DENVER — President Joe Biden will try to turn Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado into the embodiment of Republican opposition to his agenda as he visits her congressional district on Wednesday.
The trip comes as Biden struggles with low approval ratings as he prepares for a likely rematch against former President Donald Trump in 2024, leaving Democrats eager for opportunities to score political points against Republicans.
Biden plans to tour CS Wind, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturing plant, in the city of Pueblo. The trip was originally scheduled for last month, but was postponed as the Democratic president focused on the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
CS Wind is undergoing a $200 million expansion that is expected to create 850 jobs by 2026 with help from the tax breaks in the Inflation Reduction Act, which included hundreds of billions of dollars in financial incentives.
Additionally, a new analysis from the Treasury Department shows that clean energy investments have mostly flowed to communities with below-average wages and above-average child poverty. The White House said the data suggests Biden’s policies are expanding economic opportunity.
Boebert, who has built a national reputation as a far-right insurgent, has called the Inflation Reduction Act “a colossal failure” that “must be repealed.”
She also described the bipartisan infrastructure bill enacted in 2021 as “garbage” and “wasteful.” The White House said the bill has contributed about $190 million to street and water infrastructure improvements in its Colorado territory.
The White House said Biden would discuss his administration’s progress on clean energy and “how self-styled MAGA Republicans like Rep. Lauren Boebert threaten those investments, jobs and opportunity.”
Pueblo is one of the anchors of Colorado’s vast 3rd Congressional District, which covers more ground than Pennsylvania. Boebert won her seat in 2020 and barely retained it in the 2022 midterm elections.
She recently suffered an embarrassing episode when she was kicked out of a musical production of ‘Beetlejuice’, where she was seen vaping and groping a date. Now she faces a difficult re-election campaign and a likely rematch against Democratic candidate Adam Frisch.
Biden arrived in Colorado on Tuesday after attending a memorial service in Atlanta for Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady and wife of former President Jimmy Carter. He spoke at a fundraiser in Denver on Tuesday evening, where he said Trump and Republicans wanted to abandon his administration’s efforts.
“We are investing in America now,” Biden said.
Biden has taken an increasingly confrontational stance toward Republicans in recent weeks.
For example, at a White House event focused on supply chains on Monday, Biden unleashed a broader criticism of Republicans for trying to “undo this progress we’re making.”
“They want to go back to the bad old days, when companies looked around the world for the cheapest labor they could find, send the jobs overseas and then import the products back to the United States,” said he.
Biden also said Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare, benefits that are crucial for many older Americans.
“They just don’t give up,” he said. “But guess what? We won’t let these things happen.”
Biden was originally scheduled to visit Pueblo on Oct. 16, but the trip was postponed so he could remain in Washington to focus on the Middle East conflict. Two days later, he made a last-minute trip to Israel to show support for the country after Hamas’ attack on October 7.
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Megerian reported from Washington.