Biden campaign to launch Black voter program at Philadelphia rally

President Biden’s reelection campaign is set to launch the “Black Voters for Biden-Harris” initiative at a college preparatory school with a majority Black student population in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

The president and Vice President Harris will travel to Girard College for a campaign rally for the launch. They will be joined by Black leaders, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), Biden campaign co-Chair Cedric Richmond, and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), among others.

The initiative will include an eight-figure investment and involve work over the summer to partner with Black organizations to increase outreach to Black voters and strengthen voter protections ahead of the election, according to the campaign.

It will also engage with Black-owned media outlets and travel by surrogates to battleground states the weekend after the rally, including to a Black church in Atlanta, a block party celebration in Nevada and barber shops in Michigan.

“This coalition and the newly announced summer outreach and engagement programming serve as the next phase of our campaign’s ongoing historic investments in outreach to the backbone of the Biden-Harris coalition – Black voters,” principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said in a statement.

The campaign is also set to argue that former President Trump’s campaign doesn’t have a plan to engage with Black voters. The campaign rolled out two TV and radio ads last week that targeted Trump over his claims about his record with Black Americans, hitting him for his rhetoric about Black Americans.

At the rally Wednesday, Biden and Harris will be introduced by Lina Mayen, a first-generation Sudanese American, and Robert N.C. Nix III, a small business owner. Biden will then attend a small business event at the Black Chamber of Commerce while in Philadelphia.