Joe Biden to campaign in Minnesota Sept. 18
A file image shows former Vice President Joe Biden at the Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo: Michael Brochstein / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
(FOX 9) - Joe Biden will visit Minnesota Friday, Sept. 18, his campaign announced Thursday.
His campaign did not release any specific plans, but said he will be in Minnesota in person for the first time in the Presidential campaign. The date is significant because it is the first day of early voting in the state.
Former Vice President Biden’s campaign and that of his opponent President Donald Trump have both devoted considerable resources to Minnesota in the last few weeks in an effort to win the state.
Trump visited three weeks ago, signaling that his campaign thinks it’s a battleground.
This week, Donald Trump Jr. was in Duluth Wednesday and Lara Trump was in Minneapolis Thursday.
Jill Biden also visited the state Wednesday and Harris held a Minnesota-centric virtual event this week, too.
Hamline University Professor David Schultz pointed out that Minnesota has not been a swing state in the past. The last Republican to win Minnesota was Richard Nixon and polls have had Biden with a comfortable lead in Minnesota.
Schultz believes Biden and President Trump are still testing the waters in Minnesota. If polls tighten in the next couple of weeks, it could make Minnesota a battleground state after all.
“But if it looks like, at this point, Minnesota’s out of grasp for Trump, he may start to move his resources elsewhere and say, gosh, a dollar I put in here I can’t put in Wisconsin, for example, so I think this is a critical next two weeks that are coming up.”