Biden heads to Minnesota hog and soybean farm home state of his new primary ... trends now
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President Joe Biden heads to a Minnesota farm Wednesday in a trip where he will tout rural investments and that his White House team insists has nothing to do with his new primary challenger who just happens to hail from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Biden's trip puts him back on the road amid a brewing international crisis overseas and an unexpected bump in his road to the Democratic presidential nomination. Last week, Rep. Dean Phillips, who represents the state's third congressional district, filed to run against Biden in the New Hampshire primary.
Biden, with more than $71 million in his campaign war-chest, ordinarily might not have to sweat a challenge from a third-term Democrat who has backed much of his policy agenda.
But Biden helped rearrange the Democratic primary schedule this year, and as a consequence of New Hampshire jumping the gun on Democratic Party calendar rules, his name won't appear on the ballot. That forces his party to organize a write-in campaign to avoid the potential humiliation of a loss to Phillips. The state's primary is expected to buck a party-sanctioned calendar that lets South Carolina break tradition and go first.
Down on the farm: President Biden heads to rural Minnesota Wednesday. His trip comes after Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips announced he is running against Biden in New Hampshire
Asked Tuesday if the visit had anything to do with Phillips, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre once again invoked the Hatch Act as a shield.
'I said this last week, and I'll say this again: We are very proud of – or very thrilled and thankful to – to the
