Biden’s late push across the West is aimed at bringing votes to Dems

President Joe Biden entered a phone bank in a crowded union hall and began eagerly making calls and eating donuts — one frozen and one glazed — as he tries to turn every page of the political playbook to deliver votes to Democrats.

“Governor, what’s important,” Biden said in a pep talk with volunteers rallying for gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek and other candidates Friday night. “It’s important! It’s important, it’s important, it’s important!”

Before leaving Portland on Saturday, the president was scheduled to attend a Kotek dinner where he spoke about his administration’s efforts to reduce costs for Americans.

It was the final stop on a four-day tour of Oregon, California and Colorado that covered Biden’s strategy for winning back voters on Election Day, Nov. 8: leveraging government to help boost candidates, pushing an agenda to shore up the uncertain economy and funneling campaign cash.

And this: show the candidates when Biden can be useful, stay away from places where the president will visit approval ratings less than 50% is not necessarily a good thing.

Throughout the trip, Biden had to compete for attention and deal with a new concern inflation report and the increase in gas prices.

“People are still fighting. We can’t kid ourselves about this,” Biden said on Saturday.

He also warned that Republicans want to roll back new legislation that would cap the cost of prescription drugs and fight climate change.

All of that, he said, “goes, goes” if Democrats lose control of Congress in the midterms.

In Oregon, Democratic officials hope that Biden can help solidify the party’s support behind it Kotek. The party is in danger of losing the governor’s race in a traditionally Democratic stronghold, as Betsy Johnson, who has left both the Democratic and Republican parties, has a well-funded race against Kotek and GOP candidate Christine Drazan.

Arrangements were made for him during the President’s visit.

On Thursday in Los Angeles, at a construction event to extend the city’s subway line, he spoke about his massive infrastructure bill. When he was standing in front of bulldozers and excavators, huge cranes rose up behind him. Most of them were hard workers in construction.

The station neatly integrated many of Biden’s agenda successes: investing in infrastructure, creating jobs, fighting climate change by promoting mass transit.

“When you see these projects in your neighborhood — cranes going up, shovels in the ground, lives being changed — I want you to feel the same way: proud,” Biden said. “Proud of what we can do when we do it together. I mean it when I say we are building a better America.”

But his comments came as the government reported that consumer prices, excluding volatile food and energy costs, rose 6.6% in September from a year earlier, the fastest pace in four decades. Biden admitted that people are “stressed by the cost of living. That’s been true for years, and people don’t need a report to say they’re being squeezed.”

Democratic candidates are more likely to appear with Biden at official White House events highlighting their achievements than at open campaigns. In California, Biden was joined by state legislators and the city’s mayor, and he called on them individually. Rep. Karen Bass, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles, went to a taco shop with Biden.

Biden raised $5 million in a fundraiser in the Brentwood backyard of television producer Marcy Carsey. Guests included fashion designer Tom Ford and actor-filmmaker Rob Reiner.

In Colorado, the president designated the first national monument in his administration Camp Hale, a World War II-era training facility with a group of Democrats on his side. Among his audience in the valley of spectacular views, towering pines and bright yellow aspens, was Sen. Michael Bennet, who is facing a tough re-election campaign and has worked for a new monument. Democrats hope the appointment, which is popular in the state, will boost Bennett’s numbers.