SAN DIEGO — A big, four-state campaign tour to support Democrats has brought President Joe Biden to San Diego.
Biden in San Diego
On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Todd Gloria welcomed Biden to San Diego at MCAS Miramar.
Biden's first stop on his two-day visit to San Diego started with a campaign event supporting Incumbent Rep. Mike Levin who is facing a tight Congressional race for California's 49th District against Brian Maryott.
More than a thousand people packed the gym at MiraCosta College to hear the president's remarks on Thursday.
On Friday, Biden is scheduled to speak at a technology company in San Diego that has benefitted from the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, the White House said.
Biden's campaign tour is part of a big campaign swing to support Democrats in tough races. Biden's schedule has stops in New Mexico, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania
WATCH: President Biden arrives in San Diego, part of four-state campaign tour
Final days before midterms
The president’s return to heavily Democratic California in the run-up to Election Day speaks to the looming threat for his party in a turbulent midterm election year when Republicans appear poised to take control of the House, a grim prospect for Biden heading into the second half of his term, the Associated Press reported.
Biden’s visit Thursday is centered on safeguarding two-term Rep. Mike Levin in a district with a slight Democratic tilt that cuts through San Diego and Orange counties and which Biden carried by double digits in the 2020 presidential election.
Levin defended his seat with a 6-point win in 2020, and the district remained largely intact after the once-a-decade adjustment of boundary lines after the census. This year, his race is considered a toss-up as Levin and other Democrats face historical midterm headwinds that typically punish the party in the White House, while soaring prices at the supermarket and gas pump have conspired to make once-safe incumbents vulnerable.
Levin’s Republican opponent, businessman Brian Maryott, said Biden’s visit amounted to “a failed president coming to our district to stand alongside a failed congressman.”
“Voters won’t forget $7 gas prices, the explosion in crime, inflation hitting 40-year highs, the crisis at our border,” Maryott said in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
WATCH RELATED: President Biden set to arrive at MCAS Miramar (Oct. 2022).
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