We know President Biden will discuss veterans in Fort Worth, but we don’t know much else
President Joe Biden is expected to discuss veterans issues during his visit Tuesday to Fort Worth, but other details regarding his trip are unclear.
The White House has not said when the president will arrive, where he’ll deliver his remarks and whether he’ll participate any political events.
“We are still making contact and making sure to reach out to their team and get as much information as we can to see how best we can to see how we can best coordinate on this event,” said Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo said Wednesday.
The White House visit will focus on “upholding our sacred obligation to veterans” as part of Biden’s “unity agenda for the nation.” In the Tuesday’s State of the Union, Biden discussed soldiers’ exposure to toxic smoke from burn pits and called on Congress to ensure “veterans devastated by toxic exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they deserve.”
Biden will be visiting a state where he’s seen dipping job approval. A poll in February found that 52% of voters surveyed by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin disapproved of his performance. Among Democrats, his approval rating was 76%, but among Republicans it was at 6%.
The focus on veterans helps explain a Texas stop, said Jim Henson, the director of the Texas Politics Project. It’s a good topic to discuss in Texas, given the number of veterans and the general climate of the state, he said.
“That’s an issue that’s going to have a lot of broader appeal than some other items on the president’s agenda right now,” he said. “And that’s clearly ... the signals that they were trying to send with some portions of the State of the Union, that they were trying to redouble their efforts with some agenda items that were more broadly popular than some of the other things that they have been pursuing that have been targeted at perhaps narrower Democratic Party constituents.”
Asked if the visit is more related to Tuesday’s primary, the State of the Union or a combination of the two, Henson said it’s probably “a little bit of both.” He noted that Biden’s approval numbers have been poor in Texas, but made reference to the Fort Worth area being considered a “battleground.”
Campolo is excited to see Biden headed to Fort Worth. The city had another Democratic visitor on Tuesday, when Democrat Beto O’Rourke visited the city for an election watch party. He’s challenging Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in November.
“I think that really speaks to how important this state and this county and the city are,” Campolo said of Biden’s visit. “Especially of course right after we had Beto hold his watch party. He could have held it anywhere in the state and came right here in Fort Worth, and Biden following one week later is very encouraging. It’s clear they both know how important Texas is to the state of our democracy right now and how important Tarrant County is to Texas.”
While in town on Tuesday for Election Night, O’Rourke stressed the importance of Tarrant County in the November election. In a gaggle with reporters, he said the county will “be a major source of strength for down ballot races and making sure that we have enough votes to win the big one.” Abbott’s campaign said it’s a top battleground.
“We will erase on the whiteboard all of the thoughts that Tarrant County is changing, it’s no longer a Republican County,” said Dave Carney, a strategist for Abbott.
During a January visit to Austin, O’Rourke — who has an event planned Tuesday in College Station — said he wasn’t interested in the help of national politicians. In 2020 he endorsed Biden for president after he exited the race.
“I’m not interested in any national politician — anyone outside of Texas — coming into this state to help decide the outcome of this,” O’Rourke said at the time, asked about whether he’d want Biden to campaign for him. “I think we all want to make sure that we’re working with, listening to and voting with one another here in Texas.”
Angelica Luna Kaufman, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party, said Biden’s visit shows he cares about veterans but that he has noticed the shift to the right in Texas, toward “extremist ideology.”
“I think him coming here does signal, not only just caring about veterans, but he, like the rest of the country, is seeing what’s been happening in Texas and reminding people of what he’s accomplished and how Democrats have delivered under his leadership,” she said.
But in terms of the timing of his visit and its proximity to the primary, Luna Kaufman said she thinks it’s more about the State of the Union Address having just been held.
“That’s not part of a larger strategy,” she said. “I wish that I could say that it were, but no, I think it’s just that he’s following up on the things he said he’s going to do and what he’s paying attention to in his address on Tuesday, ... and he’s doing exactly those things.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 3:04 PM.
