with the more diverse South Carolina in the No. 1 primary spot on Feb. 3. But New Hampshire is holding its primary first anyway, on Jan. 23, in violation of the DNC rules. No delegates will be rewarded to the Democratic winner in New Hampshire. Still, some Biden critics are trying to capitalize on the situation. Phillips has staked his primary campaign against Biden on a stronger-than-expected performance there. Biden’s allies in New Hampshire are encouraging voters to write in his name, and they have formed a super PAC and grassroots group to spread the word. Though he is expected to win New Hampshire, Biden’s performance in the state will be scrutinized for signs of weakness in his base. “The choice in this election is between democracy and dictatorship. What we hear from our volunteers every day is that they are committed to writing in Joe Biden because he is the only candidate who will always stand up to Donald Trump and will defeat him once again,” said “Write-In Biden” spokesperson AARON JACOBS. “Our votes here in N.H. matter, and writing in Joe Biden on Tuesday is the first step in stopping Donald Trump in 2024.” Organizers of the ceasefire write-in campaign said the effort isn’t about opposing Biden’s reelection, like the national #AbandonBiden campaign launched by Muslim leaders in December. Instead, Volinsky said the goal is to use the first-in-the-nation primary to send a message to the president. “This is not the U.N. The administration cannot direct a veto of my vote. I intend to use my vote in as powerful a way as I can,” he said. “The president is not on my ballot. I’m not voting for an alternative person. I’m not staying home. I’m going in, and I’m going to make my feelings known by writing in ‘ceasefire.’” MESSAGE US — Are you a NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER PLANNING TO WRITE IN “CEASEFIRE?” We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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