by Following a landslide victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary, President Biden rallied his supporters Sunday in Nevada and said he had kept his promises to the Black and Hispanic voters who helped elect him.
Biden spoke at a community center in Las Vegas’ historic Westside neighborhood, home to a critical battleground state African-American community. He rattled off statistics on the reduction in child poverty among blacks, Hispanics and indigenous people, talked about the growth of minority-owned businesses and attacked former President Donald J. Trump for saying immigration was “poisoning the blood” of the United States. Joined.
But he appeared to acknowledge that many voters were skeptical about his achievements as president at a time when his approval rating had declined. sunken below 40 percent
“I know, we know, we have a lot more to do,” Biden said. “Not everyone is yet feeling the benefits of our investments and progress.”
The president has been working to shore up his support among black and Hispanic voters, who make up key Democratic constituencies, as Trump, his likely Republican opponent in November, tries to make inroads between both groups.
Nevada will hold its Democratic primary on Tuesday, the party’s second official nominating contest after South Carolina. But Biden faces little opposition here. A longshot challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who finished third in South Carolina on Saturday, behind self-help author Marianne Williamson, It won’t even be on the ballot..
Instead, Biden made his trip Sunday with an eye toward the general election. Although Nevada has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 2008, including for Biden in 2020, it remains a swing state with a newly elected Republican governor. In November, a New York Times/Siena poll found Biden trailing Trump by 10 points in Nevada.
The president’s allies are working to strengthen it. A pro-Biden super PAC recently announced that he would set aside $250 million in advertising in seven battleground states, including Nevada, a record sum.
Shelby Wiltz, the president’s Nevada campaign manager, said in a statement that the state’s “diverse communities” had delivered the White House to Biden.
In his narrow victory in Nevada four years ago, Biden had a lot of help from the state’s influential unions, which represent workers in the hotel and casino industries. Many of those workers are Hispanic. Last month in Las Vegas, Trump said Biden had “devastated the Latino community” economically and that Hispanics had been “better off” financially under the Trump administration.
Biden last visited Nevada in December, when he announced $8.2 billion in funding for passenger rail projects. He criticized Trump’s approach to infrastructure, saying the former president had failed to deliver. Biden’s campaign is heavily promoting a bipartisan infrastructure bill that Biden has defended as a cudgel against Trump, although it could take years for voters to see the results of such projects.
Artie Blanco, a member of the Democratic National Committee from Nevada, called Biden the “most pro-worker president we have seen in generations,” but said he and his campaign needed to “ensure that the working class knows what he has done.” .
As Trump has become more likely to win the Republican nomination, Biden has gone into campaign mode, holding rallies to tout his administration’s record. So far, he has faced few obstacles in the primary election. He won New Hampshire as a write-in candidate last month and then won 96 percent of the vote in South Carolina.
On Saturday, Biden met with Black entertainment industry leaders at a fundraiser at the Los Angeles mansion of George Lucas, the “Star Wars” filmmaker, before traveling to Las Vegas the next day.
Biden also took time over the weekend to commemorate the birthdays of his sons, Beau and Hunter.
Before leaving for the West Coast, he visited Beau’s grave site in Delaware on Saturday. Beau Biden, born February 3, died at the age of 46 in 2015.
On Sunday, Biden had lunch with Hunter, who turned 54 on Feb. 4, at a Los Angeles restaurant. Hunter Biden faces charges in two federal criminal cases that could go to trial during the thick of the presidential campaign.
