Biden plans to travel to Wisconsin next week to highlight energy policies and efforts to lower costs

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to travel to southwest Wisconsin on Sept. 5, using a visit focused on small towns and rural areas to highlight his policies to lower costs and encourage renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.

That's according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the president's schedule.

Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the must-win states in November's presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. Biden won the state in 2020 by about 20,000 votes, flipping Wisconsin to the Democratic column after Trump narrowly won it in 2016.

Biden is stepping up his public events after bowing out of the race and endorsing his vice president. Harris and Biden plan to be in Pittsburgh as part of the Labor Day holiday.

In 2020, AP VoteCast, a survey of the electorate, found that nearly half of Wisconsin voters hailed from small towns and rural areas. Of that subset, nearly 6 in 10 backed Trump. But Democrats could improve their odds of winning the state this year if they can reduce the gap.

Biden plans to stress the policies that were part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

The law had little immediate impact on the inflation that hurt Biden's popularity, but it was designed to save Medicare recipients money on insulin and allow the government to negotiate on prescription drug prices. It also included incentives for a shift to renewable energy and funding for the IRS to ensure it can collect more of what affluent and wealthier taxpayers owe.