President Joe Biden to return to South Carolina next week. Here’s what to know
President Joe Biden will return to South Carolina on Monday when he speaks at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, his reelection campaign announced.
His remarks are part of an effort to energize the coalition of voters who elected him to the White House in 2020. The visit will be Biden’s fourth to the Palmetto State since becoming president.
In announcing the president’s trip to Charleston, Biden’s reelection campaign team said former President Donald Trump’s efforts to regain the White House present a danger to the country.
“The 2024 field has made clear time and time again that they don’t just accept, they give their full-throated endorsement to Donald Trump’s anti-democratic, anti-freedom rhetoric and actions,” said Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. “With that reality comes a stark and sobering fact the choice for voters next year will not simply be between competing philosophies of government. The choice for the American people in November 2024 will be about protecting our democracy and every American’s fundamental freedoms.”
Biden’s visit to Mother Emanuel is part of a slew of campaign events for the president and Vice President Kamala Harris this month. Biden also will speak at Valley Forge on Saturday, and Harris will kick off a bus tour on protecting abortion access in Wisconsin.
Biden’s visit will be at the Charleston church where nine Black parishioners, including a state senator, were killed during a Bible study by a white supremacist in 2015.
“Whether it is white supremacist descending on historic American city of Charlottesville, the assault on our nation’s capitol on Jan. 6, or white supremacist murdering churchgoers at Mother Emanuel nearly nine years ago, America is worried about the rise in political violence and determined to stand against it,” said Biden-Harris 2024 Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks.
Biden’s visit will be two days after Harris speaks to the 7th Episcopal District AME Church Women’s Missionary Society annual retreat in Myrtle Beach.
Fulks said Harris will “address the full on attack on freedoms occurring in states across the nation and call on AME leaders to continue to stand in defense of our country’s most sacred principles.”
The NAACP South Carolina State Conference also announced Harris is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Jan. 15 King Day at the Dome event at the South Carolina State House.
The Biden and Harris visits come ahead of the Feb. 3 Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina, which kicks off the Democratic nominating contest.
The Democratic National Committee moved South Carolina to the lead-off spot in the primary order as a nod to Black voters, who are a key demographic of the Democratic base.
In 2020, Biden lost the first three nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada before winning South Carolina, propelling him to the Democratic nomination and eventually the White House.
“We’re going to win by activating the coalition that sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in historic numbers just like they did in 2020,” Fulks said.
This story was originally published January 3, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
