Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Hibbing Community College on Oct. 23, 2014, in support of Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN8). (PHOTO: Aaron J. Brown).
Vice President Joe Biden will campaign for the Democratic ticket in Duluth this Friday, Oct. 28.
Biden appears in Duluth to support former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who leads Donald Trump for president in Minnesota but trails Trump here in the Northeast. Biden also will drum up support for U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN8), locked in a tight race against Republican Stewart Mills.
Biden appeared in an October rally at Hibbing Community College in 2014 in support of Nolan. Nolan hopes that Biden remains the good luck charm that helped him the first time he beat Mills.
UPDATE: Biden’s visit will take place at the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Romano Gymnasium on Friday. Doors open to the public at 10 a.m.
Persistent rumors suggest Trump might make an appearance in Northern Minnesota before the election, but nothing has been announced, nor would I expect it to happen. Northern Minnesota seems an unlikely choice for a top-of-the-ticket rally given Trump’s polling situation around the country. Trump’s team would need to see that Minnesota was within reach to make such a visit. He’s got bigger fish to fry in Florida and Ohio.
Meantime, it would appear the Iron Range is unlikely to draw a major presidential rally in 2016. In 2012, the Democratic and Republican campaigns focused on the Twin Ports. In 2008, Hillary Clinton hosted a major rally for then-candidate Barack Obama and local DFLers at the Hibbing Memorial Building.
The Memorial Building has a storied history of presidential rallies. John Kennedy’s appearance there in 1960 remains a major event in Iron Range political history, so much that Bob Dylan noted it in his book “Chronicles.”
Yet, once again, another presidential season will pass without a major rally in Hibbing. Still, Biden’s appearance in Duluth suggests the importance of Minnesota’s Eighth District to political movers and shakers around the country.
Speak Your Mind