After unofficially starting his re-election campaign with his State of the Union address, UUS President Joe Biden on Wednesday travelled to the first of two states seen as battleground territory for the 2024 presidential election.
Mr Biden went first to a union centre in DeForest, Wisconsin, where he is expected to promote the achievements of his economic agenda.
Lauding the nation's 3.4 per cent unemployment rate, a 53-year low, he credited his administration with creating 800,000 manufacturing jobs.
Mr Biden met workers at the Liuna Training Centre whose jobs were created as a result of legislation passed under his administration, the White House said.
Those bills — the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act — provided trillions of dollars in funding to repair bridges, roads and other infrastructure, boost semiconductor research and production in the US, reduce carbon emissions and more.
"My economic plan is about investing in people and places that feel forgotten," Mr Biden said, pointing to recent bridges and a port terminal built in Wisconsin.
"We're building an economy where no one's going to be left behind. My economic plan is about investing in places people that have been forgotten."
His visit came after recent polling that shows most Americans do not share the optimism about the state of the US that Mr Biden expressed on Tuesday.
More than six in 10 Americans say he has not accomplished much since entering the White House in 2021, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed.
And by a similar margin, most Americans do not believe Mr Biden has created more jobs or improved the infrastructure in their towns.
And a growing number of Americans — 41 per cent today up from 35 per cent last year — say they are worse off financially under Mr Biden, underscoring the impact inflation has had on the nation's economy.
Meanwhile, aggregate polling conducted by FiveThirtyEight shows Mr Biden's overall approval rating at 43 per cent.
The unease with which Americans feel about the condition of the US points to how pivotal Mr Biden's travel arrangements will be as he looks to convince voters of his administration's victories.
Wisconsin is the first of 20 states that Mr Biden or members of his administration will visit after the State of the Union in what is effectively a start to his 2024 re-election campaign.
Although he has yet to officially announce his candidacy, Mr Biden has previously said: “Our intention is to run again."
On Thursday, Mr Biden will travel to Florida. He is expected to discuss plans to strengthen Social Security and Medicare and lower health care costs, the White House said.
Vice President Kamala Harris and other members of his cabinet are set to embark on trips of their own promoting the administration's achievements.
Ms Harris will visit Minnesota and Georgia, while other officials are set to visit Tennessee, Nevada and Arizona, among others.
A battleground state such as Wisconsin would be key to Mr Biden's re-election campaign.
But Florida appears to be a no-win state for the Democrats as the once-battleground state throws its support behind alt-right Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Mr Biden beat then-president Donald Trump in Wisconsin by less than one percentage point in 2020. Florida, meanwhile, has drifted into solid Republican territory in the last two election cycles.
Given such slim margins, his messaging will be important to convince not just independent or swing voters, but also his own base.
More than 60 per cent of Democrats do not want Mr Biden to run for president again, an AP-NORC poll showed.
Associated Press contributed to this report
