President Biden is making his third trip to Pennsylvania in less than a week and is returning just two days after his predecessor, Donald Trump, held a rally there — highlighting the importance of the battleground state to both parties as Labor Day kicks off the nine-week countdown to crucial midterm elections.
Mr. Trump spoke Saturday evening in Wilkes-Barre, which is close to Scranton, where Mr. Biden was born. Last week, the president traveled to Wilkes-Barre to address raising money for police, condemn GOP criticism of the FBI following the raid on Trump’s Florida estate, and argue that new bipartisan gun safety laws can help cut violent crime.
Two days later, Mr. Biden delivered a prime-time address at Independence Hall in Philadelphia condemning the “extremism” of Trump’s most ardent supporters. On Monday, he will celebrate Labor Day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, another critical swing state, before flying to Pittsburgh for its celebration.
According to the White House, Biden will honor “the dignity of American workers.” Labor Day generally marks the beginning of political crunch time, with candidates scrambling to excite voters prior to Election Day on November 8. On that date, control of the House and Senate, as well as a number of the nation’s most prominent governorships, will be determined.
Trump has endorsed candidates in critical races around the country, and Biden warns that some Republicans now believe in Trumpism so deeply that they are willing to sacrifice fundamental American ideals in order to promote it. The president stated on Thursday that the midterm elections will be a war “for the soul of the nation,” the same slogan he used to win the 2020 presidential race, and that “blind loyalty to a single leader and a propensity to participate in political violence are destructive to democracy.”
Mr. Biden stated in that speech, “MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy,” alluding to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan and citing events such as the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol from last year.
Trump stated during his rally on Saturday that Biden’s speech in Philadelphia was “the most violent, racist, and divisive ever delivered by an American president.”
The former president declared, “He is a state enemy.”
On Monday, Mr. Biden will return to a central theme of his 2020 campaign, namely that labor unions bolstered the middle class, which in turn established and enhanced contemporary American society.
Mr. Biden was able to overcome terrible early results in Iowa and New Hampshire and ultimately win the Democratic nomination and the White House due to the support of significant labor organizations. Since then, he has continued to praise labor unions, despite the fact that many voters without college degrees, particularly from the working class, remain Trump’s most loyal followers.
Mary Kay Henry, president of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, deemed Mr. Biden’s support for unions ahead of midterm elections “crucial” and stated that the labor movement must “organize in battlegrounds around the country to guarantee that working people vote.”
Henry stated, “We’re ecstatic that the president spoke directly to workers about how, if given the chance, he would join a union.” She went on: “This president has made his position clear. And he supports the working class. This is quite significant.”
Mr. Biden has a personal connection to the nation’s largest Labor Day parade, which takes place in Pittsburgh. He attended as vice president in 2015 and then returned in 2018. Both times, Biden, now 79, was asked if he would run for president in forthcoming elections; he chose not to in 2016 and then won the presidency in 2020.
This year, the oldest president in U.S. history has been the subject of speculation as to whether he will run for a second term in 2024; however, he has insisted that this is his intention, and the pressure has subsided in recent weeks due to a series of policy and political victories for Biden and his party.
Nonetheless, the two recurrent presidential battleground states that Biden will visit on Monday may provide crucial indicators of the Democratic Party’s strength before November and 2024. With inflation still raging and the president’s support ratings continuing low, it remains to be seen how much Mr. Biden can assist his party in top elections.
In Wisconsin, Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is attempting to topple incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. However, Johnson’s team criticized Barnes for not committing previously to appearing in Milwaukee alongside Vice President Joe Biden. Tim Michels, a construction executive backed by Trump, is aiming to deny Democrat Tony Evers a second term as governor of Wisconsin. Evers stated that he would join Mr. Biden on Monday.
Voters in Pennsylvania are electing a new governor, with Attorney General John Shapiro competing against another Trump-backed Republican, Doug Mastriano, and a new senator. This contest is between the Democratic lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, and the Trump-backed celebrity cardiologist, Mehmet Oz. Shapiro and Fetterman planned to attend the Pittsburgh parade on Monday.
The races in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin might determine which party controls the Senate in 2020, while the winners of the governorships could impact the outcome of the presidential election in 2024. Given that some Trump-aligned candidates have circulated misinformation about rampant fraud that did not occur during the 2020 election, the stakes are particularly high, raising questions about what would occur if a candidate they oppose wins the next presidential election.