Biden heads west to secure standing in Nevada, Arizona
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is embarking on a three-day campaign swing aimed at shoring up his standing in the Sun Belt as part of an aggressive play to reenergize vital parts of his 2020 electoral coalition.
Much of Biden’s time on this trip this week, which includes stops in Nevada, Arizona and Texas, will be geared toward courting the Latino voters who helped power his coalition in 2020 and to emphasizing his pro-union, pro-abortion rights message.
The Democratic president’s first stop Tuesday was in Reno, Nevada, where he met with local officials and campaign volunteers in Washoe County before heading to Las Vegas to promote his administration’s housing policies.
Then it’s on to Phoenix for another campaign stop in a critical swing county paired with an event talking up what he has done to bolster the computer chip manufacturing sector.
Biden’s push with Latino voters this week, which included the formal launch of the “Latinos with Biden-Harris” initiative on Tuesday, is also part of the campaign’s broader efforts to put in place the infrastructure to re-engage various constituencies that will be critical to the president’s reelection. That effort is all the more crucial as key parts of Biden’s base, such as Black and Hispanic adults, have become increasingly disenchanted with the president’s performance.
In an AP-NORC poll conducted in February, 38% of U.S. adults approved of how Biden was handling his job. Nearly 6 in 10 Black adults (58%) approved, compared to 36% of Hispanic adults.