President Biden arrives in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday for a campaign rally. Coupled with a primetime interview, the rally may be his last, and best, hope of saving his fragile presidential campaign.
The state is a fitting location for a pivotal moment as Biden, 81, tries to stem the tide of defections from voters, donors, activists and lawmakers who believe he is simply too old.
Wisconsin, which has 10 electoral votes, is part of the president’s Midwestern stronghold and a group of Rust Belt states he must win if he wants another four years in the White House. Even before his brutal defeat in last week’s debate, polls had shown Biden in a close race with Trump in the state, which he won by about 20,000 votes in 2020 out of more than 3.2 million.
It’s also at the center of a long-running fight over voting procedures that could determine the outcome of another closely fought election. On Friday, just hours before Air Force One was scheduled to land, liberal justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned an earlier ruling by conservative justices that had banned the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in elections.
That change alone is likely to give Biden an advantage if he remains in the running in November’s election. Democrats tend to do well in early voting, a practice Trump has denounced as fraudulent and urged his supporters not to mail in their ballots early.
But Friday’s visit to Madison, the state capital and college city that is heavily Democratic, was nothing like a typical battleground state visit.
Biden is facing the kind of intense political scrutiny usually reserved for the midst of a scandal, and every word he utters at rallies and interviews will be viewed through the lens of two questions hanging over his campaign: Is 81 too old? And can he still win?
For days, Biden, his allies, White House officials and campaign officials have answered those questions the same way: no and yes. At a White House banquet on Thursday evening, supporters chanted at Biden to “keep fighting. We need you.” The president gave a forceful response.
“You got me,” he said, loud enough for reporters to hear, “I’m not going anywhere.”
For now, his future may depend on how well he appeals to fickle Wisconsin voters, a state that has switched candidates in the past two presidential elections. Friday’s arrival marks his fifth visit to the state this year. In January, he visited the Blatnik Bridge in Superior, Wisconsin, to promote an infrastructure bill. In May, he visited Racine, Wisconsin, to promote the construction of an AI data center.
Friday will be different.
Biden is scheduled to hold a campaign rally during his four hours there, during which he must prove to skeptical supporters he has the drive to put up a tough fight against former President Donald J. Trump with four months left in the campaign.
After the rally, Biden will do his first full interview since his debate debacle in Atlanta cast deep doubts about his mental health. How he answers questions from ABC’s George Stephanopoulos could determine whether his reelection bid survives.
