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Biden Heads to WI to Laud New Facility 05/08 06:07
President Joe Biden is racing into yet another battleground state Wednesday,
continuing to push a contrast with Donald Trump on economic policy as his own
reelection campaign readies a new $14 million advertising blitz aimed in part
at Black, Latino and Asian American voters.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden is racing into yet another
battleground state Wednesday, continuing to push a contrast with Donald Trump
on economic policy as his own reelection campaign readies a new $14 million
advertising blitz aimed in part at Black, Latino and Asian American voters.
Biden is traveling to Racine, Wisconsin, where he'll highlight a decision by
Microsoft to build a $3.3 billion data center that is expected to create
roughly 2,000 jobs. It's also the same spot where Trump, to much fanfare,
lauded a plan by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn plan to build a $10
billion manufacturing facility that was supposed to eventually employ 10,000
people. Except it was never completed.
Conscious of that history, Microsoft's president Brad Smith said in an
interview with The Associated Press that Microsoft had a "steadfast commitment
to under-promising and over-delivering" and praised the Biden administration
and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for economic policies that set the stage for the
developments announced Wednesday.
Trump's campaign didn't address Foxconn, but the former president often says
the economy was in a much better position when he was in office, and it will be
again should he win.
Meanwhile, Biden's reelection team is sharpening their outreach to minority
voters on the airwaves, with the fresh, seven-figure digital and television ad
campaign launching Wednesday that follows the $30 million effort that began
after his State of the Union address in early March. One of the ads that is a
part of the fresh campaign will also be released Wednesday and focuses on
Trump's failed yet determined push to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
After his speech, Biden is making a campaign stop to speak with Black voters
about the stakes of the November election.
The Biden campaign wants to capitalize on the fundraising advantage it's
enjoyed over Trump, hoping to bury them on the airwaves while amassing
significant resources on the ground in key battleground states to force
Republicans to play catch-up much later in the year.
"Equally important as our own historic investments is the complete lack of
investment on the other side," Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign's
communications director, told reporters. "Trump's paid media strategy can only
be described as anemic and inefficient."
A significant portion of the $14 million campaign starting Wednesday will go
into Black and Hispanic media, as well as Asian American print and radio,
according to the campaign. Campaign officials also said Biden will continue to
do targeted interviews with media that serve primarily minority audiences,
while the campaign plans to launch more coalition groups in May that focus on
specific blocs of voters. So far, the Biden campaign has started groups to
engage women, Latinos and educators.
By the end of May, Biden's reelection effort will have more than 200 offices
and roughly 500 staff in place, according to Dan Kanninen, the campaign's
battleground director. Those figures include offices in areas that
traditionally haven't seen investments by Democrats in pockets of Michigan,
Arizona and North Carolina.
"We're showing up in the community every day and attempting to earn every
vote," said Quentin Fulks, the Biden campaign's principal deputy campaign
manager. "Donald Trump and his team are doing none of that."
Though Biden's remarks in Racine are part of a formal White House event,
Fulks said the stop will "highlight the stark contrast between the progress
he's made for Wisconsin's families and Donald Trump's failures."
Microsoft's Smith said the first phase of the new data center complex will
bring an influx of 2,300 mostly construction jobs by the end of the year.
While Microsoft has been ramping up AI-driven data center construction
around the world, "this one is more important than many because there is more
land and ultimately access to power available," said Smith, who lived in the
area where the center is being built as a child.
Once in operation, however, even the most powerful data centers typically
employ a relatively small group of full-time employees to oversee them.
Microsoft will have about 500, pulling from highly skilled workers in the
corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago, Smith said.
However, he argued that the bigger impact for the region would be in the
technology itself and broader investments in preparing the Upper Midwest for
its impacts.
"This is about the competitiveness of manufacturing in places like Wisconsin
and Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Ohio," Smith said.
Racine County is a critical location; all but five of the past 33 winning
presidential candidates carried it. Trump is one of the five; he won Racine
County, but lost the election. Biden was the first Democrat since 1976 to win
Wisconsin without carrying Racine County.
Polls, including one from the Marquette University Law School last month,
show the race to be about even in Wisconsin, a state where four of the past six
presidential elections have been decided by less than a percentage point. Biden
won by just under 21,000 votes in 2020.
Republicans point to both state and national polls showing that their voters
are more enthused than Democrats. In Wisconsin's presidential primary a month
ago, 18,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted.
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