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Biden makes big push in Ohio, once seen as long shot for him

Wearing a face mask to reduce the risk posed by the coronavirus, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden talks to reporters after arriving at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Oct. 12, 2020, in Hebron, Kentucky. With 21 days until the election, Biden is campaigning in Toledo and Cincinnati. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

CINCINNATI
(AP) — Joe Biden made two campaign stops Monday in Ohio, attempting to
expand the battleground map and keep President Donald Trump on the
defensive in a state long thought to be out of reach for Democrats after
Trump’s wide margin of victory there four years ago.

The
Democratic presidential nominee stressed an economic message and touted
his own record while casting Trump as having abandoned working-class
voters who helped him win Rust Belt states that put him in the White
House in 2016. The president’s reelection campaign countered that few
expected Trump to win Ohio so comfortably four years ago and that he
would repeat a similar upset on Election Day.

In Toledo, Biden
addressed United Auto Workers who represent a local General Motors’
powertrain plant. The former vice president spoke in a parking lot with
about 30 American-made cars and trucks arrayed nearby, and he struck a
decidedly populist note, praising unions and arguing that he represented
working-class values while the Republican Trump cared only about
impressing the Ivy League and country club set.

“I don’t measure
people by the size of their bank account,” Biden said. “You and I
measure people by the strength of their character, their honesty, their
courage.”

Biden highlighted his role as vice president as the
Obama administration rescued the U.S. auto industry after the 2008
financial collapse. President George W. Bush signed the aid package
after the 2008 election, but the Obama administration managed most of
the rescue program.

“The auto industry that supported 1 in 8
Ohioans was on the brink,” Biden said at the drive-in rally, eliciting
horn honks from people listening from their vehicles. “Barack and I bet
on you, and it paid off.”

Trump was resuming campaign travel for
the first time since testing positive for the coronavirus, with a
Florida rally. The president tweeted, “We have far more support and
enthusiasm than even in 2016.” And Vice Present Mike Pence staged his
own event in Ohio’s capital, Columbus, concluding remarks at Savko &
Sons, an excavation company that hosted Obama at one of its job sites
in 2010, shortly before Biden took the stage in Toledo.

“You said
yes to President Donald Trump in 2016, and I know the Buckeye State’s
going to say yes to four more years,” Pence told the crowd.

In a
nod to Senate confirmation hearings on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to
the Supreme Court — where Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala
Harris, was participating remotely — Pence declared to applause that
“We’re going to fill that seat.”

He also noted that Biden has refused to say
whether he will heed the calls of some progressive Democrats who would
like to see the party expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court,
should Democrats win the White House and the Senate on Nov. 3 while
retaining control of the House.

“It could be nothing less than the
biggest power grab in American history,” Pence said. “Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris won’t tell the American people what they’re going to do.”

Biden
has called for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat to remain
vacant until after the election but hasn’t answered questions about
whether he would be open to expanding the court. He says doing so would
be playing politics by Trump’s rules.

Trump carried Ohio over
Democrat Hillary Clinton by a comfortable 8 percentage points in 2016,
but recent polls show this year’s presidential race tightening in the
state.

The Biden campaign has increased advertising in Ohio
lately, even as Trump has scaled back his efforts in the state and
elsewhere. Biden’s perceived increases in support have largely come as
the president has seen his backing slip in cities — but he is looking to
cancel that out by further expanding his already strong support among
voters in rural areas.

“We are thrilled to see Joe Biden wasting a
valuable day on the campaign trail visiting a state he cannot win,”
Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh said Monday.

Biden argued
that Trump has mishandled the coronavirus pandemic, exacerbating the
resulting economic fallout. He said the Trump administration
“squandered” the strong economy it inherited from the Obama White House
four years ago, and he promised to create new, high-paying union jobs
once the country gets the virus under control.

“He turned his back on you,” Biden said of Trump. “I promise you, I will never do that.”

Congresswoman
Marcia Fudge said early and absentee voting numbers are already high in
her district that includes Cleveland, a strong city for Democrats.

“I am seeing numbers that I can only dream of,” Fudge said.

The
traveling press that accompanies Biden on campaign trips remained
grounded in Delaware for hours on Monday, missing his event in Toledo
because of mechanical problems on the aircraft it was assigned.
Reporters use a separate plane than the candidate, a setup the campaign
attributes to the coronavirus.

The campaign eventually procured a
new plane so the press pool could attend Biden’s rally later Monday in
Cincinnati. There, Biden continued his focus on struggling Americans.

“They
see the people at the top doing better and better even in the midst of
this god-awful recession,” he said. “They’ve got to wonder: Who’s
looking out for me? That’s Donald Trump’s presidency.”

Biden also
seized on Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis, saying the president’s
“reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis” has been
“unconscionable.”

“The longer Donald Trump is president,” Biden added, “the more reckless he gets.”

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne contributed to this report from Sacramento, Calf.