Jill Biden makes character argument for husband in Tuesday visit to Bangor
By Caitlin Andrews, Bangor Daily News Staff
The wife of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden made a character-based argument for his campaign in Bangor on Tuesday in the last week of a spirited campaign with President Donald Trump in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
The low-key event with Gov. Janet Mills and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sara Gideon was Jill Biden’s second visit to the state in just over a month. She pitched her husband as somewhat of a political palate cleanser, urging a crowd of about 50 to make a plan to vote if they had not done so already and saying “there are no do-overs” after Nov. 3.
“Joe couldn’t be more different than the man who holds office right now,” Biden said at the Thomas Hill Standpipe.
Both presidential campaigns have been ramping up their visits to the Pine Tree State in recent weeks. The Republican president made a last-minute stop at a Levant orchard on Sunday, six days after he sent Vice President Mike Pence to nearby Hermon for a rally. Both of those events drew at least several hundred people.
The Trump and Biden campaigns have diverged sharply on public appearances. The president has resumed an aggressive rallying schedule after initially shutting them down during the coronavirus pandemic, while Biden, a former vice president, has recently begun small events.
The Maine Republican Party mocked the small Bangor event in a statement, with Chair Demi Kouzounas saying it was a sign Biden “has no momentum in Maine.” However, he has led Trump consistently in polls of the Democratic-leaning state while the two have polled closely in the more conservative 2nd District, which was won easily by Trump in 2016.
Trump’s visit came a day after Doug Emhoff, the husband of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, Biden’s vice presidential nominee, made a stop in Presque Isle. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, is expected to make a repeat visit to the Bangor area on Thursday.
Gideon, who is running a targeted race against Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said Joe Biden’s presidency would not thrive without a Senate willing to work with him, citing the chamber’s Monday confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Collins was the only member of her party to oppose the nomination, citing a flawed process.
Mills, the first woman to serve as Maine’s governor and attorney general, criticized Barrett’s stance as an “originalist” on interpreting U.S. Constitution, which Barrett defined for herself as interpreting the document as she believes it was intended when originally written. She said that could put key legal protections at risk.
“What’s at risk here is a lot more than what was talked about on the Senate floor last night,” Mills said.