First lady Jill Biden is heading to Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Thursday ahead of the first 2024 presidential debate between her husband, President Joe Biden, and former President Donald Trump.
According to the president’s campaign, the first lady will stop by “a campaign organizing event” and greet volunteers and supporters. She will then head to Georgia for the debate Thursday afternoon.
The timing of the campaign stop comes just one day before the Trump campaign plans to hold a massive rally in Chesapeake, Virginia.
“Swingy coastal #VA getting a lot of love from the presidential campaigns,” Virginia Times-Dispatch columnist Jeff Schapiro reacted to the back-to-back presidential campaign stops.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) will campaign with Trump at the rally planned at the Historic Greenbrier Farms on Friday, June 28.
The former president and Youngkin met in person for the first time earlier this month at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. The Republican governor has been rumored to be on Trump’s list of vice presidential candidates.
Polling shows that Trump is gaining in polling over Joe Biden in the commonwealth. A recent Fox News poll conducted in early June showed the former president and Joe Biden tied at 48% among Virginia registered voters. The candidates were also tied in a Roanoke College poll conducted in May. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows that Joe Biden is up by 2.2 points over Trump in Virginia, but in a matchup including third-party candidates, the RealClearPolitics average shows that Joe Biden has a spread of 1.5 over Trump.
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“It’s not only more expensive to live in Virginia thanks to Joe Biden, but also more deadly. Biden’s pro-criminal and open border policies have caused a 22.8% increase in fentanyl overdoses from 2020-2021 and another 1,951 Virginians killed by fentanyl poisoning in 2022,” the Trump campaign said in a statement. “Virginia, a place that President Trump loves, has been decimated by weak Joe Biden.”
While the first lady and Vice President Kamala Harris have been busy on the campaign trail, Joe Biden has reportedly been hunkered down at Camp David in a “movie theater and an airplane hangar” with lights and a stage to “create a mock debate stage.” He is working with “at least 16 current and former aides” to prepare him in debate “strategy sessions.”
