Two Pennsylvania Democrat candidates for statewide office are skipping President Joe Biden’s trip to Pittsburgh on Friday.
Democrat candidate for governor and current state Attorney General Josh Shapiro will not attend Biden’s speech in Pittsburgh and Democrat Senate candidate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman will also miss the event where the president plans to celebrate his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
Each Democrat candidate cited scheduling conflicts as a reason to miss the event but praised Biden’s visit in statements.
“It’s great to come to the city that helped build America to talk about rebuilding America,” Fetterman said in a statement.
“Josh Shapiro is running to be the governor of Pennsylvania and he’s focused on the issues that matter to Pennsylvania families,” Shapiro spokesperson Will Simons said to the Associated Press.
Biden is suffering low approval ratings in the Commonwealth since the election.
A January Muhlenberg College poll shows Biden has only a 36 percent approval rating in the state from citizens who voted in the 2020 election while 57 percent of voters disapprove. The poll of 506 2020 general election voters was conducted between December 1 and 13.
Conor Lamb, a Democrat challenger to Fetterman campaigning for the Senate seat, will attend the event.
“President Biden first announced his infrastructure plan in Pittsburgh, and Conor looks forward to welcoming him back and talking about all the good jobs that bill will create in the Pittsburgh area and all over Pennsylvania,” Lamb’s campaign manager Abby Nassif Murphy said in a statement.