First Lady Jill Biden will travel to 2024 presidential battleground states over the next two weeks to aid the White House’s effort to promote “Bidenomics.”
(Bloomberg) — First Lady Jill Biden will travel to 2024 presidential battleground states over the next two weeks to aid the White House’s effort to promote “Bidenomics.”
Biden will visit Augusta, Georgia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Columbus in increasingly Republican-leaning Ohio to tout the president’s Investing in America agenda, according to a White House official.
Georgia and Pennsylvania — two states President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020 — are seen as potentially pivotal to the success of his reelection bid.
The three cities on the tour are among five so-called “workforce hubs” the White House has spotlighted as part of its effort to show the president’s agenda is helping middle class Americans as Biden’s campaign heats up.
The first lady will also speak to the National Governors Association about local workforce improvement efforts at the group’s summer meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey, said the official, who shared details of the travel plans that have not been publicly released. The visits signal Jill Biden is taking on a more public role on an issue central to Biden’s reelection as 2024 draws closer.
Read more: Jill Biden Poised for Higher 2024 Profile With ‘Gut Check’ Role
Her tour follows a series of speeches by the president around the country in recent weeks outlining different areas of “Bidenomics,” a term originally applied derisively by Republicans that the White House is looking to reclaim. Beginning with a June 28 speech in Chicago, Biden has contrasted his economic agenda with the small-government philosophy Republicans have espoused for decades, seeking to persuade skeptical voters the economy is thriving.
The speeches are the clearest sign yet that Biden, 80, plans to put the economy at the center of his campaign for a second term — which could prove a high-risk strategy. After two years of rapid inflation, Americans are generally unimpressed by the state of their economy, and things could get worse if there’s a recession before election day, as many forecasters expect.
Almost six in 10 Americans said they disapprove of the way Biden has handled inflation and prices, according to a June Economist/YouGov poll — while about half gave him poor marks on jobs and the economy overall.
The workforce hubs are part of the Investing in America initiative, which includes the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Each hub will focus on a key industry, including semiconductor manufacturing, clean energy and transportation improvements.
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