President Joe Biden spoke to an audience of union members in Philadelphia on Saturday in his first rally since declaring his bid for a second term and comes as his campaign commitments ramp up.
Biden begins his 2024 campaign the same way he began his 2020 race: in front of working people in Pennsylvania.
“I’m a unionist, period,” Biden told a union hall in Pittsburgh during his first rally of 2019.
And as he did then, Biden accompanies the demonstration with a deployment of union endorsements. The AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 national and international labor groups, including the national teachers and government workers unions, endorsed Biden on the eve of the rally. The federation, which represents 12.5 million workers, is hosting the rally.
“The president and vice president are honored to have won this historic endorsement nearly 17 months before the 2024 election,” Julia Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris (L) meet with union leaders in the Oval Office of the White House on February 17, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Pete Marovich/Getty Images, FILE
Arriving in Philadelphia on Saturday, Biden was given a helicopter tour of the collapsed portion of I-95 in Philadelphia and said “there is no more important project right now in the country” than rebuilding the freeway .
The president said he has directed his team to “literally move heaven and earth” to rebuild as soon as possible and promised federal aid.
“The federal government made a commitment, we will reimburse 100% of this phase of the work, and for the first 200 days, and after that, 90% of the work,” the president said. “We’ll be here until the end. We won’t leave until it’s over.”
President Joe Biden speaks at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, June 17, 2023, after an aerial tour of the Interstate 95 sinkhole.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Biden leaned on labor groups in his 2020 race for the White House, recapturing blue-collar Rust Belt support that Democrats lost in 2016, and those groups are poised to use their vast political networks to make a comeback to the voters for the president. .
Pennsylvania, the state where Biden was born, has not only played an important role in the president’s political career, but also in national politics. Since 1920, candidates who won Pennsylvania have been elected president 81 percent of the time, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
“If I can beat Donald Trump in 2020, it’s going to happen here,” Biden said, launching his latest campaign. Pennsylvania would later carry Biden over the finish line.
President Joe Biden discusses his proposed fiscal year 2024 federal budget during an event at the Finishing Trades Institute on March 9, 2023 in Philadelphia.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, FILE
Biden’s re-election campaign activity has been slow since the president announced his decision nearly two months ago, although the timing of the announcement was on par with former presidents’ re-election campaign announcements Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
But in the last few days, the campaign has been launched. The president attended a fundraiser in Connecticut on Friday, with receptions in Maryland and California scheduled for later in the month, while first lady Jill Biden had a fundraising swing in New York and California earlier this year. week Biden also addressed environmental groups on Wednesday and accepted their support.
The campaign trail will be more demanding than last time. The COVID-19 pandemic allowed Biden’s campaign to go virtual for much of 2020, with social distancing events in the final weeks of the race.
Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, acknowledged in a February interview with ABC News’ David Muir that concerns about his age are “legitimate,” though he said it was not a consideration for him Two months later, the day after the start of his re-election campaign, however, the president said his age was a factor in his decision-making.
“I respect them by looking at it carefully,” Biden said in April. “I’d take a hard look at it too. I looked it over before I decided to run.”
Biden, on the other hand, wants voters to focus on the work he has done, centering his campaign on what he sees as his achievements and behind a message that Americans should give him four more years to ” finish the job.”
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
