President Joe Biden will visit South Carolina this week, his first trip back to the Palmetto State since he was elected president in November 2020.
The White House confirmed Biden will travel to Orangeburg County Friday to give the December commencement speech at South Carolina State University, the state’s only public four-year historically Black college. The university said Biden will speak at 10 a.m., at the Smith Hammond Middleton Memorial Center.
“The South Carolina State University family is honored and grateful to host President Biden when he addresses our graduates as they set a course for their futures,” interim university President Alexander Conyers said in a statement Saturday. “Our students will no doubt remember his words for the rest of their lives. This is indeed a privilege for all here at SC State.”
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, was originally scheduled to give the graduation address, but invited the president to speak, the university said. Clyburn, a 1961 graduate of S.C. State, will instead march with the graduating class and receive his own degree, because the university did not hold December commencement ceremonies when Clyburn graduated and he received his degree by mail.
South Carolina State is more personal to Clyburn beyond a diploma.
It’s where as a student he met his late wife, Emily England Clyburn, whose name also bears a scholarship started by the family.
At Biden’s inauguration, Clyburn sported the garnet hat of his alma mater.
“When I earned my diploma from S.C. State in 1961, I did not have the opportunity to walk the stage,” Clyburn tweeted. “Next week, 60 years later, I’ll have that chance — an occasion made all the more special as I have the honor of welcoming @POTUS back to my alma mater.”
The trip marks Biden’s first trip back since securing the White House and is also the first trip Biden has made back to the state since he won the state’s Democratic presidential primary in February 2020 — an election widely credited with turning around his struggling campaign.
It also marks a change from Biden’s Democratic presidential predecessor, Barack Obama, who was often criticized for visiting a state late in his presidency that also helped him secure the presidential nod in 2008.
First lady Jill Biden visited South Carolina twice in October, the first trip to West Columbia’s Brookland Baptist Church to mark the 50th work anniversary of the Rev. Charles Jackson, and the second time to the Medical University of South Carolina and the Joint Base Charleston military base.
Clyburn is one of Biden’s closest allies in Washington, and his endorsement of Biden in the state’s Democratic presidential primary is also credited with helping Biden win the state and securing his party’s presidential nomination. In the last month, the White House said Clyburn was integral to Biden’s effort to get the infrastructure bill over the finish line, earning him a shout out in Biden’s remarks when he signed the legislation into law.
“I am pleased to welcome President Biden back to my alma mater. The last time he was on this campus, he came to win the hearts and minds of this community,” Clyburn said in a statement Saturday. “This week he will return to share with the newest graduates of South Carolina State what he is doing for them, for their families, and their community to ensure that they have access to America’s greatness.”
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