President Joe Biden is turning to a reliably Republican state – and its GOP governor – to highlight one of his key bipartisan accomplishments he’s trying to sell to voters heading into 2024.
The visit to Utah, where he arrived Wednesday, caps a four-day sales pitch through the West as he seeks to convince skeptical voters of the impacts of his economic and legislative achievements.
But unlike his prior two stops in Arizona and New Mexico, which are home to Democratic governors, the president is joined here in Salt Lake City by the state’s Republican governor – Spencer Cox – as he makes his case for one of those bipartisan wins.
Biden on Thursday will tout a key plank of his so-called “unity agenda”: Caring for US veterans. The president will visit the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City for remarks celebrating the one-year anniversary of the passage of the PACT Act, a bill that provides critical health care benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service.
Cox, who greeted Biden Wednesday evening as he arrived in Salt Lake City, will also be on hand for the event, his office said, marking a rare occasion where a Republican governor is joining the Democratic president to promote policy initiatives.
Utah’s governor, who serves as chair of the National Governors Association, has advocated for bipartisan work, telling reporters at the White House earlier this year that Americans are “hungry for bipartisanship. They want to see both sides working together.”
The president doled out praise for Cox at the White House during that visit, saying, “Governor Cox, I promise I won’t tell anybody how much I like you. We’ll keep it quiet as long as we can.” And on Wednesday, he invited the governor and his wife, Abby, to join him in the motorcade from the…
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