Biden, Harris to visit Philadelphia next week

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are planning to visit Philadelphia on Feb. 3, according to the White House.

The visit will come just days before Biden’s State of the Union address Feb. 7 and as he and fellow Democrats aim to promote their accomplishments from his first two years in office, including bipartisan laws on infrastructure, semiconductors, and guns, and party-line efforts to stimulate the economy, promote green energy, and cap drug prices.

“They will discuss the progress we have made, and their work implementing the Biden-Harris economic agenda that continues to deliver results for the American people,” the White House said in an advisory shared first with The Inquirer.

Biden and Harris will speak that day at the downtown Sheraton Hotel as part of Democratic National Committee winter meetings taking place in the city Feb. 2-4, the DNC announced Wednesday. Biden and Harris will also take part in a fund-raiser in the city, according to two Democratic sources familiar with that event.

Both Biden and Harris have been frequent visitors to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania more widely, and the state remains a critical political battleground ahead of 2024, when Democrats will be aiming to hold the White House and defend the seat held by Sen. Bob Casey.

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With a partisan split now defining Congress, new major legislation is unlikely, but Democrats are likely to emphasize the results of the bills they passed, and Biden signed, in his first two years. Republicans, meanwhile, have taken aim at that legislation for, in their view, promoting excessive spending and driving inflation.

While Biden long represented Delaware in the Senate, the Scranton native has also made Pennsylvania a central piece of his political identity, and he has frequently used the state as a launching pad for major messages. He headquartered his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, launched his Build Back Better proposal at a union training site in Pittsburgh, and late last year came to Independence Hall to warn about threats to democracy from “MAGA Republicans,” among many other visits to the state.

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One of his few major campaign stops was at Temple University’s Liacouras Center just days before November’s election. Harris has also stopped a number of times in the state and region, including speaking to the NAACP convention in Atlantic City last summer.

Staff writer Julia Terruso contributed to this article.