ALLENTOWN, Pa. — President Joe Biden will make his return to the Lehigh Valley Friday, kicking off an election year by visiting a critical swing region in a battleground state.
Genesis Ortega, a spokeswoman for the city of Allentown, said the trip would focus on Biden's economic achievements. She did not discuss specifics of the trip, such as where specifically he'll stop.
"The President will discuss how communities across America are coming back thanks to Bidenomics and his Investing in America agenda, which have ushered in a small business boom, created good-paying jobs with rising wages, strengthened local economies, and lowered costs for hardworking families," according to a White House statement.
Lehigh Valley Democrats quickly rallied to the news. U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, D-Lehigh Valley, said she looked forward to showing Biden some of the region's thriving small businesses and discussing the region's manufacturing heritage.
"I look forward to sharing this legacy and our community’s vision for the future with the President," Wild said in a prepared statement.
State Rep. Joshua Siegel, D-Lehigh, said the Lehigh Valley's economic strengths make Allentown it a natural fit for Biden's economic message. Biden has been a strong supporter of American manufacturing and union jobs while working to reduce costs burdening working families, he said. Those values mesh well with the Lehigh Valley's, he said.
"Allentown needs President Biden so we can continue our work of building a safe, prosperous, and equitable city," Siegel said.
The trip will be Biden's second to the Lehigh Valley since his election in 2020. In that trip, he toured the Mack Truck plant in Lower Macungie Township in July 2021 as he promoted his infrastructure package. Senate negotiations on his infrastructure proposal blossomed during his visit, and he announced the breakthrough from a podium on the plant floor. He would sign the $1 trillion spending bill into law three months later.
Biden is seeking a second term in the Oval Office and is widely expected to secure the Democratic nomination. He technically faces challengers in author Marianne Williamson and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., but a sitting president hasn't lost a nomination he's sought since Franklin Pierce in 1856.
The trip will be Biden's second to Pennsylvania in a week. He officially launched his re-election campaign in Blue Bell on Friday, where he made the preservation of American democracy a central pillar of his campaign. Referencing the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, Biden directly called out former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in all polls of the Republican field, as a threat to American values.
Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said that news raised an eyebrow given Biden was just in southeast Pennsylvania. Still, he said it's no shock Biden is making an appearance in the Lehigh Valley. The region is a swing district in a battleground state, making it a regular stop for presidents. Biden is the sixth consecutive president to visit the region while in office.
"It's not surprising that he's coming here given Pennsylvania's importance and the region's importance within Pennsylvania," Borick said.
Borick said Biden may have a tough sell if he's pushing his economic successes. While historic indicators of a strong market such unemployment, wage growth and the GDP are all looking bright, polls show Americans aren't all that bullish on the economy. While inflation has eased over the past year, prices are still high, and interests rates are higher today than they've been in decades.
"The challenge is that the public doesn't generally rate the economy in the same positive way the macroeconomic figures would suggest," Borick said.
