President Joe Biden receives from Air Force One before departure on March 16, 2021, en route to visit a small business in Chester, Pennsylvania to highlight how the American Rescue Plan helps small businesses .
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President Joe Biden receives from Air Force One before departure on March 16, 2021, en route to visit a small business in Chester, Pennsylvania to highlight how the American Rescue Plan helps small businesses .
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images
Like many Americans living close to home during the pandemic, President Joe Biden has limited his time traveling around the United States this year, unlike his recent predecessors, who hit the road more often. in the early years of his rule.
All told, according to an NPR analysis of the president’s official visit, Biden has spent 42 days organizing events beyond the borders of Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, and the most popular destination is where he was born – Pennsylvania. Biden has visited the state seven times since he was sworn in. No recent president, since Jimmy Carter, has been there regularly during his first year, according to data from U.S. Naval Academy political science professor Brendan Doherty.
“Presidents travel for many reasons,” said Doherty, who followed the president’s travels for a book he wrote. “Sometimes they’re trying to push their own re-election interests, going to key swing states. Sometimes, they’re raising campaign funds – although Biden mostly did that.”
Biden’s trip appears to be a mix of election calculations ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the traditional presidential mandate to comfort Americans after natural disasters, and a personal desire to elevate priorities. difficult to change legal priorities, such as racial justice.
And, so, for example, the Democratic president visited Oklahoma, a Republican state, in June to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa racial massacre.
U.S. President Joe Biden quietly prays during a moment of silence during the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Racial Massacre on June 1, 2021 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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U.S. President Joe Biden quietly prays during a moment of silence during the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Racial Massacre on June 1, 2021 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Presidents often make trips to advance policy agendas and build support for specific legislation in Congress, Doherty says.
Biden visited a vaccine production site, car factory, union training center and even a rusty old bridge for sale, first his COVID relief bill, then that’s his infrastructure plan, and more recently his so-called Better Rebuild Agenda.
Pennsylvania checked a lot of boxes for him. So does Michigan.
After Pennsylvania, excluding Maryland and Virginia, which is home to several federal agencies that presidents of both parties frequently visit, Michigan is the next state most frequently visited by Biden. He has made trips there five times in 2021.
Visiting the election battlefield
Like Pennsylvania, Michigan has increasingly become a battleground in presidential elections, and is part of the so-called “green wall” of Democrats. Both are key to Biden’s win, and both are expected to have competitive senatorial and/or directorial elections next year.
President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and his Build Better Again agenda at the International Union of Operations Engineers Training Facility in Howell, Michigan, on May 5. October 2021.
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President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and his Build Better Again agenda at the International Union of Operations Engineers Training Facility in Howell, Michigan, on May 5. October 2021.
NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP via Getty Images
Both Republican and Democratic presidents tend to visit battleground states more than others.
But Biden has focused on the traditional Democratic map across the Midwest and northeast, rather than the demographic shift south. He has been to Ohio three times, although he has lost the state, and by most political analysts’ judgment, Ohio has increasingly dominated the Republican party in presidential elections. He’s only been to Florida once, after the Surfside apartment building collapsed. And he’s never been to Arizona – a state he almost won.
The White House points to proximity as a factor. Biden has only been west of the Rocky Mountains once. Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton have all held multiple days of events in California at this point in their presidency.
Bush: master of travel strategy
Presidents and their staff tend to believe that they can influence public debate with a presidential visit; It is part of the communication strategy.
Doherty says former President George W. Bush’s team is particularly disciplined with a focus on travel and messaging.
“[Bush] will usually declare a week to speak – week of education. And then will travel around the country with three or four events in different cities where all he talks about is education,” Doherty said.
According to Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary at the time, this was on purpose.
“The first six months were very active in going to states for Democratic senators and organizing huge tax rallies to encourage them to vote for the 2001 Bush tax cut,” he said. and pointed out that some of the trips targeted states that Bush had won. continue to have Democratic senators. “And he will call on Senator Breaux from Louisiana to join me and the crowd will scream, sending a signal that, you are a senator, you are a Democrat, but your people are your people. for you.”
For Bush’s White House, the president’s visit to the strategic status quo was a tool the president and his team used on Capitol Hill to pass legislation. But that was a different era, and while travel is still useful, Fleischer himself wonders if it is as effective today as it was 20 years ago when he was in the White House.
“Tourism used to be one of the most powerful tools of the president, when there was less media, less internet money, and then suddenly a president came to town and it was big news,” he said. for days,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden board Air Force One prior to departure from Hagerstown Regional Airport in Hagerstown, Maryland, February 15, 2021
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U.S. President Joe Biden board Air Force One prior to departure from Hagerstown Regional Airport in Hagerstown, Maryland, February 15, 2021
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Some Presidents may find it more helpful to stay in Washington and work on the phone. Ultimately, Fleischer says that a legislative victory increases the president’s popularity more than a random trip to cover positive local news.
In November, Biden signed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law, but his other signature initiative — the Better Rebuild bill to expand the safety net society and fight climate change – is gaining support after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a key vote, said he could not support it.
A White House official said Biden is expected to hit the streets more often in 2022, ahead of the midterm deadline.
While that can get politically complicated – it’s not necessarily helpful for politicians campaigning in places where they’re unpopular.
And – for now – the president’s approval ratings are underwater, and he seems unpopular even in the states he’s won.
