President Joe Biden flew west on Thursday to try to prop up Democratic candidates in states he won two years ago while Republicans gain momentum in battleground races like Pennsylvania.
The president will be in New Mexico to campaign for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who outperformed her GOP opponent after polls last week showed she was on shaky ground.
He then travels to California to campaign for Rep. Mike Levin in San Diego. And he’s making a stop in Chicago to bolster congressional incumbents in the Chicago suburbs — Reps Sean Casten, Lauren Underwood and Bill Foster — who are in races that may be getting closer.
Biden is making a last-ditch attempt to rally the Democrats as election forecasters predict Republicans will gain control of the House of Representatives in next Tuesday’s election. And the battle for control of the Senate is getting tighter.
But most Democratic candidates have kept the president at bay, fearing his low approval ratings and voter anger at his leadership of the economy could backfire on them.
The White House insists the president “travels across the country,” and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre argued Thursday that his message extends beyond where he speaks.
“When the President speaks, it gets covered far and wide,” she told reporters on Air Force One while flying west.
President Joe Biden flew west to campaign in blue areas of New Mexico and California
In Pennsylvania, a key state, Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz outstripped Democratic candidate John Fetterman in polls for the first time.
The two-point gap — 48% to 46% — shows a steady improvement for Oz, whose support from likely Pennsylvania voters has risen 5 points since September, according to a poll by The Hill/Emerson College.
Biden will be in Philadelphia on Saturday — along with Barack Obama — to promote Fetterman.
But the president won’t appear in other tightly-contested states, including Nevada and Georgia.
Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is in a neck-and-neck race for political life. Obama came to the state on Tuesday to try to win over the Democrats her way.
The Georgia Senate race is also a thrill, but neither incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock nor Republican nominee Herschel Walker is above 50% in polls. State laws dictate that candidates must obtain a majority of the votes to win an election; If no one does, the top two finishers advance to a runoff.
With the Senate currently sitting at 50-50 – and Vice President Kamala Harris providing the casting vote – any race could decide which party has the majority next year.
A new poll in Pennsylvania shows Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz (right) leading Democrat John Fetterman (left) in their Senate race
The president’s party usually suffers significant losses in midterm elections. Since 1934, only Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934, Bill Clinton in 1998, and George W. Bush in 2002 have seen their parties win seats at the Midterms.
Biden, Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris and First Lady Jill Biden enter the campaign trail five days before the midterm elections.
They try to gather their base to get out and vote. “Vote, vote, vote” is the mantra with which Biden closes his campaign pitches.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, will be on his way to rally Republicans. He will complete four rallies in five days, hitting the battleground states of Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.
Polls show that the economy remains a top concern for American voters.
More than half say the price of gasoline and consumer goods is the economic issue that worries them most in a new national poll from Quinnipiac University.
President Biden will campaign for Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (above) in New Mexico
In New Mexico, however, Biden will focus on student debt.
He will speak about his administration’s efforts to “cut college costs and give borrowers extra breathing room,” a White House official said, while warning of “catastrophic consequences for middle-class American families if Republican officials use their… plan to succeed”. deprive millions of borrowers of their ability to obtain debt relief.’
Republicans argue Biden’s plan is too costly and have sued in federal court to stop it.
According to the White House, nearly 26 million people have submitted their information to the Department of Education to be considered for a loan forgiveness, with 16 million applications expected to be approved by the end of the week.