President Joe Biden will make his second trip to Colorado this year when he attends a campaign fundraiser in the Denver area Tuesday and then visits a wind turbine factory in Pueblo on Wednesday.
The White House formally announced the trip Saturday evening.
It did not release details of the fundraiser, but a flyer for the event obtained by The Colorado Sun shows it will benefit the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that gives money to Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign, as well as the Democratic National Committee and state-level Democratic parties. Gov. Jared Polis is listed as a special guest at the event, with tickets starting at $1,000.
The White House said Biden will then visit the CS Wind factory in Pueblo, the world’s largest wind turbine tower manufacturing plant, as he touts his administration’s economic policies and clean energy investments, specifically as they related to the Inflation Reduction Act. Congressional Democrats passed the bill and Biden signed it in 2022.
CS Wind recently invested $200 million in the Pueblo plant to expand its capacity, saying the Inflation Reduction Act was the catalyst for the spending. The South Korea-based company plans to hire 850 more workers at the plant by 2026.
Biden was originally scheduled to come to Pueblo in mid-October, but postponed his Colorado visit because of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Pueblo is in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, which is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who narrowly won re-election last year and is expected to face a tight race in 2024.
The White House, ahead of Biden’s originally scheduled Pueblo stop, framed the visit as a way to highlight Boebert’s opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act. On Saturday, the White House said Biden will discuss in Pueblo “how self-described MAGA Republicans like Rep. Lauren Boebert are threatening those investments, jobs and opportunities.”
In August, during a speech in New Mexico, Biden called out Boebert for her opposition to the legislation.
“CS Wind is Congresswoman Lauren Boebert – you know that very quiet Republican lady?” he joked. “It’s in her district. Who, along with every other Republican, voted against this bill. And it’s making all this possible. And she rallied against its passage.”
The Garfield County congresswoman has called the law a “massive failure” and joined calls to repeal the legislation. Boebert said in October that Biden should meet with oil and gas workers, farmers, ranchers and families affected by fentanyl while in Colorado. “If he’s not here to address these serious issues, perhaps he should stick to what he does best – relaxing on the beach and doing nothing,” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
While Biden easily defeated Donald Trump in Colorado in 2020 by 13 percentage points, he didn’t fare all that well in Pueblo and the 3rd District.
Biden beat Trump in Pueblo County by 2 percentage points, or roughly 1,500 votes, in 2020. But Biden lost to Trump in the 3rd District, where the electorate leans in the GOP’s favor, by 8.3 percentage points, according to The Daily Kos.
Democrat Adam Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman who ran against Boebert in 2022 and is running against her again next year, released polling data in August showing that Biden would lose a hypothetical 2024 rematch with Trump by 5 percentage points in the 3rd District.
The poll, conducted by Keating Research, a Democratic firm, on behalf of Frisch’s campaign, also revealed that 60% of voters in the district have an unfavorable view of Biden, while 40% view him favorably.
In an interview with Axios Denver earlier this year, Frisch declined to support Biden’s re-election bid, saying he’d “let the presidential race play out and see what happens.”
Before his Colorado trip, the president is scheduled to travel to Atlanta on Tuesday to attend the memorial service of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died this month at age 96.
The president last visited Colorado in June to give the commencement address at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The trip to Colorado next week will mark the fifth time Biden has come to the Centennial State since taking office in 2021.
