In Delco, President Joe Biden delivers a rallying call to suburban women
A day after his State of the Union address, the president was on familiar turf in the Philly suburbs.
President Joe Biden is not as popular as he was when he won the 2020 election, but the group that has stuck by him the most is women.
And at Strath Haven Middle School in Wallingford on Friday, Biden pledged to a heavily suburban female audience that he would continue to fight for their families and for their reproductive rights, and he predicted they would be difference-makers in the November election.
“Those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade, they have no clue about the power of women in America,” Biden said, borrowing a line from the previous night’s State of the Union address.
The event kicked off what will be a busy month for the Biden campaign in a week that truly launched the general election matchup, with former President Donald Trump solidified as the likely Republican nominee.
Biden took the stage in the school gymnasium with his wife, Jill Biden — a little prematurely, it seemed, as he then stood by her side as she introduced him. The first lady, too, stressed what is at stake for women this election.
“We have courts that are stripping away our most basic freedoms,” Jill Biden said. “We are the first generation in half a century to give our daughters a country with fewer rights than we had.”
That the Bidens came to the suburbs of Philadelphia following the president’s high-profile State of the Union address is unsurprising given his frequent stops in the state, his wife’s connections to the Philadelphia suburbs, and the region’s importance to his path to reelection. Biden has signaled in recent days that he will argue Trump is a threat both to democracies abroad and to personal rights and democratic freedoms at home.
Jill Biden recently traveled to Arizona to launch a “Women for Biden-Harris” tour aimed at reaching women in battleground states, and the president announced Thursday that she would also spearhead a new federal initiative on women’s health.
At Strath Haven on Friday, the president talked about Latorya Beasley, his wife’s guest at the State of the Union speech who was blocked from accessing an in vitro fertilization procedure after an Alabama court ruling restricted access to IVF.
“She was told her dream would have to wait. What her family has gone through should never have happened,” Biden said. “Folks, do you know why it happened? I’ll tell you why, one reason: Donald Trump. He came to office determined to overturn Roe v. Wade. In fact, he’s bragged about it.”
The IVF ruling applied only to Alabama. And state lawmakers there have scrambled to codify IVF protections into state law. In her rebuttal to Biden’s State of the Union speech Thursday, Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt said unequivocally her party believes in IVF.
All that has done little to deter the Democratic argument that threats to IVF are an extension of Republican efforts to restrict abortion rights.
Trump has indicated he would back a national abortion ban at about 16 weeks. He has also bragged about appointing the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, a wildly unpopular decision among women and the general electorate.
“Hear me loud and clear,” Biden said of a national ban on Friday. “This will not happen on my watch.”
A female voice called back at him shortly afterward:
“That’s why you my president, Joe!”
The gender gap between Biden and Trump has grown in recent months, according to polling.
More women said they would support Biden over Trump in a February Quinnipiac survey, with 58% backing Biden and 36% backing Trump. That’s a rise from a January poll that broke down 53% for Biden and 41% for Trump.
The numbers were relatively unchanged for men — 53% of men said they’d vote for Trump and 42% chose Biden in the latest poll, compared with 51% for Trump and 41% for Biden in December.
Biden’s challenges remain great, though. He trails Trump in most swing-state polls, and survey after survey shows voters worry he’s too old for the job and blame him for an economy they feel isn’t working.
While he leads with women overall, he trails Trump with women who list the economy as their most important issue. He has also seen a drop in support among young voters, Black voters, and Latino voters, other key groups in his 2020 coalition.
And progressive cease-fire activists continue to protest his events. At least 100 lined the roadway outside Strath Haven Middle School on Friday, waving Palestinian flags and chanting, “This November, we remember,” a nod to a growing movement among some progressive Democrats to protest Biden at the ballot box.
Earlier in the day, Biden was asked if he thought there would be a cease-fire by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“It’s looking tough,” he told reporters.
The economy and immigration remain top issues, but some Democratic strategists see hope for Biden if the economy continues to improve and threats to reproductive rights keep making the news in the form of state abortion bans or pending Supreme Court rulings, including one on the abortion pill.
While voters have said they’re unexcited about Biden or Trump, there was some energy for him on Friday. It was mostly supporters who lined Baltimore Pike as his motorcade drove by on Friday.
In Rose Valley, he made a surprise visit before the rally to see Jack and David Cunicelli, the owners of 320 Market Cafe, and their families. The brothers overlapped in school with the Bidens’ children in Wilmington before relocating to Pennsylvania and opening their restaurant.
Friendly neighbors gathered outside as children played and Secret Service agents stood guard.
“I love Joe,” said Cindy Holston, a neighbor of the family who met with the Bidens. “He was so cool last night. He rocked it.”
Erin Stancill, another resident of the Rose Valley block, confessed she feels nervous about November.
“But I believe in Joe Biden,” she said. “I think the State of the Union showed he’s accomplished a lot regardless of his age, and I trust him.“
Staff writer Jesse Bunch contributed to this article.