Then-Vice President Joe Biden meets with then-Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jordan Matthews before a game in September 2016.
AP Photo/Michael Perez
President Joe Biden has long championed Philadelphia, from its small businesses to its sports teams.Biden has been a frequent presence in the city during his presidency, especially with labor groups.The city holds the key to a second Biden term. He needs to perform well there to win Pennsylvania.
For President Joe Biden, Philadelphia is never too far away.
Biden’s hometown of Scranton is roughly 120 miles away from Philly. As a senator, Biden represented neighboring Delaware for 36 years. And the president, an Eagles and Phillies fan, can get to Philly from his Wilmington home in under an hour.
So it’s no surprise that Biden last Monday marked his ninth visit to Philadelphia this year, which was also his 19th trip to the city since becoming president in 2021.
And as Biden ramps up his 2024 campaign, Philadelphia will be key to his reelection bid as the most populous city in Pennsylvania, one of the most important swing states that he’ll need to hold to remain in the Oval Office.
Biden speaks with firefighters in Philadelphia after delivering remarks announcing the reopening of three shuttered city fire companies.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Biden, everywhere you look
In September, Biden kicked off the city’s Labor Day festival, where he boosted the work of organized labor. In October, he was in the city to promote his administration’s economic policies.
And during Biden’s appearance last week, he met with firefighters in the city’s Francisville neighborhood to tout a $22.4 million federal grant that will reopen that area’s Ladder 1 fire station and also fund the reopening of two other ladder companies that were shuttered in January 2009, during the Great Recession.
These sorts of visits give the president local television coverage that is often reserved for the mayor of Philadelphia or the governor of Pennsylvania, and the appearances can only enhance his familiarity in the region, which date back to his years as a senator and as vice president under President Barack Obama.
Earlier this month, several Democratic governors told The New York Times they’d be thrilled to see Biden at more ribbon-cuttings and groundbreakings for businesses and sites tied to the administration’s infrastructure and climate laws to improve his standing among voters.
But in the Philly area, Biden has always been visible. That familiarity factor could play a critical role next year when the region’s votes are tallied.
Biden, a longtime Philadelphia sports fan, shows off his Phillies socks.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
The Philly factor
Biden needs strong turnout in Philadelphia to win in 2024. And he’ll need to recreate his robust 2020 performance in the Philly suburbs, notably in Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, and Delaware counties, in order to counter what is expected to be a large rural turnout for the likely GOP nominee, former President Donald Trump.
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in Pennsylvania by 1.2%, or roughly 80,000 votes out of nearly 7 million ballots cast statewide. The victory was an important flip for Democrats, as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had narrowly lost the state in 2016, the first Democratic loss on the presidential level since 1988.
Biden’s 2020 victory in the Keystone State was also critical as the win put him over the 270 electoral vote-threshold needed to secure the presidency.
And that win was powered by Philadelphia, where Biden won roughly 604,000 votes, vastly outpacing Trump, who earned nearly 133,000 votes in the city. Overall, Biden won the city 81%-18%.
Biden, whose 2020 campaign was headquartered in Philly, won a broad coalition of the city’s voters, especially among Black voters, Latino voters, liberals, and organized labor.
But Trump still improved his share of the city’s vote relative to 2016, when he earned nearly 108,000 votes. The former president attracted more support in some Latino-heavy precincts in 2020, a trend that was seen in similar communities across the country that year.
Democrats have pointed to their lack of a vigorous in-person door-to-door operation as an issue that affected them while they campaigned for Biden during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And ahead of 2024, the party has been concerned about Biden’s waning poll numbers among Black voters as well as his slide in support among younger voters critical of the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
With some of these challenges in mind, both parties are gearing up to heavily engage with voters across the state in 2024.
And Biden is poised to be an even bigger presence in Philly next year.
His hopes for a second term will depend on it.