Joe Biden takes a walkabout on familiar ground on Tuesday in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, while his rival in the race for the White House, Donald Trump, will sit in the dock in New York.
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“Scranton Joe”, 81, has long played on this image of a child from the blue-collar country to attract the working electorate even if this state in the eastern United States is not won over to his cause. Pennsylvania will even be one of the most contested battlegrounds in the November election.
His meeting on Tuesday at the Scranton Cultural Center is therefore far from being anecdotal.
Ahead of his trip, the Democrat’s campaign team published a video clip on social networks, in which a childhood friend of Joe Biden states in particular that the president “never forgot where he came from” , in this city “of middle-class people, of workers”.
Joe Biden often refers to the former coal mining town where he was born in 1942 in a difficult context to appeal to financially struggling working class voters.
“Growing up in Scranton, these people taught me the values of family, honesty, hard work, and fighting for the humble. I never forgot them,” the Democrat commented on X.
Taxes
The president is certainly relishing the idea of traveling through the industrial heart of the country, crucial for the presidential election, while his rival’s campaign is suspended by his criminal trial, the first for a former American president.
Joe Biden also plans to assert in his speech in Scranton that billionaires should pay more taxes.
“The speech will address a simple question: do you think the tax code should work for the rich or for the middle class?” Joe Biden’s campaign team explains in a press release.
On Monday, the Democrat made public his tax return for the year 2023. A striking contrast compared to Donald Trump who always refused to do so while he occupied the White House.
The fact remains that in Scranton itself, the news of the president’s return had not really made the rounds on Monday.
When exiting the highway arriving from New York via the “President Joe Biden” expressway – named in honor of the country’s child – motorists find themselves facing a semi-trailer entirely decorated in honor of Donald Trump, and enthroned at the entrance to Biden Street.
“Swing state”
However, it is cities like Scranton that Joe Biden will need if he wants to keep Pennsylvania, a “swing state”. These crucial states can change sides from one election to the next.
The Democrat took it from Donald Trump when they clashed in 2020, blocking his path to re-election.
“To be honest, I prefer Biden,” says Debra Hodges, 66, a volunteer who moved from New York to Scranton about 20 years ago.
“His age is not a problem for me. After all, we are all going to get old,” she adds.
Still, Joe Biden’s age is one of the main concerns cited by voters in polls, even though he is only four years older than Donald Trump.
Debra Hodges does not plan to attend Joe Biden’s speech on Tuesday. But she will likely be “on the ground for him as a volunteer.” So that “young people register to vote,” she explains, mentioning abortion among the themes dear to her heart.
Democrats consider the issue an important campaign theme and do not hesitate to point out that Donald Trump played a crucial role in the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn constitutional protection of the right to abortion.
Joshua Davis, 33, is not convinced by any of the candidates. “Whoever is elected will represent the interests of big business,” he says.
He’s not the only one who thinks this way. Polls show voters’ lack of enthusiasm for having to choose between the two candidates, two of the oldest presidents in US history.
