Joe Biden left on Wednesday for Wisconsin, a state in the Great Lakes region which will be crucial for the presidential election in November, and where he will try to take advantage of a big economic failure by his predecessor and opponent Donald Trump.
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The American president will announce a heavy investment by the giant Microsoft in Racine, a city bordering Lake Michigan, where the Republican tycoon had promised the construction of a giant factory for the Taiwanese computer equipment manufacturer Foxconn, the White House announced .
The project, which was expected to create 13,000 jobs and which Donald Trump called the “eighth wonder of the world” during the inauguration of the site in 2018, did not materialize.
Joe Biden, campaigning against the Republican for a second term, must formalize an investment of 3.3 billion dollars in total from Microsoft in a new server center intended for artificial intelligence, which according to the American executive will generate 2,300 jobs for its construction, then 2,000 permanent jobs.
It will be built “on the same land” as that planned for the Foxconn factory, the White House said.
Racine is a symbol “of (Joe Biden’s) commitment to investing in places that have been neglected or betrayed by the decisions of the previous administration,” the White House said.
“Since President Biden took office, Racine has gained 4,000 jobs, a third in the industrial sector and Wisconsin has gained 177,000 jobs,” she added.
The state, whose economy is based on both agricultural operations and industrial activities concentrated around Lake Michigan, is the subject of a fierce electoral battle.
Wisconsin is a “swing state”: along with Arizona (west) and Pennsylvania (east), it is one of the handful of states that hold the keys to the presidential election.
These states can lean either for Joe Biden or for Donald Trump, where others are considered to have already won either the Republican or the Democrat.
It is no coincidence that the Republican Party chose to hold its nomination convention this summer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Democratic Party chose Chicago, where Joe Biden is also due to go on Wednesday, to raise funds.
The Democratic convention in August could take place in a tense atmosphere if the protest movement against the war in Gaza continues.
