First Lady Jill Biden makes campaign stop in Minnesota, calls on seniors
First Lady Jill Biden made her second stop in Minnesota during a multi-state campaign blitz Thursday, pitching to older voters to vote for her husband in November.
The 73-year-old helped launch Seniors for Biden-Harris on behalf of the campaign at a pep rally at the Lincoln Park Senior Center in Duluth. There, she touted the current administration’s pro-aging policies, including social security, Medicare and lowering medication prices.
She also didn’t shy away from addressing concerns about her husband’s age.
“We cannot be defined by a number,” Biden said. “And when people underestimate, they do so at their own risk.”
Age has become a hot topic of discussion during this election cycle as the two frontrunners are some of the oldest in the country’s history. Though Biden has faced most of the fall largely due to a series of public missteps, his 78-year-old opponent, former President Donald Trump, has also been criticized as unfit for the high office.
“Joe Biden is a healthy, wise 81-year-old ready and willing to work for you every day to make our future better,” she said at the event. “Joe isn’t one of the most effective presidents of our lives in spite of his age, but because of it.”
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More: Elections 2024: Will Minnesota be a battleground state in November?
The local Seniors for Biden-Harris campaigns will focus on reaching the older populations through letter-writing campaigns, texting, and phone banks, while the national effort plans to mobilize voters through retirement-age staples: pickleball and bingo.
President Biden handily won Minnesota in 2020 by an over seven-point margin, despite fraudulent claims from Trump that he was the rightful victor.
This tension has caused the North Star state to see several high-profile visits from both party leaders since the start of the campaign cycle.
Trump visited St. Paul last month to speak at its local GOP convention while Biden visited Duluth back in January to tout infrastructure funding. And Vice President Kamala Harris made a historic stop at an abortion clinic in Minnesota in March. The first lady rallied educators and women during an event in April, while Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff visited the North Star state in February.
Biden started her day in Green Bay, Wisconsin, before arriving at the Duluth International Airport in the late afternoon. On Friday, she will make appearances in California, Nevada, and Arizona.
— Sam Woodward is the Minnesota elections reporting fellow for USA Today. You can reach her at swoodward@gannett.com, on X @woodyreports, or on Threads @samjowoody.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: First Lady Jill Biden campaigns in Minnesota, calls on seniors
