In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania on Monday, Biden heralded his economic record while celebrating “the dignity of American workers” at events with organized labor.
But he also hit back at “extreme” Republicans as he endeavors to render the upcoming vote not just a referendum on his own record but a choice between himself and the chaos cultivated by his predecessor.
“I want to be very clear up front. Not everyone Republican is a ‘MAGA Republican.’ Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with mainstream Republicans my whole career,” Biden said at Laborfest in Milwaukee.
“But the extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division,” he said. “But together we can and we must choose a different path: forward.”
Democrats hope to flip two Republican-held Senate seats in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and their success or failure will be viewed as a key indicator of the party’s — and Biden’s — political power ahead of the 2024 presidential contest.
But the unofficial kickoff to the midterm campaign season has coincided with a string of policy successes for Biden and his party, easing some of the Democratic pressure surrounding the President’s leadership and political acumen.
Biden hopes to use his recent victories to boost Democrats and avoid what once was viewed as an inevitable midterm drubbing. He is also betting the reminder to voters of the dysfunction surrounding former President Donald Trump will benefit Democrats in November.
In Wisconsin, Biden chastised the state’s incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, a top Trump ally, for downplaying the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, where Trump’s supporters sought to disrupt the electoral vote count.
“Sen. Johnson said it was by and large a peaceful protest,” Biden said. “Have you seen the videos what happened that day?”
Biden’s advisers have laid plans for the President to travel two or three times a week in the run-up to the November vote. Because his presidential bid was hampered by the pandemic, Biden has not aggressively campaigned in-person since he was competing in the Democratic primary in early 2020.
Later, during an official event in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Biden called for tougher new gun laws, including a ban on assault weapons, and accused Republicans of fealty to the gun lobby.
Monday’s events signaled a return to a more consistent theme for Biden: The importance of organized labor in building the middle class and strengthening worker protections. Biden’s endorsement from key unions have helped fuel his many political campaigns, support he is consistently looking to repay.
In memos and strategy documents prepared over the month of August, Biden’s team spelled out their dual-track midterm message: framing Republicans as extremists and promoting his own list of accomplishments.
Yet for much of the summer, it remained an open question whether Biden would be a welcome guest on the campaign trail or shunned by Democrats looking to separate themselves from a historically unpopular president.
When Biden visited Cleveland in July to deliver an economic speech, Ohio’s Democratic Senate candidate, Rep. Tim Ryan, declined to attend. He opted to campaign in another part of the state instead.
Other Democratic candidates declined to say explicitly whether they wanted Biden to join them on the campaign trial in the fall.
“I will welcome anybody to come to Arizona, travel around the state at any time. As long as I’m here, if I’m not up in Washington in session, and talk about what Arizona needs,” Sen. Mark Kelly, running for reelection in Arizona, said on CNN, stopping short of directly asking Biden to come.
With only one exception on Monday, Democratic candidates appeared eager to appear with Biden. In Milwaukee, he appeared with Gov. Tony Evers, the Democratic incumbent running for reelection against Trump-backed Republican Tim Michels.
The Democratic Senate candidate, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, did not appear with Biden, though the President advocated for him during his speech.
In Pittsburgh, Biden is planning to see both the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and the US Senate candidate, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
His stop in Pittsburgh will mark his third visit to the commonwealth in the span of a week, and his 16th stop in the Keystone State since taking office.
Both Shapiro and Fetterman are also facing Trump-backed opponents, Doug Mastriano and Dr. Mehmet Oz. At a rally in Wilkes-Barre over the weekend, Trump sought to boost his endorsed candidates but spent much of his speech railing against Biden and the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump labeled Biden an “enemy of the state” in his speech, delivered near Biden’s hometown of Scranton.
In Boston, meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris echoed Biden’s message drawing contrasts with what the White House describes as “extremist” Republicans.
“Every day, workers fight to move our country forward. And yet, we must recognize that there are those in Congress who are fighting to drag us back. In Congress, in statehouses across our nation, extremist, so-called leaders are fighting to turn back the clock,” she said during remarks to the Greater Boston Labor Council’s annual breakfast.
“Let’s not let extremist so-called leaders turn back the clock. We know what’s at stake, we know what we stand for, we know when we fight, we win, we love our country, and all of this is worth it,” she said.
