Former Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Iowa for the second time as a 2020 presidential contender on Tuesday, overlapping with President Trump’s visit to the Hawkeye State.
Although the two men are not expected to meet face-to-face, their dueling campaign stops are drawing attention as a possible preview of the 2020 general election.
Biden will make stops in Ottumwa, Mount Pleasant and Davenport on Tuesday, and will travel to Clinton on Wednesday.
{mosads}Meanwhile, Trump on Tuesday will travel to Council Bluffs to tour the Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy facility and tout his administration’s agriculture policies.
The president will then attend a fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party in West Des Moines.
Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Biden, branding him as “Sleepy Joe,” and predicting that he will be the 2020 Democratic nominee.
The president even criticized the former vice president during a trip to Japan last month.
Trump’s apparent focus on Biden has led many to believe he is worried about the former vice president’s front-runner status in the Democratic field.
A Des Moines Register poll released last week showed Biden leading the Democratic pack in the state with 24 percent of likely Iowa caucusgoers, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 16 percent, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 15 percent.
Trump is also facing less-than-favorable approval ratings in the state that he won by nearly 10 points in 2016.
A recent survey from Morning Consult shows Trump’s approval rating at 42 percent in the state, while his disapproval rating sits at 54 percent.
The state is crucial to both men, given it’s the first contest in the Democratic Party’s nominating process, and is a state that Trump flipped from blue to red in 2016.
The twin visits come after 2020 Democratic hopefuls descended on the state last weekend for the Iowa Democratic Party’s annual Hall of Fame celebration.
Biden was notably absent from the gathering, citing his granddaughter’s high school graduation.
The candidates took opportunities to indirectly criticize Biden’s campaign strategy, warning that it could lead to another four years of the Trump administration.
The candidates took thinly veiled shots at Biden’s “middle-ground strategy,” his ties to big donors, and his recent reversal on the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal money from going toward abortions except to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape.
Andrew Yang was the only candidate to mention Biden by name, joking that he “must really not like to travel.”