President Joe Biden visited battleground Michigan on Thursday, mingling with voters at multiple stops as he looks to shore up support in the key “blue wall” state that helped send him to the White House three years ago. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden visited battleground Michigan on Thursday, mingling with voters at multiple stops as he looks to shore up support in the key “blue wall” state that helped send him to the White House three years ago 
  • Biden joined UAW members who were working a phone bank ahead of the state’s primary election later this month
  • On Jan. 24, Biden secured the endorsement of the United Auto Workers 
  • Michigan is also home to the nation’s highest density of Arab Americans – many of whom are increasingly angry over the president’s support of Israel as the Palestinian death toll has risen in Gaza

Fresh off of securing the endorsement of the United Auto Workers union last week, the incumbent president, who is seeking another four years in the Oval Office, joined UAW members who were working a phone bank on his behalf ahead of the state’s primary later this month. 

“The whole country owes you, they really owe you,” Biden told workers at UAW's union hall in Warren, Mich. 

The president went on to tout the state of the economy under his leadership — a notion he has struggled to sell to voters, according to polling, despite evidence Americans are feeling better about the economy  — telling union members they “are the best workers in the world.”

“And folks, look, we now have, in large part because of you and organized labor, the strongest economy in the whole damn world,” he said. 

UAW President Shawn Fain told members they were going to “fight like hell” to ensure Biden was the next president. The UAW president took multiple shots at former President Donald Trump – the current frontrunner to face Biden for a rematch in November – adding to the pointed words the two have exchanged since Fain endorsed Biden. 

“It’s a very simple choice for all of us in this election. You know what the hell is going to happen if this man is not president because we’ve seen what happened,” Fain said, standing with Biden. “Labor went backwards, working class people went backwards. The poor went backwards. Everybody suffered.” 

“This is our shot, this is our time, this is our mission,” he added. 

Trump met with another powerful labor group, the Teamsters Union, in Washington on Wednesday in his quest to continue stacking support from labor.

Following the phone bank stop, Biden sat down with members for what his reelection campaign dubbed a “kitchen table conversation” about his agenda. 

Earlier in the day, the president met with Black faith leaders and chatted with customers at a Black-owned restaurant in the Detroit area, according to the Biden-Harris campaign. 

While the UAW gave Biden its backing in 2020 as well, the incumbent president was left waiting for the official 2024 nod — despite making history when he joined UAW workers striking against the Big Three Detroit automakers on the picket in Michigan last year. 

The endorsement from the auto union with 145,000 members could prove crucial for Biden in 2024 as he seeks to lock up the backing of blue-collar workers in states like Michigan and Wisconsin — which banded with Pennsylvania in 2020 to flip from red to blue and help give Biden the victory. 

But Michigan is also home to the nation’s highest density of Arab Americans — many of whom are increasingly angry over the president’s support of Israel as the Palestinian death toll has risen in Gaza. 

Protestors waited for Biden around his events, waving flags and chanting. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden administration officials will hear from community leaders in Michigan over concerns about the Israel-Hamas war later this month. 

Arab American leaders in Michigan declined to meet with Biden’s 2024 campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez when she traveled to the state last week.