President Joe Biden's Familiarity With Pittsburgh Gives Local Democratic Leaders High Hopes
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - President Joe Biden needs no introduction to Pittsburgh, as he has been to this region many times over the years.
Local leaders hope this will bring dividends to this area.
When candidate Joe Biden announced for the presidency in April of 2019, he chose a union hall in Lawrenceville.
"Quite frankly, folks, if I'm going to beat Donald Trump in 2020, it's going to happen right here – it's going to happen here – in western Pennsylvania," Biden told his crowd of supporters.
In an interview with KDKA political editor Jon Delano nine months ago, Biden said he really connected to the working people here.
"They all went through hard times – Pittsburgh, Scranton, Claymont – all the places, all my friends. Spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh, as you probably know, and I like it a lot. As I said, they're the people I grew up with," he said.
Biden has spent so much time here, especially in Pittsburgh's Labor Day Parade, that this has become a frequent question along the parade route.
Delano: "Mr. Vice President, you getting the vibe to run?"
Biden: "Oh, no. I'm getting the vibe to be with the folks I grew up with."
Biden's closest Pennsylvania ally, fellow Scranton native Bob Casey, thinks this special relationship could yield benefits.
"Joe Biden has a lot of regard and respect for the people of southwestern Pennsylvania. They gave him a helluva lot of votes," says Casey.
That means no ban on fracking, support for steel and manufacturing jobs and close ties to organized labor.
"I think he realizes, too, that Pennsylvania, and particularly western Pennsylvania, has a lot of ways that we can contribute to rebuilding this economy," says U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, a Forest Hills Democrat and the dean of the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation.
"What President Biden cares about, we're the kind of constituents -- hard-working, blue-collar western Pennsylvania, manufacturing, infrastructure -- the things we need, I think are the things he's going to spend a lot of time caring about," said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.
President Biden may not need GPS or a road map to get around out here, so that helps. But what specifically he will deliver to this region over the next four years remains to be seen.