DES MOINES —
UPDATE - 6/25/2012: Vice President Joe Biden will be in Clinton on Wednesday as part of his three-stop campaign event in eastern Iowa.
While the other two events in Waterloo and Dubuque are open to the public, the Clinton event is private. The Clinton Herald will be sending a staff writer to cover the event.
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Vice President Joe Biden plans to campaign next week in northeast Iowa, underscoring the 2012 presidential campaign’s premium on rural and working-class voters.
Biden is scheduled to campaign in Waterloo, Dubuque and Clinton on a two-day trip on Tuesday and Wednesday, President Barack Obama’s campaign said Thursday.
The visit will mark Biden’s third trip to Iowa on behalf of Obama this year, the same as the president.
Iowa is among about a half dozen states where neither Obama nor Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has a clear advantage.
Iowa, despite offering only 6 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, is being hotly pursued in what is expected to be a close election with less than five months until Election Day. Obama carried Iowa in the 2008 election.
And the activity has ramped up quickly since Romney effectively clinched the nomination in May. The former Massachusetts governor campaigned in Des Moines on May 15, followed by Obama on May 24. Romney was back Monday, stopping in Dubuque and Davenport as part of his bus tour through small cities and towns in northern swing states.
Fewer Americans believe the economy is getting better and a majority disapproves of how President Barack Obama is handling it, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll published Thursday which also shows support nationally for Obama and Romney essentially tied.
But Iowa’s economy is faring far better than the nation’s. The state’s unemployment held at 5.1 percent in May, while the nation’s ticked upward to 8.2 percent. Of Biden’s planned stops, only Clinton County’s jobless rate of 5.8 percent exceeded the state average last month.
Still, Obama has struggled to win the support of white, working-class voters, such as those who populate the rural, upper Mississippi Valley corridor where Biden will be visiting and where Romney campaigned this week.
Obama lost these voters to Republican John McCain in 2008, 40 percent to 58 percent, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press. And his standing does not seem to have improved in the meantime. A May AP-GfK showed 38 percent of these voters supporting Obama, compared to 53 percent for Romney.
The Clinton Herald is currently working to determine the exact date, time and location Biden will be visiting. Additional information will be provided as it is received.
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Related Photos
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Vice President Joe Biden delivers the Commencement Address to Cypress Bay High School graduates on June 4 in Miami. Biden is set to visit Clinton next week. AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
Discussion
June 21, 2012
UPDATED STORY: Vice President Biden to visit Clinton
Two-day tour of Iowa will also include stops in Waterloo, Dubuque
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