Biden to attend fundraiser, rally in Valley

Staff/wire report

POLAND

Former Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit the Mahoning Valley to head a major Democratic Party fundraiser Oct. 29 at the Lake Club and attend a rally to stump for the party’s candidate for Ohio governor, Richard Cordray.

Cordray’s press secretary, Michael Gwin, declined to say where Biden would appear, but both Atty. Greg Hicks, Warren law director and Trumbull County Democratic Party parliamentarian, and Dave Betras, Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, said the Lake Club will be the site of the fundraiser.

“We can confirm that Biden will hold a rally in Youngstown on the afternoon of Oct. 29; and that additional details will be forthcoming,” said Gwin, who would not comment further.

Regarding the rally, Betras said, “What I want to stress is that a rally for Cordray, free and open to the public, will be at 4 p.m. at a venue to be determined.”

“We’re excited that Biden is going to be here. Everybody in the Mahoning Valley likes Joe Biden,” he added.

But, he said: “The primary purpose of the 4 p.m. public rally is to get people excited about Cordray and get out the vote.”

Betras said he doesn’t know if Biden is preparing for a run at the presidency.

“Right now, my primary interest is in getting Richard Cordray elected governor of Ohio,” Betras said.

Supporters of Cordray, who is engaged in a political street fight with Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine, are looking for a venue to have a rally earlier on Oct. 29, before Biden’s appearance, said Hicks.

The visit of Biden, who recently said he will decide by January whether he will run for president, isn’t his first to Ohio to support Cordray’s gubernatorial bid. Biden’s wife, Jill, recently appeared in Ohio at a Cordray campaign event.

According to the Associated Press, Biden has been stumping for Democrat candidates across the country.

In Las Vegas, he criticized Trump for his approach to Russia and President Vladimir Putin, his equivocation on white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., and his immigration policies, including the separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“American values are being shredded by a president who is all about himself. It’s all about Donald,” Biden said.

He spoke of working-class struggles as he rallied union members in Las Vegas to support Jacky Rosen and other Nevada Democrats.

Rosen, a freshman congresswoman from the Las Vegas area, is challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller in a race that is seen as one of the Democrats’ best chances to flip a seat this November.

The Las Vegas crowd was dominated by members of the powerful, heavily immigrant Culinary Workers Union Local 226. The union represents about 57,000 housekeepers, bartenders, bell men and other workers in the city’s casino-hotels and has been credited with giving Democrats key wins in the state in 2016.

Democrats are counting on Latino mobilization driven by the union this year to avoid a repeat of the 2014 elections, when Democratic turnout in Nevada faltered.

Biden also touted the candidacy of other Democrats, including Steve Sisolak, the powerful chairman of the county commission overseeing the Las Vegas Strip, who is running for governor, and Susie Lee and Steven Horsford, who are seeking seats to Nevada’s 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts, both of which are considered swing seats.

“This election is literally bigger than politics,” Biden said at the Las Vegas rally.

“No matter how old or young you are, you have never participated in an election that is as consequential as this election nationally and locally,” the former vice president said.