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- President Biden is returning to Superior, Wisconsin, to announce almost $5 billion in federal funding for infrastructure initiatives, together with the John A. Blatnik Memorial Bridge.
- The Blatnik Bridge, connecting Wisconsin and Minnesota, serves over 33,000 autos each day however prohibits heavy vehicles due to its decaying state.
- The federal funding, a part of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package deal signed by Biden over two years in the past, goals to improve and restore the bridge.
The final time President Joe Biden visited Superior, Wisconsin, he warned of the hazard posed by the deteriorating John A. Blatnik Memorial Bridge — stating the decades-old corrosion that had weakened the overpass connecting the 2 port cities in Wisconsin and Minnesota and vowing to repair it.
Biden is returning to that bridge on the tip of Lake Superior on Thursday to announce almost $5 billion in federal funding that might improve it and dozens of comparable infrastructure initiatives nationwide, because the Democratic president jump-starts an election yr push to persuade voters to reward him for his coverage achievements in workplace. Biden is making his pitch in a crucial swing state that is a part of the “blue wall” trio of states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — the place he defeated Republican President Donald Trump in 2020.
More than 33,000 autos journey on the Blatnik Bridge every single day, however heavy vehicles are barred from it due to its decaying situation. That, in flip, has prompted prolonged detours. Without further federal funds, the bridge would have had to shut down by 2030, in accordance to the White House. It is getting $1 billion in federal funding for upgrades and repairs.
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The cash comes from a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package deal that Biden signed into regulation greater than two years in the past.
President Joe Biden and first girl Jill Biden go to the John A. Blatnik Memorial Bridge on March 2, 2022, in Superior, Wis. Biden is returning to the bridge on Thursday to announce almost $5 billion in federal funding that might improve it and dozens of comparable infrastructure initiatives nationwide. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
“It will save families time on their commutes. It will allow trucks to get goods to shelves more quickly and will boost businesses and small businesses across Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, that are looking for just a little breathing room and the opportunity to build generational wealth,” White House deputy chief of employees Natalie Quillian mentioned.
Though the president’s go to on Thursday will not be formally a marketing campaign occasion, his sharpened deal with Wisconsin with the election lower than 10 months away highlights its place as one in every of a shrinking handful of real battleground states.
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Four of the previous six presidential elections have been determined by lower than a proportion level in Wisconsin, with Trump profitable narrowly in 2016 in opposition to Democrat Hillary Clinton earlier than shedding to Biden by an analogous margin in 2020.
All indicators level to Wisconsin remaining almost evenly divided, at the same time as Democrats have made good points in latest elections. A Marquette Law School ballot launched in November confirmed the 2024 presidential race to be a toss-up with the election a yr away.
Democratic leaders in Wisconsin have burdened the significance of Biden visiting the state. Clinton’s defeat in 2016 was blamed partially on the truth that she by no means campaigned in Wisconsin after profitable the Democratic nomination.
“He needs to be here, simple as that,” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers advised The Associated Press in an interview earlier this month.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan agreed, saying he has advised Biden he should go to Wisconsin to spotlight his investments in roads, bridges and broadband web growth and his efforts to convey down inflation and battle local weather change.
“He wants to do that,” Pocan mentioned. “He certainly understands the importance of Wisconsin.”
It’s not simply Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris was in Wisconsin on Monday to promote the administration’s efforts to shield abortion rights, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will likely be there Friday to speak up Biden’s financial insurance policies.
When Biden visits Wisconsin on Thursday, it is going to mark his eighth journey to the state as president and his second to Superior, a metropolis of 27,000 residents alongside the shores of Lake Superior simply throughout the border from Minnesota.
He’s anticipated to tout the greater than $1 billion in federal funding, together with from the infrastructure invoice he signed into regulation, to change the Blatnik Bridge, which connects Superior and Duluth.
Ahead of Biden’s go to, Democrats in Wisconsin have been on a profitable streak. They have received 14 of the previous 17 statewide elections, together with Biden in 2020, Evers in 2022 and Janet Protasiewicz in April. Her victory within the Wisconsin Supreme Court race took majority management of the court docket away from conservatives for the primary time in 15 years, and she or he sided with the liberal majority in December in hanging down Republican-drawn legislative maps. The court docket is now contemplating new maps that might significantly scale back Republican legislative majorities.
Republicans have had wins, together with reelecting U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson final yr, choosing up a congressional seat and growing majorities within the state Senate and the Assembly. But these good points have been overshadowed by the losses within the presidential, governor’s and Supreme Court races.
Democrats have been ready to chip into the once-reliably conservative Milwaukee suburbs that noticed GOP help drop within the Trump period. Democrats additionally capitalized on inhabitants good points in Dane County, dwelling to the liberal capital metropolis of Madison and the University of Wisconsin.
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The Democratic strikes have been ready to assist offset Republican good points made in rural areas in the course of the Trump period.
Republicans selected Milwaukee for their nationwide conference in July, with Democrats gathering simply throughout the border the next month in Chicago.
Longtime Wisconsin Republican strategist Brandon Scholz mentioned even Republicans who should not agency backers of Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination after wins within the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire main, are pushed to defeat Biden in what seems to be an more and more possible rematch of 2020.
“Republicans are like sharks smelling blood in the water,” Scholz mentioned. “They see Biden as weak. … Biden can come to Wisconsin a thousand times, and I don’t think it’s going to change his position.”
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