Biden kicks off rural America tour in Minnesota
Send a link to a friend
[November 01, 2023]
By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will tout $5 billion in
new investments benefiting rural Americans during a visit on Wednesday
to a family farm in Minnesota, the first stop in what the White House is
billing as a two-week "barnstorming" tour.
Thirteen top administration officials will visit rural places in 15
states, including election battlegrounds like Michigan, Pennsylvania and
Arizona, to highlight investments in rural communities, where one in
five Americans live.
The Minnesota event will showcase top Democratic officials from the
state in a show of support for Biden just days after Minnesota lawmaker
Dean Phillips launched a primary challenge to a sitting president,
sources familiar with the plans said.
A campaign official told Reuters that Biden would also participate in a
fundraiser in Minneapolis after the farm visit.
The official noted that Democrats improved their margins in rural areas
in 2022 compared to 2020, winning over former supporters of former
President Donald Trump.
"We are treating these 2022 newly Democratic voters as key persuasion
targets for 2024 and are not taking any vote (rural/suburban/urban) for
granted," the official added.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Nov/01/images/ads/current/countryfinancial_lda_PPP_2023.png)
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre did not link the president's
visit to Phillips' long-shot challenge, but said the administration was
"thankful" to Phillips for voting nearly 100% with Biden over the past
two years.
"Minnesota is an important state that the president wanted to go and
visit," she said, adding that Biden planned to speak directly with rural
Americans - who account for about 20% of the U.S. population - about how
his legislation is creating jobs in their communities and other urgently
needed investments.
Biden beat former president Donald Trump in Minnesota by 52.4% to 45.3%,
winning the state's 10 electoral college votes out of a total of 538
total.
The Democratic president arrives in Minnesota amid mounting criticism by
Muslim and Arab Americans of his support for Israel's bombardment of the
Gaza Strip.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council of American Islamic
Relations (CAIR) for Minnesota, said Arab and Muslim American leaders
and their allies would protest Biden's Israel policy, at the
Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport at 1 p.m., at the farm he is
visiting, and in downtown Minneapolis at 5 p.m.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/110123PIX/news_p96.jpg)
U.S. President Joe Biden holds an event about American retirement
economics in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington,
U.S., October 31, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Nov/01/images/ads/current/longviewbank_lda_PPP_2023.png)
White House officials had no immediate comment on the planned
protests.
"President Biden believes that investing in America means investing
in all of America and leaving no one behind," Neera Tanden, who
heads the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters. "That
means young people in rural communities should not have to leave
home to find opportunity."
Reuters reported in September that the White House and Biden's
campaign planned an aggressive outreach to rural voters, who account
for 30% of the electorate in swing states North Carolina, Georgia
and Wisconsin, and around 22% in Pennsylvania.
Biden's campaign is actively targeting Black farmers with a new
television ad that will run in Raleigh, North Carolina and on
national cable news, the third campaign ad targeting Black
Americans.
It is part of a 16-week, $25 million advertising campaign targeting
key voters in battleground states, that are hotly contested because
their voting preferences can swing either to Republicans or
Democrats.
Getting credit for economic gains is crucial to Biden's 2024
reelection, but many rural voters feel frustrated and disengaged
after decades of industrial decline and job losses in the face of
globalization and declining agriculture.
During his visit to Dutch Creek Farms in Northfield, Biden plans to
announce over $5 billion in new investments for rural America drawn
from the Inflation Reduction Act, a $1 trillion bipartisan
infrastructure law and reprogramming of existing funds, White House
officials said.
The money includes $1.7 billion to support climate-smart agriculture
practices, $1.1 billion in investments in clean water and other
infrastructure, and $2 billion for economic development projects in
nine states and Puerto Rico, along with additional investments in
expanding broadband access.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Jeff Mason and
Andrew Hay; Editing by Stephen Coates)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Nov/01/images/ads/current/farmersgrain_sda_FFARM_2023.png) |