President Joe Biden on Thursday joined supporters of his reelection campaign in Michigan, capping off a campaign swing to two so-called “blue wall” battleground states that were critical to his win in 2020. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden on Thursday joined supporters of his reelection campaign in Michigan, capping off a campaign swing to two so-called “blue wall” battleground states that were critical to his win in 2020 
  • Biden’s Great Lakes tour came fresh off both him and former President Donald Trump earning enough delegates to win their respective parties’ 2024 nominations on Tuesday night 
  • The president kicked-off the two day swing on Wednesday with a stop in Wisconsin before heading to Michigan 
  • The president’s visit to the state also follows the state's Democratic primary election last month, when, despite notching a victory with about 81% of the vote, more than 100,000 voters marked “uncommitted” instead as part of a movement to protest his handling of the war in Gaza 

The president on Thursday greeted campaign volunteers, huddled on the porch of a Saginaw home, ahead of what was billed as an organizing meeting. The Biden-Harris campaign said local supporters during the meeting were trained in knocking on doors for Biden and recruiting more volunteers to join the team. 

Afterward, Biden made his way to a local public golf course for an individual meeting with a Michgan family. 

Biden’s Great Lakes tour came quickly after both he and former President Donald Trump earned enough delegates to win their respective parties’ 2024 nominations on Tuesday night. The president kicked-off the two day swing on Wednesday with a stop in Wisconsin before heading to Michigan — two states that, banded with Pennsylvania, flipped from red to blue and help send Biden to the White House in the 2020 election. 

Biden’s decision to visit Michigan’s Saginaw County in particular is notable: the county has become known as an indicator of where battleground voters may be swinging. It's the only one in the state to have picked the man who ultimately won the general election in the last four consecutive cycles.

Voters in Saginaw County picked former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 before choosing Trump in 2016, then flipping back to blue to support Biden in 2020 — although Biden won the county over Trump by less than one percentage point.

The president’s visit to the state also follows the state's Democratic primary election last month, when, despite notching a victory with about 81% of the vote, more than 100,000 voters marked “uncommitted” instead as part of a movement to protest his handling of the war in Gaza. 

Biden faces frustration and pressure from some in his party over his support of Israel amid the war, as the Palestinian civilian death toll has risen and the humanitarian crisis worsened. But perhaps nowhere is that more clear than Michigan, which is home to the nation’s highest density of Arab Americans. 

Top Biden administration officials have traveled to the state to met with Arab American and Muslim leaders on the issue to try to mend ties after the local leaders declined to sit down with Biden’s 2024 campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez earlier this year. 

But Michigan also houses another key group for Biden, blue-collar voters. 

Just this week, the president sat down with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at their Washington headquarters in a bid to shore up the powerful union’s endorsement. His meeting came just weeks after Trump sat down with them himself, as both men seek backing from a group that could be influential with blue-collar workers in Michigan and Wisconsin. 

Biden secured the endorsement of the United Auto Workers union in January, months after making history when he joined striking UAW members on the picket line in Michigan as they pursued better pay and benefits from the Big Three Detroit automakers.

Promptly after receiving the UAW’s nod, the president made the trip to Michigan to join UAW members who were working a phone bank on his behalf ahead of the state’s primary. 

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

This week’s campaign swing, which also featured a stop in New Hampshire, has been billed as part of the Biden reelection team’s “Month of Action” in March coming off of the State of the Union address last week. The campaign says the incumbent president will visit every battleground state. 

The president this week has sought to emphasize a contrast between himself and Trump on Social Security and Medicare after the former president this week said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” that “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements — in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and bad management of entitlements.”

Biden was firm in a pledge to protect the programs. “I’m not gonna let that happen,” Biden declared in New Hampshire on Monday.

Trump did not go on to further explain what he meant when he spoke about cutting entitlements on Monday. His campaign, however, sought to play down the comment, saying he was talking about “cutting waste.”

Biden's campaign has also sought to spotlight differences between the president's and Trump’s approaches to America’s place on the world stage. Last month, it launched an ad pointing to Trump’s comments on NATO running in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — areas home to a large population of Americans from NATO countries bordering Russia.