(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden is visiting Phoenix next week as the White House continues to make stops in Arizona.
Biden is planning to make a speech honoring the late Sen. John McCain and reportedly highlighting the theme of democracy in America, according to The Hill. The Biden administration has maintained a relationship with some of the 2008 Republican nominee’s family following his 2018 death. His wife, Cindy McCain, served in the Biden administration as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, and McCain’s son, Jack, is a Biden appointee for the Naval Academy board.
Earlier this month, Biden visited a McCain memorial in Vietnam, where the late Republican was once a prisoner of war.
The president is planning on having fundraisers while in Phoenix as well.
As Arizona is a battleground state, the White House and the Biden campaign will likely continue to focus their efforts in the area before the 2024 election. Biden narrowly won the state in 2020, beating former President Donald Trump by just over 10,000 votes.
Biden went to northern Arizona in August to announce the establishment of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The controversial decision with the intention of honoring indigenous history while also limiting uranium prospecting in the area is likely to be the subject of lawsuits, The Center Square reported.
“Help right the wrongs of the past and conserve this land,” Biden said at the time.
In December, Biden visited north Phoenix to tout the construction of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s microchip plant. He did not visit the southern border during either of those visits, which former Gov. Doug Ducey commented on after that visit.
Vice President Kamala Harris has also visited the state recently, and she is scheduled to address college students at Northern Arizona University in October, according to The Arizona Republic.
