President Joe Biden is currently behind former President Donald Trump in a poll of key swing states where his administration has spent billions of dollars in rural-area initiatives, according to a new poll by Siena College for The New York Times.
Biden and Trump are both the leading candidates for the Democratic and Republican parties’ presidential nominations, respectively. Biden, whose administration has launched the “Investing in Rural America Event Series” for him and senior officials to visit rural areas to describe their spending initiatives, polls behind Trump between 4 and 10 percentage points in five of six identified swing states, according to the Times’ summary of the poll.
Biden is behind Trump by 4 points in Pennsylvania, 5 points in Arizona and Michigan, 6 points in Georgia and 10 points in Pennsylvania, according to the poll. He leads Trump only in Wisconsin by 2 points, a lead that is within the margin of error.
The Investing in Rural America Event Series was inaugurated by Biden on Nov. 1 with a visit to Dutch Creek Farms in Northfield, Minnesota, where he touted his administration’s investments in rural and farm-specific programs.
“[T]hrough our clean energy initiatives contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re investing nearly $20 billion…$20 billion; the money is there…to help farmers and ranchers tackle climate crisis through climate-smart agriculture and cover crops, nutrient management…and storing carbon in the soil,” Biden remarked during a speech after his tour of Dutch Creek Farms, according to a transcript provided by The White House to The Daily Caller News Foundation. He added that “Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law…we’re making the most substantial investment…in rural America since Eisenhower’s highway plan — roads, bridges, inland waterways, ports, regional airports, clean water, high-speed Internet.”
The series will include visits by Biden himself, Vice President Kamala Harris and senior administration officials to rural locations in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to a press release by the White House. Already, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has visited rural Arizona to promote rural electrification efforts and Deputy Agriculture Secretary Xochitl Torres Small has visited Michigan, according to a report by Politico.
Among the initiatives Biden mentioned in Minnesota was the ReConnect Program, an initiative by the Department of Agriculture to connect 300,000 rural households with high-speed internet.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 22 and Nov. 3 and surveyed 3,662 registered voters in the United States, with a margin of error of 1.8%. The White House, Biden’s campaign and Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
