© Reuters. US President during State of the Union address 2/7/2023 Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
Por Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fresh off a State of the Union address to Congress that challenged Republican opponents to help unite the country, U.S. President Joe Biden heads to two states crucial to his long-awaited re-election bid in 2024.
The Democratic president told Republicans who have questioned his legitimacy and threatened to block his policies that “there’s no reason we can’t work together.”
Now, in a tradition of U.S. presidents the day after the big speech, he’s taking the message on the road, with stops in Wisconsin and Florida in the coming days as his wife Jill Biden attends the NFL’s Super Bowl in Arizona.
Biden’s trip this week will focus on the competitive states his political advisers believe will determine whether he can win a second four-year term.
The president’s public approval rating was 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll closed on Sunday, close to the lowest level of his presidency, a potential hurdle to any re-election bid. White House aides cast doubt on the relevance of the numbers more than a year before the vote.
Biden travels first on Wednesday to DeForest, Wisconsin, a state that switched from supporting former Republican President Donald Trump in 2016 to favoring Biden in 2020.
On Thursday, Biden heads to Tampa, Florida, to hammer Republican lawmakers on what the White House characterizes as their desire to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. Seniors and health programs are popular with voters, especially in a state with one of the largest senior populations.