For Julie Chávez Rodríguez, public service is the family business. 

The campaign manager for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' reelection campaign is the granddaughter of Cesar Chávez, the labor movement icon who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which is now the United Farm Workers labor union. At age 9, she was arrested “while exercising her First Amendment right while providing consumer information on pesticides.”

"My parents were both organizers with United Farm Workers, and so we lived throughout the state [of California],” said Chávez Rodríguez of her upbringing in an interview with Spectrum News.

“To be able to experience that as a young person, but also as part of a broader movement to improve the lives of the individuals that put food on our table … it's who I am, it's in my blood, it's definitely in my bones."

Now Chávez Rodríguez faces perhaps her biggest challenge: getting President Joe Biden re-elected in 2024. 

It’s her first time leading a national campaign, though it’s not her first foray into Biden world; Chávez Rodríguez served as deputy campaign manager for the president’s 2020 campaign, and went on to serve in the administration as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

“I had the responsibility of liaising with all 50 governors, every single mayor in this country, every county official, Attorney General,” said Chávez Rodríguez, who helped to direct American Rescue Plan funding and resources to state, local, and tribal governments.

Not only is it her first time leading a national campaign, but it’s the first time a Latina has held the position for an incumbent president, breaking barriers for the next generation of politicos in a role that has been dominated by white men.

“I have so much pride in both my lived experience and what it affords me now as the campaign manager for the Biden Harris reelect, and what that means for young people and young Latinos across this country,” she said. “I hope that in me, they see themselves, they see the power and potential that they have to continue to impact the world around them.” 

“I hope that in sort of me, and in my experience, they see sort of the attitude that I grew up with the sí que puedo attitude that yes, it can be done.”

Latino voters helped send Biden to the White House in 2020, but recent polls, such as a New York Times / Siena College poll from September, showed declining support for Biden from Latino and Black voters. But Chávez Rodríguez says the campaign is not going to take a single vote for granted.

“We're gonna continue to be aggressive in our outreach to Latino voters and remind them that President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to deliver and continue to fight for Latino families, and that the alternative and the choice that they have before them is between a President and the Vice President that are choosing to invest in Latinos and their families in their community, or, the Republican field that's continuing to demonize our community, that's continuing to attack things like affordable health care and social security that our hardworking Latinos have paid into throughout their lifetimes.”

In late September, the campaign launched an ad in battleground stated called "The Difference," or “La Diferencia,” trying to contrast the difference between Biden and his Republican competitors in the 30 second spot. Chávez Rodríguez pointed out during our interview they were already reaching out to voters via the ad.

“It's in English, it's in Spanish," she said. "It's in Spanglish because we know there's a lot of young Latino voters that do identify with the bicultural bilingual experience.”

With the election just over a year away, Chávez Rodríguez says Biden will hit the campaign trail in the next few months in a more traditional sense than he was able to in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think the important part of a reelection campaign is that the president continues to be President of the United States and ensure that he is addressing all of the duties and responsibilities that come with that,” she said, citing his “steady leadership, the experience that Joe Biden brings to the table, as President of the United States is so critical,” during the ongoing global crises such as the wars in Israel and Ukraine. 

While the Republican field continues to narrow as we draw closer to the primary election season, a consistent frontrunner has remained: former President Donald Trump. Despite facing four indictments at the federal and state level in recent months, most polls have Trump either neck and neck or just behind Biden in a 2024 rematch. The campaign tells Spectrum News they aren’t putting much stock in the polls.

“Our campaign is really focused on a couple of core imperatives right now: one, making sure that the American public knows and understands the important accomplishments that President Biden and Vice President Harris have really put forward for the American people,” Chávez Rodríguez said. “What we're seeing from this kind of extreme Republican agenda is one that voters have rejected time and time again. So while we know polls are a snapshot in time, we also know that Democrats are continuing to show up at the polls that matter, and that's Election Day.”

When we followed up and asked whether those surveys right now concerned her, Chávez Rodríguez said that they're "looking at a lot of factors" beyond polling.

"When we look at really where there is critical support for the President's agenda, we look at things like the Inflation Reduction Act that has over 70% of Americans, not just Democrats, supporting the provisions that have been outlined,” she said. “We look at things like lowering the cost of prescription drugs, I think it's something like 90% of Americans support that because ... they know that that impacts their daily lives, and that's what they're focused on."

"Voters right now are smart," she continued. "They're focused on things that impact their lives. They're focused on ways in which we can lower their costs, and ways in which we can create more jobs on ways in which we can continue to invest in small businesses and create opportunities through education. Those are the things that they care about.”

While Republicans faced weeks of chaos on Capitol Hill trying to elect a House Speaker and the GOP presidential candidates continue to duke it out in the early primary states, Chávez Rodríguez suggested Democrats are “more united” than she has ever seen.

“While Republicans continue to try to out-extreme one another in their race for the MAGA base, we're going to continue to build our coalition and strengthen and unify as Democrats in ways that is going to ensure again we have what we need and what it's going to take to win next year.”