In Delco campaign stop, Biden says freedoms are ‘on the ballot this November’

President Joe Biden is not as popular as he was when he won the 2020 election, but the group that has stuck by him the most is women.

And at Strath Haven Middle School in Wallingford on Friday Biden pledged to a heavily suburban female audience that he would continue to fight for their families, for their reproductive rights, and predicted they would be difference-makers in the November election.

“Those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade, they have no clue about the power of women in America,” Biden said, borrowing a line from the previous night’s State of the Union address.

It's not every day that the President of the United States sits at your kitchen table.

Before Biden delivered his remarks Friday evening, the president and First Lady Jill Biden visited the home of Jack Cunicelli in Rose Valley.

Jack and his brother, David, own 320 Market Cafe, a market with two locations in Delaware County. The siblings credit Biden's pandemic-era spending package for small businesses as a life raft that kept their store afloat during turbulent times.

First lady Jill Biden introduced President Joe Biden at his campaign stop in Delaware County, but first she reminded the audience of her connections to the Philadelphia region.

"Did you all see Joe last night?" she first asked, referring to his State of the Union speech to Congress. "Wasn't he on fire?"

The first lady then recalled how she grew up in Willow Grove and how she would watch Phillies games with her father in the summer and Eagles games in the fall.

At his campaign stop in Delaware County, President Joe Biden spoke about helping first-time homebuyers with $400 in monthly mortgage assistance and raising taxes on corporations and people who make more than $400,000 a year.

Biden, as he did during his State of the Union address to Congress Thursday night, called for the passage of a bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey to combat so-called shrinkflation — the practice of charging the same or more for packages containing less food or other products.

On the proposed tax increases, he promised that no one making less than $400,000 would pay more in taxes.

President Joe Biden addressed supporters Friday evening at a campaign stop at Strath Haven Middle School in Delaware County, focusing on affordable health care, abortion and reproductive rights, and strengthening the economy.

"If you're tired, you probably watched my address last night," Biden said, referring to his State of the Union speech to Congress that was generally well-received by Democrats who wanted the president to demonstrate that the 81-year-old Biden could be forceful and clear.

"Our freedoms are really on the ballot this November," Biden said as he then spoke of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and warned of more setbacks for Democrats if former President Donald Trump is re-elected.

A Delaware County pharmacy owner introduced President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden ahead of their addresses at Strath Haven Middle School in Wallingford Friday.

"I have seen countless patients struggle to pay for basic medications like insulin and vaccines," said Springfield Pharmacy owner Chichi Ilonzo Momah. "But we have an ally in President Joe Biden."

Momah, a 2006 Temple University School of Pharmacy graduate, opened Springfield Pharmacy in 2012. Previously, she served as pharmacy manager of the nearby Rios Pharmacy in Morton, Delaware County. 

Around 30 pro-Palestinian protesters are gathered outside of Strath Haven Middle School, where President Joe Biden will soon deliver his remarks.

Police wearing riot helmets separated the group from the school's entrance.

Palestinian flags flew in the hands of the rallygoers, who chanted "This November, We Remember", a nod to a growing movement among some progressive Democrats to protest Biden at the ballot box.

President Joe Biden and the first lady made a surprise stop at a home in Rose Valley Friday. Neighbors lined the windy wooded block to greet the motorcade, which pulled into a driveway of a gray colonial home.

Biden and his wife sat down with Jack and David Cunicelli, the owners of 320 Market Cafe, and their families at Jack's home. The Cunicelli brothers went to school in Wilmington, Del., before starting their family business in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

They were able to keep their two locations in Media and Swarthmore open and their employees paid during the pandemic thanks to critical small business relief Biden delivered in the White House.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived at Philadelphia International Airport around 3:30 p.m., where they were greeted on the tarmac by Philadelphia Democratic Party chair Bob Brady.

U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean, Brendan Boyle, and Mary Gay Scanlon, all Pennsylvania Democrats, flew on Air Force One from Washington with the president.

Biden is expected to hold a campaign rally at Strath Haven Middle School later Friday afternoon.

Philadelphia will see another visit from a top federal official next week with.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in town Tuesday to observe headway made on bridge repairs in the area as part of President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Passed in 2021, that law earmarked $1.8 billion in federal aid across five years to rehabilitate aging infrastructure in the state. Following its passage, the Biden administration said it marked the nation's single largest investment in bridges since the construction of the country's interstate system.

While President Joe Biden was addressing a joint session of Congress Thursday night, the key audience for his State of the Union address was voters in swing states like Pennsylvania.

During his address, Biden gave one of the only named shout-outs to a member of Congress to Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), telling Congress to pass a bill Casey has aimed at cracking down on corporations shrinking products without reducing prices. Casey, a fellow Scranton native, is also up for reelection this year.

“Snack companies think you won’t notice when they charge you just as much for the same size bag, but with fewer chips in it” Biden said. “Pass Bobby Casey’s bill and stop shrinkflation.”

» READ MORE: Ahead of Pa. visit, Biden tells Congress to ‘pass Bobby Casey’s bill,’ in animated State of the Union speech

President Joe Biden’s visit to Delaware County will force a few roads to close. 

In a letter to parents, Wallingford-Swarthmore School District superintendent Wagner Marseille said there will be intermittent road closures around both Strath Haven Middle School and Strath Haven High School between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Friday afternoon. 

Biden is scheduled to speak at a rally at Strath Haven Middle School at 5 p.m. 

Number of times Joe Biden has visited the Philadelphia region as president: 20.

Number of stops this year: 3.

Cost: Not priceless.

During his State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden touted his administration’s achievements on infrastructure, job creation, and health care. He stressed the gains the nation has made since the pandemic and seemed to acknowledge the disconnect between positive economic signals and how inflation has left most Americans feeling largely sour on the economy.

“It doesn’t make the news, but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told,” he said. “So let’s tell that story here and now.”

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, who is poised to be a key surrogate for Biden in Pennsylvania this election, was ready to tell that story for the president. In an interview shortly before Biden spoke, the Philadelphia mayor said she’s seen firsthand how his administration has benefited Philadelphia.

From D.C. to Delco.

President Joe Biden will visit Strath Haven Middle School in Delaware County on Friday, the day after his State of the Union address, two sources with knowledge of the planning told The Inquirer.

The school, in Wallingford, is about 10 miles from Philadelphia International Airport in a suburban area that has grown increasingly Democratic since former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

The region is vital for Biden in a state where the smallest shifts could determine the outcome. The area has contributed significant votes to Democratic statewide candidates in recent elections.

In 2019, Democrats won big in the county, flipping the Delaware County Council from Republican control for the first time since the Civil War.

In the 2020 election that trend continued, as it did in Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties. Biden expanded the total margin of victory in the four collar counties by nearly 105,000 votes over what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton amassed in her loss in 2016. That was more than enough to offset the gains Trump made elsewhere in the state, despite a somewhat disappointing Democratic performance in Philadelphia.

About 70 carpenters and other supporters of President Joe Biden filled a large conference room at the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters building on Spring Garden Street to watch Biden’s State of the Union speech and eat pizza Thursday night.

Jonathan Young, the political director for the union, told the crowd before the speech that Biden is “the most pro-union president I’ve ever had in my lifetime.”

Biden-Harris signs lined the walls, but Biden gear was scarce. The crowd was mostly quiet for the beginning of the speech, but when the words “built by American workers” left Biden’s mouth, attendees put their hands together, bringing a new energy to the room.