President Joe Biden returning to the PNW for Earth Day, will stop in Portland and Seattle

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden will spend Earth Day in the great Pacif­ic North­west as part of a swing through Wash­ing­ton and Ore­gon that will include stops in Seat­tle and Port­land, the White House announced in a press release today.

“On Thurs­day, April 21st, the Pres­i­dent will trav­el to Port­land, Ore­gon to dis­cuss how the unprece­dent­ed invest­ments in his Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law are Build­ing a Bet­ter Amer­i­ca,” the White House said in a state­ment sent to NPI and oth­er media out­lets around 11 AM Pacif­ic Time.

“On Earth Day, Fri­day, April 22nd, the Pres­i­dent will trav­el to Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton to dis­cuss his Administration’s efforts to con­tin­ue bring­ing down costs for Amer­i­can fam­i­lies and grow­ing our clean ener­gy economy.”

The Fri­day event or events will prob­a­bly fea­ture a joint appear­ance with Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee and pos­si­bly State Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands Hilary Franz, along with local elect­ed offi­cials like King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Constantine.

It seems incon­ceiv­able that Biden would come to Wash­ing­ton State to talk about grow­ing our clean ener­gy econ­o­my with­out appear­ing with the gov­er­nor, who is one of the nation’s best known cli­mate action champions.

This will be Biden’s first trip to Wash­ing­ton and Ore­gon as Pres­i­dent. Biden has already been to Ida­ho as Pres­i­dent, stop­ping in Boise for a vis­it as part of anoth­er trip out west that he took last year. Biden was most recent­ly in Seat­tle in 2019 dur­ing a pre-pan­dem­ic fundrais­ing swing as part of his pres­i­den­tial campaign.

The last time Wash­ing­ton State had a pres­i­den­tial vis­it was in 2016, in the final year of Barack Oba­ma’s sec­ond term as Pres­i­dent. Don­ald Trump did not vis­it Wash­ing­ton or Ore­gon dur­ing the peri­od of time that he occu­pied the Oval Office.

As Vice Pres­i­dent, Biden made a num­ber of trips to Wash­ing­ton State over an eight year times­pan, includ­ing to sup­port Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell and Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray. Many of Biden’s appear­ances were in 2010 and 2014, both midterm cycles. Biden head­lined a Taco­ma ral­ly for Mur­ray in 2010 that was well attended.

Biden also showed up for Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, head­lin­ing an event for her in 2014, although she was not on the bal­lot that year. (Cantwell was first elect­ed in 2000 and then reelect­ed in 2006, 2012, and 2018. She’ll be up again in 2024.)

The White House says addi­tion­al details about the trip will be avail­able next week. NPI is plan­ning on cov­er­ing the vis­it here on the Cas­ca­dia Advocate.

Res­i­dents of the Port­land and Seat­tle met­ro­pol­i­tan areas can expect some day­time traf­fic impacts on Thurs­day and Fri­day, and should plan ahead accord­ing­ly. For secu­ri­ty rea­sons, it isn’t pos­si­ble to know what roads the Secret Ser­vice will have local law enforce­ment close, or when those clo­sures will take place. If you’ll be out and about on Thurs­day or Fri­day of next week, just give your­self plen­ty of extra time to reach your destination.