As President Donald Trump rallied in Minnesota, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday toured towns in Ohio and Pennsylvania by train.
The two presidential candidates hit the campaign trail after clashing in a tense debate, presenting their competing visions of the country.
Biden started in Cleveland, where the debate took place, before moving through western Ohio and eastern Pennsylvania. Biden is seeking to flip Ohio and Pennsylvania after Trump won both in 2016.
Stops included Alliance, Ohio, and Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Biden told a crowd in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that as a senator he took the train every day to Washington and back so he could tuck his children into bed each night.
“The train brought me back to my home base every single night. To my family. It kept me grounded. It kept me connected. It meant I always remembered what—and who—really mattered in life,” he said.
Biden said he met a variety of people on the train, learning about their lives and families.
“And, in my experience, everyone was just looking for the chance to work hard and get ahead. Just a fair shot and an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams. And that’s what I’ve seen today at every single stop, and from the folks who joined me on this trip,” he said.
People he met included an elementary school teacher from Lordstown, Ohio, whose husband accepted a transfer to another General Motors plant after the plant in the town was shut down last year. He drives 16 hours every weekend to see his family.
Biden also recounted listening to “an incredible young woman—mother of four, a home health aide, and a nursing student—talk about how worried she is that no one is looking out for the caregivers in this country.”
Biden accused the president of not having a plan to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and leaving “the trail of broken promises and lies he told communities just like Johnstown all across the industrial Midwest.”
“He doesn’t care if communities like Johnstown are still hurting,” he added later.
Biden said his Build Back Better plan “is all about injecting life and capital back into places like Johnstown.” The foundation of the plan is to have the federal government buy American-made goods, such as military equipment and steel, if Biden is elected.
“Any company that offshores jobs will pay a 10 percent penalty. But any company that brings jobs back, or reopens a closed factory like those around Johnstown, will get a 10 percent credit,” he said.
During the train tour, numerous people talked about their support for the nominee, including Denny Flora, a New Castle, Pennsylvania, resident; Thomas Conway, president of the United Steelworkers union; and Jacqueline Comar, a retired teacher who lives in Ohio.
Biden told reporters at the airport before flying back to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, that he felt good about the day.
“I felt good about what’s happened the last couple days and it looks like based on—not our polling—independent polling, that we’re making, we’re picking up an awful lot of the folks who used to be Democrats, they’re coming back home,” he said.
Biden spoke to a group he described as “white working class Democrats,” who he said “thought we forgot them and didn’t pay attention.”
“I want them to know—I mean sincerely that I’m going to be your president, I hear them, I listen to them .. I get it, I get their sense of being left behind.” Biden added.
Biden returned home around 11 p.m.
