Biden Underscores Small-Business Tour as New Hampshire Primaries Kick Off

While presidential candidate and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is hoping to woo voters in New Hampshire this week in the state’s primary, the sitting President, Joe Biden, launched his own charm offensive. A video shot last week during a tour of three small businesses in eastern Pennsylvania launched Tuesday on the White House‘s YouTube channel, with a decidedly upbeat tone. The theme may well be: We couldn’t have done it without Joe.

The goal of the video and Biden’s small business tour, according to the administration, is to showcase Allentown’s comeback. The city has a 3.9 percent unemployment rate–its lowest in the last two decades. Allentown factories were once a staple for the U.S. iron and steel industry; some even purportedly churned out building materials for the White House’s construction.

The White House also attributes Bidenomics–the nickname that encompasses Biden’s economic policies–with creating 32,000 additional jobs for Allentown residents. Biden added 2,700 manufacturing jobs to Allentown since taking office, according to the White House.

Even so, the timing of the video’s launch seems like a convenient bit of counter-programing, at a time when business optimism is starting to resurge–one of the bright spots that Biden and his administration are hoping to highlight in the run up to the election.

Regardless of the motives, one thing is clear: Biden likes mango smoothies. He sipped one in Emmaus, Pa., while sitting down at Nowhere Coffee Shop with co-owners Juan and Lauren Vargas, a married couple who opened up their coffee shop during the thick of the pandemic.

He’s also keen to get praise for his legislative achievements. “You passed legislation that gives people a chance,” Juan Vargas told Biden in a video released Tuesday morning. “Your legislation gave us a chance to open this business.”

The couple secured two loans that allowed them to start their business: They received a $229,000 loan directly from the American Rescue Plan Act--the $1.9 trillion law that earmarked billions for small businesses in emergency aid–and another $85,000 from the Small Business Administration’s signature 7(a) lending program.

Armed with those two loans, and some savings they drew from their retirement account, the couple opened their first location in Allentown in February 2022. The founders opened their second location, in Emmaus, less than six months later.

Their success had Biden feeling hopeful for the future. “I just came away from this really assured that what we’ve done has had an impact, not just here in Pennsylvania, but throughout the country,” Biden said in the video. “There’s a real genuine sense of optimism and we’re going to do more.”

“The job isn’t finished,” he adds, a clear nod toward Biden’s re-election efforts. And though he won’t even appear on Tuesday’s ballot after Biden asked the Democratic National Committee to allow South Carolina to kick off the Democratic primaries (a departure from the normal cadence when Iowa and then New Hampshire curry votes first), he’s getting ready for action.

South Carolina’s primary will be held on Feb. 3., but New Hampshire’s state law mandates that the Granite State hold the first presidential primary. That, combined with the reluctance of New Hampshire state legislators to back down, resulted in Biden declining to appear on the state’s ballot. Voters, however, can still write in his name.

The squabble might not matter all that much: The day is less about Democrats, after all, as all eyes fall to the high-stakes race between former president Donald Trump and former United Nations ambassador Haley for the Republican nomination.