WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to arrive in Kansas City on Wednesday to talk directly with Midwestern voters about a new infrastructure investment that will help repair bridges and replace water pipes.
In at least one way, it’s an unusual trip for the president.
Biden and other high-profile White House officials — including Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — have taken special care over the past year to visit the ten most politically competitive states during the 2020 election, a McClatchy analysis of their travel schedules finds. It’s a group of states that includes battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan, each of which Biden won narrowly last year.
Biden, Harris and Buttigieg haven’t altogether ignored conservative states like Missouri — the president has traveled to ruby red Louisiana and Idaho, for instance — but their visits there have been less frequent. White House veterans say the approach is common for presidents seeking to shore up support in the most politically important areas.
“It’s not novel at all that they would have a focus on his political health and what it would take to get re-elected if he chooses to run again,” said Terry Nelson, who was former President George W. Bush’s political director for his 2004 re-election campaign.
Nelson and other political strategists emphasize that traveling to Democratic or Republican strongholds is still politically important, as those states still could host competitive elections for the U.S. House.
They also add that presidential trips outside of Washington also helps the White House more effectively convey its message to the public. It’s why Biden is traveling to Kansas City on Wednesday — marking the first presidential visit to the city since former President Donald Trump in late 2018 — to promote the new $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law.
The plan directs hundreds of billions of dollars toward projects like improving public transportation, expanding broadband internet access and upgrading the electric grid, among other initiatives.
“The trip is part of the president’s and the administration’s nationwide tour that demonstrates how the president is following through on his promise to forge bipartisan consensus and prove our democracy can deliver big wins for the American people,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
SWING STATE EMPHASIS
But more often than not for this White House, those trips have come to the states that matter most in presidential elections.
Since taking office, Biden has held public events in eight of the 10 states with the closest vote margin in last year’s election — Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Minnesota, Texas, and North Carolina — with only Arizona and Nevada missing from the list, according to a review of the president’s schedule compiled from from media reports and White House press releases.
But Harris has visited Nevada three times as vice president, while Buttigieg traveled to Arizona twice as secretary of transportation. Harris’ and Buttigieg’s offices supplied a list of destinations the two officials have visited on official business.
Biden has traveled the most often to his home state of Delaware and Virginia and Maryland, the two states adjacent to Washington. He has also visited states he lost by significant margins in 2020, like Ohio (three times) and Louisiana (twice).
But the president has paid special attention to the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania (nine visits) and Michigan (five visits), while traveling twice to Georgia and North Carolina.
Excluding Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, more than half of Biden’s visits outside of Washington — 23 of 43 total — have been to states that were among the 10 most competitive during the last election.
“It’s an unparalleled experience to have the president in your community,” said Bobby Schmuck, a former special adviser to former President Barack Obama. “And we always kept in mind that there’s nothing like showing up that helps sell what you’re trying to get done for the American people.”
Schmuck, who helped organize official White House visits, said that even a two-hour stopover for a president requires an advance team of up to 10 staff on the ground a week ahead of time, to coordinate with local officials, site hosts, and law enforcement. It’s why there’s such care taken, he said, to select sites that prove useful to help deliver the president’s message.
Overall, Biden has traveled less often to start his presidency than other recent presidents because of the coronavirus pandemic.
NEXT STOP, KANSAS CITY
The Kansas City metro area straddles Missouri and Kansas, states that Biden lost by roughly 15 points each in 2020. But political experts say visiting the region still makes sense strategically with control of Congress on the line next year.
“Although Missouri is certainly red and Kansas even more so traditionally, there are a few competitive U.S. House seats and Missouri’s Senate race could be competitive,” said Peverill Squire, a political scientist at the University of Missouri.
Missouri’s open Senate seat presents a potential pickup opportunity for Democrats if Republicans nominate former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned from office in 2018 amid a string of scandals.
But the Kansas City region’s incumbent Democrats will be on defense in key House races, with the party facing a tough national environment and Republicans in control of the redistricting process in Missouri and Kansas. Democratic Reps. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri and Sharice Davids of Kansas could benefit from a presidential visit and opportunity to promote a law that will fund long-desired local projects.
“I think everybody who drives on I-70 or any of the interstates around the Kansas City area will appreciate the idea that investment is needed and that bridges need to be replaced,” Squire said. “It’s an easy political winner.”
Missouri has roads in notoriously poor condition. And both Kansas and Missouri rank high among states with lead pipes in their drinking water system, a problem Biden hopes to solve with $15 billion for pipe replacement in the infrastructure law.
“First, the President understands Kansas City and the broader Midwest are fertile ground for the emphasis he wants to place on hardworking middle-class families and the benefits they are going to see from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” Cleaver, a Biden ally and former Kansas City mayor, said in an email.
“It’s the working class who will benefit from safer roads, cleaner drinking water, better broadband, and, of course, good-paying jobs that will result from the long overdue investment in our national infrastructure—and the President wants to make clear to the public precisely who delivered this federal funding after years of talk with no action,” Cleaver added.
