President Biden will swing through Scranton and Philly next week for an ‘economic tour’ across Pa.
Biden will head to Scranton and the Philly area ahead of this month’s Pennsylvania primary.
President Joe Biden is heading back to his childhood home next week to kick off an economic-themed tour across the state.
Biden is averaging nearly a trip a month to Pennsylvania in his bid to hold onto the state — and the White House. He will visit Scranton on Tuesday as part of a three-day swing that will also bring him to the Pittsburgh area Wednesday and the Philadelphia region on Thursday, his campaign said.
The campaign did not say what part of the Philadelphia area he’ll visit or what he’ll do here.
In Scranton, the day after Tax Day, Biden will deliver “a major address,” scrutinizing the nation’s tax code and drawing a contrast with former President Donald Trump, on whether the system should work for the rich or the middle class.
“The president has made it clear what he thinks the answer is,” a campaign spokesperson said. “And so has Donald Trump.”
Biden’s visit to the state will come on the heels of Trump’s Saturday stops in Bucks and Lehigh Counties, two key battlegrounds in the state.
The economy has been an ongoing problem for Biden, who had just started seeing some improvement in his polling around it when inflation soared to its highest level in six months, according to the Consumer Price Index report issued Wednesday.
Biden has struggled to connect with voters on his record given the price pains felt at gas stations and grocery stores. He’s acknowledged the need to bring prices down while trying to highlight his administration’s work driving down health-care costs, student debt, and junk fees.
Trump is more trusted on the economy, which remains a top issue for voters, polls show.
Biden and Trump have polled incredibly closely in the state, with the most recent poll from Franklin & Marshall College showing Biden up two points, within the survey’s margin of error.
Scranton Joe
Expect Biden to tie his economic message to his upbringing in Scranton, much like he did in his last campaign.
Biden lived on Washington Avenue, a tree-lined street in the Green Ridge neighborhood until he was 10 years old. He used anecdotes from his upbringing — including when his dad lost his job and the family had to move to Wilmington — throughout the campaign. He often described the race as a fight between “Scranton and Park Avenue.”
The state’s sixth-largest city voted overwhelmingly for him, took to the streets the day he won, and renamed a main thoroughfare that runs through the city after him.
But four years later, Biden is vying for reelection and a key variable will be whether he can hold onto smaller Northeastern Pennsylvania cities and towns like Scranton. While Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and suburban areas helped Biden, they wouldn’t have been enough without his ability to increase margins in working-class communities with an appeal to his working-class upbringing.
Biden won Scranton’s Lackawanna County by 10,000 votes, a 6,000-vote increase over Hillary Clinton in 2016. More than half of his votes came from Scranton, where he won every precinct.
Visiting Scranton on the campaign trail in the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden introduced himself as “the proud son of Jean Finnegan” and fondly reminisced about “walking the pipes across the Lackee” (the Lackawanna River).
That visit was seen as something of a reset amid a tight race and in the face of a fundraising disadvantage. Biden has been known to return to his beloved Scranton when he needs a boost from what is typically a welcoming crowd.
Trump — and many of his supporters — have scoffed at Biden’s claims to the Electric City, given that he spent only a fraction of his 77 years living there. During rallies in Pennsylvania, Trump made a point of saying Biden had “abandoned” Scranton.
Biden last returned to Scranton in August after the death of Sen. Bob Casey’s mom, Ellen. Casey, a lifelong Scrantonian, grew up just a few blocks away from Washington Avenue, where Biden lived.