President Biden is kicking off his rural America tour Wednesday in Minnesota, the home state of Rep. Dean Phillips, who launched his 2024 Democratic presidential primary challenge just days ago.
Biden is expected to announce $5 billion in new investments, including $1.7 billion in “climate-smart agriculture programs,” $1 billion in broadband deployment, and some $2 billion in rural development programs.
“I think there are obviously a lot of folks in Minnesota who understand and appreciate climate-smart agriculture and the enormous new income opportunities and environmental benefits that that accrues,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Explaining that the primary goal of the administration’s tour is highlighting federal farm subsidies, Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, championed Minnesota as an early adopter of clean-water initiatives and biofuels.
Biden’s trip is being viewed as a show of political force on the home turf of his new 2024 primary challenger, Phillips. The White House and Biden’s re-election campaign, however, say Wednesday’s trip was planned before Phillips joined the race, according to The Associated Press.
The president is scheduled to travel from Washington, D.C., to Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon, and he will then tour a family farm in Northfield, Minnesota, as part of the administration’s Investing in Rural America Event Series. The White House said Biden will deliver remarks there “highlighting how Bidenomics and his Investing in America agenda are ensuring rural Americans do not have to leave their hometowns to find opportunity.”
Aides are billing the visit to Dutch Creek Farms in rural Dakota County as the start of Biden’s “barnstorming” of rural America aimed at spotlighting farmers who are leaning on recent federal spending to improve sustainability and offer producers a competitive leg up in new markets, the Star Tribune reported.
The president will also attend a campaign event in Minneapolis before flying back to Joint Base Andrews.
Invited guests to Biden’s fundraiser include past donors to Phillips’ congressional campaigns, as well as Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.
Phillips, 54, is a moderate from the largely well-to-do, comfortably Democratic Minneapolis suburbs. He has been saying since last year that Biden should not be seeking re-election and should instead step aside to make way for a new generation. He points to polls showing voters, even many Democrats, concerned about the 80-year-old president’s age and electability against Donald Trump, the former president and Republican frontrunner.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
