Unpopular Biden sticks close to home as midterm campaigns enter final two weeks
PHOENIX – It’s been two weeks since Joe Biden last made a campaign trip to Arizona, and his campaign has been taking in some much-needed fundraising.
Biden, a longtime Democratic senator from Delaware, has been working closely with his top advisers to ramp up his campaign in the final week before ballots are cast Tuesday night in Arizona and beyond. He is spending $1 million on Arizona television ads, while he also is ramping up his efforts for early voting and the midterms.
Biden’s team is also talking up the momentum he’s gained at events across the state, including with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a top opponent in the general election. Biden went after Romney in a speech in Scottsdale on Wednesday, hitting him for his votes against the Violence Against Women Act. The former vice president also took Romney on in person: Both are former rivals who grew up in neighboring Utah.
“We’ve worked across the aisle as the two senators from the two neighboring states of Utah,” said Biden in a Phoenix rally last week, adding that Romney was “right to stand up in opposition and against the Violence Against Women Act.”
The race to lead the Democratic Party in 2020 is beginning to take shape.
In recent days, polls have tightened significantly, with former Vice President Joe Biden leading Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont by 12 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.
And in Arizona, political observers say Sanders is in a clear position to take the lead in the primary contest there early next year.
The race for governor is also in flux, with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an anti-establishment conservative, facing felony charges for lying to federal investigators in his time as an Arpaio-run immigration agency. Still, the Republican who has the most name recognition in the state is term-limited GOP Gov. Doug Ducey.
Biden’s visit to Tucson, where he was feted by the City Council and the mayor, was his first campaign trip to the state since the day after Sanders’ entrance into the race.
Biden visited the University of Phoenix, where he spoke to students and hosted a reception with local elected officials, including U.S.