Biden began his campaign ahead of the 2024 elections in the key state of Pennsylvania

Kick off in Joe Biden’s career to continue in the White House. The president, who last April confirmed his candidacy for the Democratic Party primary elections seeking re-election in 2024, began his political crusade with a rally in the key state of Pennsylvania.

Biden delivered a message, described as “populist” by the local press, and focused on the economy, before a crowd of members of union movements, to whom he pointed out that his policies have created jobs and boosted the middle class. Now is the time for “millionaires and big corporations to pay their fair share” in taxes, he argued.

Biden highlighted the sweeping climate, fiscal and health care package, signed into law in 2022, that lowered the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums — pocket issues that aides say will be the centerpiece of his argument for a second term.

“I look forward to this four-year campaign (…) We have a record to run,” Biden said loudly.

His choice of the Pennsylvania city of Philadelphia and a friendly union hearing as his first official campaign stop reflected his pivotal re-election push.

The city was the site of Biden’s campaign headquarters in 2020, the year in which the Democrats recovered the majority of votes in their favor there, after four years earlier, in 2016, the Pennsylvania electorate ruled in favor of the Republican Donald Trump.

Until the rally, the main activity of Biden’s re-election campaign had been fundraising, as his crusade tries to amass an impressive fundraiser before the second quarter of the year concludes at the end of June. The president raised money at a private home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Friday, June 16, and will soon hold fundraisers in California, Maryland, Illinois and New York.

More than 1,000 workers in unions representing various trades, from carpenters and airport service workers to artists and heavy-duty equipment engineers, most wearing T-shirts bearing their association logos, began chanting “Come on, Joe!” and “We want Joe”, amid whistles hours before the president arrived.

“They oppose everything I have done”

The re-election head of state did not mention any of his potential Republican opponents directly, but said many in the Republican Party “oppose everything I’ve done,” pointing to high inflation rates.

Republicans have criticized “Bidenomics,” a term the president referred to during his rally on Saturday. “I don’t know what the hell that is (…) But it’s working,” he said, pointing out what he considers achievements in economic, environmental and social matters in his Administration.

The event, which organizers say included unions representing 18 million workers across the country, was reminiscent of the opening of Biden’s previous candidacy, in 2020, in a union hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Several of the nation’s most powerful unions, including the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (The AFL-CIO), the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees officially endorsed Biden’s campaign on Friday.

The first-of-its-kind joint endorsement between unions and against the backdrop of hundreds of workers are part of a meticulously choreographed effort to show worker support behind what Biden himself calls the most pro-union president in history.

The union endorsements followed Wednesday’s joint endorsement by major environmental groups, a valuable development according to a campaign official, who said it is meant to show that tackling climate change through green jobs does not threaten workers’ rights.

The rich must “pay their fair share” of taxes

Biden claimed that if Wall Street bankers went on strike, no one would notice, but if union members walked off the job “the whole country would come to a standstill.” He also criticized those who hold more than a billion dollars and only pay 8% in federal taxes.

That pronouncement caused a man in the audience to yell, “How much do you pay?” to which Biden replied, “I pay a lot more than that” and repeatedly asserted that the rich should “pay their fair share.”

Before heading to the union meeting, Biden took a helicopter tour over the collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, disrupting traffic on one of the busiest highways in the country.

Michael Smith, a 62-year-old retired electrician and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said he welcomes the prospect of Biden winning next year’s presidential election because his administration “stands for green jobs and construction.” .

Jennifer McKinnon, 53, an elementary school librarian and member of the National Education Association, said she felt Biden had a personal commitment to education because his wife, Jill, was a teacher and continued to teach English at a New York community college. Northern Virginia as First Lady. Jill Biden also addressed the union rally.

“I’m afraid the Republicans are going to get caught up in the cycle they did last time and people aren’t going to believe it this time, so Joe is going to come in,” McKinnon said of the 2024 elections, alluding to Trump, who, if their candidacies are confirmed after the primary elections of each party, would be Biden’s main opponent on the conservative bench.

Biden argued that his economic policies can help all Americans, regardless of their economic status, an argument that could help him counter the kind of economic populism that fueled Trump with some rank-and-file union members during his first two executive campaigns.

Clark Hamilton, a 63-year-old retiree and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Biden embraced union values, but also noted that the president sometimes “plays like most politicians, in the middle.”

The worker referred to the president urging Congress to help prevent a rail strike last year, which the president said could paralyze trade across the country. “It’s a shame (…) But he was trying to save the economy,” he remarked.

Still, Hamilton stressed that he is confident Biden’s record will secure him a second term next year “especially if it’s against Trump.”