Biden Headed to Wisconsin After SOTU   02/08 06:16

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden on Wednesday was headed to Wisconsin, 
a battleground state he won by the slimmest of margins in 2020, to press his 
economic message and other themes from his State of the Union address in the 
window before his next big speech: announcing a possible reelection bid.

   Biden was set to promote his economic plan at a training center run by the 
Laborers' International Union of North America in Deforest, Wisconsin, near 
Madison, the White House said.

   Addressing the nation Tuesday night, Biden said his plan had helped create 
800,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs across the country since 2021, when he 
took office.

   "Where is it written that America can't lead the world in manufacturing 
again?" he said.

   At the union center, the Democratic president will meet with workers and 
apprentices who are learning how to do the jobs that are being created as a 
result of several pieces of major legislation, some of them passed with 
Republican support, that Biden signed into law.

   The measures include trillions of dollars of spending on pandemic relief, 
rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure, jump-starting the 
semiconductor chip industry in the United States, and on climate change and 
health care initiatives.

   He also was expected to discuss how Wisconsin was benefiting from the 
federal largesse.

   Biden's trip, one of two stops he has planned this week, is part of a 
traditional post-State of the Union blitz to at least 20 states by the 
president, Vice President Kamala Harris and members of the Cabinet to promote 
his policies and themes from the speech.

   Biden was scheduled to visit Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, to discuss 
proposals to safeguard Social Security and Medicare, and lower the cost of 
health care.

   In the 2020 election, Biden edged Republican incumbent Donald Trump in 
Wisconsin by a margin of less than 1 percentage point.

   Biden has said he intends to run for a second term in 2024. A formal 
announcement is expected in the coming months. A majority of Democrats now 
think one term is plenty for him, according to a new poll from The Associated 
Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.