Biden sets up new political action committee, signaling a possible 2020 White House run

Declaring “it’s time for big dreams,” former vice president Joe Biden is prepared to launch a new political action committee on Thursday, a move certain to stoke more speculation about whether he plans to mount a 2020 challenge to President Donald Trump.

The new PAC, dubbed American Possibilities, is being set up to help elect candidates who, like Biden, still believe in a nation “of ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” according to an email the Democrat plans to send to supporters.

“That’s who we still are,” Biden says in the email, in which he relays that the PAC will also support groups and causes that embody the same spirit of thinking big.

Biden has tapped Greg Schultz, a former aide in his vice presidential office and a veteran of President Barack Obama’s White House campaigns, to lead the new entity.

The use of such leadership PACs are a common tactic for politicians contemplating White House bids down the road. They provide a vehicle to get involved in state and local races and build relationships in key states before the race for the presidential race begins in earnest.

Biden was pushed by close allies several times in his second term as vice president to set up a leadership PAC but resisted. He eventually took a pass on the race to succeed Obama, saying it was too soon after the death of Biden’s son, Beau, from cancer.

Biden, 74, has continued to insist publicly he has no plans to run in 2020, even as he visited the early primary state of New Hampshire last month.