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Seeking the limelight, Biden courts key Dem groups

President Barack Obama embraces Vice President Joe Biden, right, before signing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, bipartisan job-training legislation which aims to help job seekers gain valuable employment skills, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) President Barack Obama embraces Vice President Joe Biden, right, before signing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, bipartisan job-training legislation which aims to help job seekers gain valuable employment skills, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

By Associated Press July 22, 2014 1 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Caught in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s perpetual shadow, Vice President Joe Biden is working to boost his political profile among key Democratic voting blocs.

It’s a move that could help Biden fashion himself as a more liberal alternative in the 2016 presidential race.

Major speeches this week to the NAACP and the Urban League will give Biden prime opportunities to court African-American voters. He’ll do his part to help Democrats in the battleground state of Nevada when he campaigns Wednesday for House candidate Erin Bilbray. And last week, Biden wooed liberal activists at a pair of grassroots summits, where some chanted “We love Joe” as he left the stage.

Like Clinton, Biden hasn’t said whether he will run for president in 2016, but he says he plans to consider it.