President Joe Biden's low job approval ratings are affecting how he campaigns for reelection.
Besides bashing former President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans, Biden is relying on popular Democrat politicians to sway voters in key swing states.
Nowhere has that been more obvious than in Pennsylvania.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., has an approval rating hovering around 60%, nearly 20 percentage points higher than Biden's in the state.
Shapiro, 50, is one of several popular, relatively young Democrat governors hoping to help push Biden win a second term next year. The group includes Minnesota’s Tim Walz, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, and Kentucky’s Andy Beshear.
The president was in the Keystone State on Monday — his 10th visit of the year — and appeared with Shapiro at two events.
"This president gives a damn," Shapiro said while introducing Biden at a Philadelphia fire station, the Washington Examiner reported. "Not just about the city of Philadelphia, not just about those who run toward danger, our firefighters and those here at Ladder One, the great women and men of the Philadelphia Fire Department, but he gives a damn about this community."
Biden touted federal grant money that will help staff and equip the department, part of an ongoing attempt to hold on to union and working-class support by connecting his administration’s legislative achievements to tangible outcomes voters can support, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Later, at a campaign reception, Shapiro drew a sharp comparison between Biden and Trump.
"We have a choice between that goodness [of Biden], that moral clarity, and someone who will bring chaos back to this nation," Shapiro said.
Biden won Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes in 2020 with 50.01% to Trump’s 48.84%, according to the state’s election returns.
But one Democrat strategist warns that Shapiro’s popularity might be too little to help Biden.
"Everybody is judged on their merits today," Pennsylvania-based strategist T.J. Rooney told the Examiner. "There’s a price to pay for the decline of political parties. There are no strong alliances. Nobody’s popularity will be transferable."
During his latest trip to Pennsylvania, Biden also saw effects stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.
Outside a fundraiser that included prominent Philadelphia donors and well-known politicians, hundreds of protesters held signs condemning Biden’s refusal to back a cease-fire in Gaza, the Inquirer reported.
"As we speak, Israel drops American-made bombs purchased with our taxpayer dollars," Nada Abuasi, an organizer with the activist network Philly Palestine Coalition, told the crowd. "Our hearts are heavy with loss … and we are disgusted with the gross complicity of Biden’s administration."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.