By Michael Baruah, our USA Correspondent.
After a relatively low-key launch and slow opening stretch, President JOE BIDEN’s campaign is revving up. This afternoon in Philadelphia, Biden will headline a rally with labor unions, where he’ll receive the backing of AFL-CIO — the earliest presidential endorsement in the powerful group’s history — and 17 other labor groups.
It’s his 13th trip to Philly since becoming president, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and there’s good reason for Biden to once again choose the city as a backdrop for his campaign kick-start, AP’s Seung Min Kim and Will Weissert note — not least that it is a key reservoir of Democratic votes in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial swing state of 2024.
AFL-CIO’s early support is also important: The group is known for its strong organizing and mobilization game, skills they’ll use to boost the president.
RAY ZACCARO, AFL-CIO’s director of public affairs, told our colleagues Holly Otterbein and Jonathan Lemire that union members will start knocking on doors and advertising on behalf of Biden right away.
“Labor is incredibly enthusiastic about what this president has done,” Zaccaro said, calling his federation “a mobilization force unlike any other.”
But with the close of the fundraising quarter looming, the campaign’s main focus for the next few days will actually be on the Benjamins. With no serious primary challenge — and still 17 months to go until the election — the president, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS and other top White House surrogates are about to fan out around the country to help stock the president’s campaign war chest, Holly and Jonathan add.
Why the money matters: The president will need to flex some financial muscle to ward off worries about his reelection failing to excite voters. That’s particularly true given some outlier polling showing him trailing DONALD TRUMP, most recently in a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
On the fundraising schedule: Biden heads to Atherton and Kentfield, Calif., for events with California Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM; Chevy Chase, Md.; and to Chicago for an appearance with Illinois Gov. JB PRITZKER. Harris, meanwhile, will travel to fundraisers in New York City, Dallas and Potomac, Md., while first lady JILL BIDEN will be collecting checks in Minneapolis and Nashville, Tenn.
