Biden heads to Minnesota farm to court rural US voters

President Joe Biden visits a family farm in Minnesota on Wednesday, aiming his reelection campaign at rural America, which voted overwhelmingly for his rival Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

This Midwestern state also happens to be home to Dean Phillips, a congressman little known on the national stage who has just thrown his hat into ring as a challenger to Biden for the Democratic nomination.

Barring a huge surprise, Biden is nearly guaranteed to be his party’s presidential candidate in November 2024.

Biden is launching a two-week offensive during which several members of his administration will crisscross the country to show how the 80-year-old Democrat’s economic and social policies “guarantee rural Americans that they don’t have to go far from home to find opportunity.”

His administration will tout Biden’s massive infrastructure program, which the White House says are synonymous with improved Internet access, upgraded roads, more reliable electrical systems and better access to healthcare.

Biden is also expected to talk about his promised support for innovative agricultural systems that are more resilient in the face of climate change, as well as his efforts to develop competition in certain agricultural markets to the benefit of small farmers.

The rural vote could prove crucial in some contested states next year, but Biden faces a huge challenge in trying to reverse the trend of rural America voting increasingly Republican.

According to Pew Research, former Republican president Donald Trump has overwhelmingly won this rural electorate in the last two presidential elections: 59 percent of rural voters voted for him in 2016, and 65 percent in 2020. (BSS/AFP)