First lady Jill Biden coming to Duluth Thursday

DULUTH — First Lady Jill Biden will visit Duluth this week to help launch the Seniors For Biden-Harris organization in Minnesota.

Her trip to Minnesota is intended to energize older voters in what has become a battleground state this presidential election.

While recent polling in Minnesota has put Biden and former President Donald Trump in a

statistical dead-heat,

a March 2024 Quinnipiac poll showed Biden leading Trump by 8 points nationally among those 65 and older.

“To galvanize this critical voting block in Minnesota, the Biden-Harris campaign is hosting a variety of events with local leaders and seniors to drive home the stakes of the 2024 election, including a campaign event with First Lady Jill Biden in Duluth on Thursday,” Caroline Stonecipher, deputy states communications director for the 2024 Biden-Harris campaign wrote in an email.

The Biden-Harris campaign plans to use the event to contrast the current administration’s legislative and executive successes with what Trump has said publicly.

Specifically, Stonecipher points to Democrats reducing the

cost of prescription drugs

, capping the price of

insulin at $35 for seniors

and strengthening

federal support for Social Security and Medicare

.

The campaign also cited comments Trump made regarding desires to make

cuts to Medicare and Social Security

and

repeal the Affordable Care Act

as an attack on Minnesota’s seniors.

The first lady’s visit comes about a month after

Trump attended a state GOP fundraising event in St. Paul

.

The decision to hold the event in Duluth, the highest population center in northeastern Minnesota, is telling. Once a Democrat stronghold, Republicans have steadily taken over most of the region over the last two decades.

If the state’s GOP can capture a state legislative seat left this year by Rep. Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora,

only one Democrat officeholder, Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, will be left in the Iron Range

.