The last time Joe Biden was in Arizona, he had just won nearly every vote in the presidential preference election and announced billions of dollars in federal grants for Intel Corp., assuring voters in this battleground state that his economic policies were working.
Seven months later, Biden made what’s likely to be his final stand in Arizona this election cycle as a supporting character, not the candidate. Arizona voters are as pessimistic about the economy as ever. And Intel is laying off 400 Arizona workers.
It’s a striking return to Arizona for a man who did the Democratic near-impossible here just four years ago: defeated incumbent President Donald Trump and turned the state blue for the first time since 1996.
“In some ways, it’s a victory lap. I hope it is. I hope he feels that way about it because he deserves it,” said Terry Goddard, the Democratic former Arizona attorney general and Phoenix mayor. “But it’s got to be also very much of a letdown.”
The president made the trip to the Grand Canyon State in his official White House capacity, but he touched down in Arizona less than two weeks before the razor-thin race between his former rival Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is decided on Nov. 5.
The crowd shouted, “We love you!” as Biden took the stage at the Gila Crossing Community School, where he formally apologized for abuses committed by the federal government against Native boarding school students. Biden called the visit one of the most “consequential things I’ve ever had an opportunity to do my whole career.”
“It’s an honor, a genuine honor, to be in this special place on this special day,” Biden said.
The visit, which comes at a crucial time in the 2024 election cycle, is an example of his dedication to the country, Arizona Democrats said this week.
“He has always put country first,” said Felecia Rotellini, the chair of the Arizona Democratic Party when Biden carried the state in 2020. “Biden is beloved in Arizona, and even when he was still the candidate, there were coalitions that were forming around him and supporting him, and with the shift to Kamala, I can say that all of the folks that were on board with President Biden are there, and we see this just accelerated building.”
Biden was losing to Trump by as much as 10 percentage points in some Arizona polls at the end of his campaign. The president’s own party pushed him to end his reelection bid and make way for Harris after a disastrous debate against Trump in June.
“He’s loved by, at least, by the Democrats and by many people in this country. But he’s not popular, and I’ve never unraveled that,” Goddard said. “I don’t quite understand the ‘Uncle Joe’ phenomenon, and the fact that we’re not somehow inspired or moved to follow him.”
The race is closer now, but factors that soured voters on the president aside from his age — the economy and immigration — are still dogging Harris in the final weeks of the race.
Trump’s advantages on those top issues, paired with sagging voter registration trends among Democrats during the Biden era, give the GOP nominee a slight edge heading into Election Day.
Trump was happy to twist the knife at a rally in Tempe on Thursday, hours before Biden flew into the nearby Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Trump, in his typical fashion, called the president “Crooked Joe” and “stupid,” but said at least he was elected in the primary.
“They just took away the presidency of the United States. They wanted to be politically correct and gave it to her,” Trump said. “She got no votes. He got 14 million, whether they like this guy or not.”
Biden was a familiar face in Arizona before he ended his campaign four months ago. Along with his visit to Intel Corp. in March, he signed an executive order in Arizona in August 2023 to effectively ban uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and paid tribute to the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the following month.
“He is a very dedicated public servant. This has been his life’s work and I think as time goes on, he’s obviously caring about his legacy. But I think he is moving on,” said Ron Ober, a Democratic campaign consultant in Phoenix. “He wants to, obviously, help the vice president as much as he possibly can. He’s a good man.”
