Joseph R. Biden Jr. rolled into Benton Harbor, Mich., three weeks before the November election, in the midst of his bid to reclaim the Midwest for the Democrats. He took the stage at Lake Michigan College as Rep. Fred Upton, a longtime Republican from the district, faced the toughest race of his career.
But Mr. Biden was not there to denounce Mr. Upton. Instead, he collected $200,000 from the Economic Club of Southwest Michigan to address a Republican-leaning audience, according to a speaking contract obtained by The New York Times and interviews with organizers. The group, an entrepreneurial civic organization, is supported in part by an Upton family foundation.
Mr. Biden stunned Democrats and excited Republicans by praising Mr. Upton as the lawmaker looked on from the audience. Referring to Mr. Upton's support for a landmark medical research law, Mr. Biden called him a champion in the fight against cancer — and “one of the best guys I've ever worked with.”
Mr. Biden's remarks, made amid a wide-ranging debate about American politics, quickly appeared in Republican advertising. The local Democratic Party pleaded with Mr. Biden to fix what it saw as a damaging mistake, to no avail. On November 6, Mr. Upton defeated his Democratic challenger by four and a half percentage points.
As Mr. Biden considers a run for the presidency in 2020, the episode underscores his potential vulnerabilities in a race for the Democratic nomination and raises questions about his judgment as a party leader. Mr. Biden has sought to strike a balance since leaving office, portraying himself as a unifying politician who could topple President Trump while also working to amass a modest multimillion-dollar fortune.
But Mr. Biden's appearance in Michigan clearly put his lucrative personal activities at odds with what some Democrats see as his duty to the party, linking him to a civic group seen as leaning to the right and undermining Democrats' effort to beat Mr. Upton. a powerful lawmaker who in 2017 helped write a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Eric Lester, a retired doctor who chaired the Democratic Party in Berrien County, Mich., said he viewed Mr. Biden's supportive comments about Mr. Upton as a betrayal. Mr. Lester, who attended the speech, said he confronted an aide to Mr. Biden in the aisle, telling him that the former vice president had seriously damaged the Democratic cause.
“It just gives Fred Upton cover and allows him to continue to pretend that he's helpful, bipartisan,” Mr. Lester said, adding: “I came into the room with positive feelings about Mr. Biden, and I was very disappointed. .”
Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist and veteran of several presidential campaigns, said it's an open question whether the party's voters will punish candidates they see as too friendly or cooperative with Republicans. He suggested this could be one of the defining pressures on Mr Biden if he announces his candidacy.
“I really think the country doesn't want to be at war with each other,” Mr Trippi said. “But there's also the polarization, where people say: Damn it, I want to fight.”
Several people involved in planning the event said Mr. Upton, 65, had no role in organizing Biden's appearance, and Mr. Upton said he was not involved. There is no evidence that Mr. Biden was motivated to praise the lawmaker by anything other than sincere admiration, stemming from Mr. Upton's role in crafting the 21st Century Cures Act after the death of his oldest son. Biden, Bo, from cancer in 2015.
Bill Russo, Mr. Biden's spokesman, said the research funding legislation was the foundation of Mr. Biden's relationship with Mr. Upton.
“It was one of the few bipartisan bills passed in an otherwise deeply divided and deadlocked Congress,” Mr. Russo said. “Vice President Biden believes at his core that you can disagree politically on many things and still work together in good faith on issues of common purpose — like funding cancer research.”
As for Mr. Biden's decision not to endorse Mr. Upton's Democratic challenger, Matt Longjohn, Mr. Russo said the former vice president “received hundreds of endorsement requests from across the country and endorsed in 135 races this cycle where its impact could be greater. .”
Since leaving office, Mr. Biden has sought opportunities to earn significant income — mainly through paid speaking engagements and a multimillion-dollar book deal — and his new fortune would be closely scrutinized in a presidential race. Mindful of Hillary Clinton's stumbles in the 2016 presidential race, Mr. Biden has sought to set guidelines for his activities that would minimize any political sensitivity, refusing to give paid speeches to major banks or accept foreign contributions to various nonprofits. organizations it controls.
Mr. Biden has continued to do business while he is in the final stages of deciding on 2020. He is scheduled to give a speech in Grand Prairie, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, on Thursday as part of an extensive tour to promote the book 2017's “Promise Me, Dad.”
The speaking contract for Mr. Biden's October appearance in Michigan suggests the popular Democrat would have known he was appealing to a Republican-leaning crowd. The speaking series was commissioned in part by organizations connected to Mr. Upton's family: Among the biggest donors listed on the Economic Club's website are the Whirlpool Corporation, which was co-founded by Mr. Upton's grandfather, and the Frederick S Foundation .Upton. a family charity named for the same man.
The contract for Mr. Biden's visit shows he was paid $200,000 for his appearance, including a $150,000 speaking fee and a $50,000 travel allowance. It also clarifies that the audience will be “predominantly older, conservative Republicans and members of the local community.” The document was revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request filed by America Rising, a Republican group that conducts research on Democratic candidates.
It is unclear whether the fees Mr. Biden received in this case are typical of all his speeches. Aides to Mr. Biden declined to confirm what his rates are for paid appearances, including the appearance in Michigan, or how much he has earned from paid speaking engagements since leaving office. On at least one occasion, his speaking agency, Creative Artists Agency, offered a discounted rate of $100,000, plus travel expenses, to the University of Utah.
If Mr. Biden were to charge a similar range of fees for all of his comparable speaking engagements since leaving office, he likely would have collected $4 million to $5 million through speaking engagements over the past two years.
Representatives of Lake Michigan College, which recently took over the running of the Economic Club speaker series, and the Fredrick S. Upton Foundation confirmed that the Upton organization was a major sponsor of the series. Both organizations said Mr. Upton had no role in proposing or selecting the speakers. Lisa Cripps-Downey, president of the Berrien Community Foundation, a nonprofit managed by the Frederick S. Upton Foundation, confirmed that the organization had provided significant funding to the Economic Club, with an annual grant of $80,000 over the past three years — a total of close to a quarter of a million dollars.
“When we see the speakers, we're as surprised as everyone else,” Ms Cripps-Downey said.
Mr. Russo said Mr. Biden's team was aware that the Frederick S. Upton Foundation helped fund the Finance Club. He said Biden aides had reviewed funding sources for the speech series and concluded they met his standards.
Mr. Upton, who confirmed in a statement that he attended Mr. Biden's speech at Lake Michigan College, said he had “no idea” that Mr. Biden would refer to him at all, let alone so favorably. The two men met briefly at the venue before Mr. Biden's speech and agreed to continue to discuss the implementation of the Medical Research Act, an aide to Mr. Upton said.
“Being in the audience with my family and hearing Vice President Biden refer to our work was a tremendous honor,” Mr. Upton said. “He was warmly received by everyone in attendance who were excited to have him there, myself included.”
For campus speeches, Mr. Biden refuses to let schools pay him with funds from the government or from additional tuition charged to students — requirements that appear to be met in this case.
Candice Elders, a spokeswoman for Lake Michigan College, said funding for the lecture series there “comes from private sources through ticket sales, memberships, contributions, grants, sponsorships and event revenue.” He said the grant from the Frederick S. Upton Foundation is part of a fund designed to cover any difference between speaker series expenses and event revenue. Ms. Elders estimated that the Upton grant makes up about 11 percent of the show's budget.
Ms. Elders said no public money was used for the event and that Mr. Biden spoke to a group that included several hundred college and high school students while on campus. “Youth from area schools and non-profit organizations are regularly invited to attend Finance Club events at no cost,” Ms Presbyteroi said.
The biggest impact of Mr. Biden's speech, however, was outside the lecture hall. His remarks about Mr. Upton were released through Michigan's Sixth Congressional District. Mr. Upton referred to Mr. Biden's praise in a conversation with Mr. Longjohn the next day, and the campaign sent him a mailer that highlighted Mr. Upton's bipartisan streak, including describing Mr. Biden as a “ the reason he's going to beat cancer.”
A business-backed Republican group, Defending Main Street, ran digital Facebook ads showing a smiling Mr. Biden and the crucial quote — “Fred Upton is one of the best guys I've ever worked with” — above from a parody of the former vice president's signature.
Mr. Lester, the local Democratic chairman, said he tried to limit the damage. In an email to Mr. Biden's staff, Mr. Lester pleaded with the former vice president to endorse Mr. Longzon: “Certainly Vice President Biden did not intend to endorse Mr. Upton and disparage the local Democratic candidate here.” He wrote.
Mr. Longjohn, the former national health director of the YMCA, said in an interview that he was disappointed to see Mr. Biden “slapping Mr. Upton on the back in a political establishment way.” He said his campaign had contacted Mr. Biden's staff through an intermediary seeking to discuss his entry into the race.
“There was nothing but silence,” Mr. Longson said. “We just asked for a phone call and there was no answer.”
