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Biden likely to visit Valley
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Biden
YOUNGSTOWN
Vice President Joe Biden is expected to make a campaign visit to the Mahoning Valley, likely as early as May 16, according to a source with information about the event.
Biden is expected to speak at a Youngstown-area steel plant, the source told The Vindicator on Tuesday.
Other sources with information about the campaign stop said they weren’t sure about the specific date but that the vice president was coming to the area either next week or the week after.
When asked about the Biden visit, Jessica Kershaw, spokeswoman for the President Barack Obama campaign in Ohio, said: “I don’t know.”
Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said he couldn’t confirm or deny that Biden was going to campaign in the area in the next couple of weeks.
But, Betras said, “The Mahoning Valley plays a critical part in statewide politics. I expect key national surrogates to be here sooner rather than later.”
Biden last visited the Valley on Oct. 4, 2010, in support of then-Gov. Ted Strickland, a fellow Democrat, during the governor’s failed re-election bid.
On that day, Biden stumped for Strickland at the Golden Dawn Restaurant on Youngstown’s North Side, then went to a public rally with about 500 people in attendance at Astro Shapes, an aluminum-extrusion plant in Struthers, and finished with a private fundraiser for Strickland at the Canfield home of Bruce and Rori Zoldan.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Biden came to the Valley three times.
The first was an Aug. 30, 2008, breakfast stop with Obama and their spouses at the Yankee Kitchen Family Restaurant in Boardman.
Biden also headlined two rallies.
The first was on Sept. 18, 2008, in downtown Youngstown with about 1,200 in attendance. The other was on Oct. 14, 2008, at the Warren Community Amphitheatre with about 700 people attending.
On the Republican side, Mitt Romney, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, spoke March 5, the day before the Ohio primary, to about 500 people at Taylor-Winfield Technologies, a metalworking-machinery company in Youngstown. Romney won a close GOP primary race against Rick Santorum, who has since abandoned his presidential campaign.