President Biden is expected to try to remind voters of why they rejected then-President Donald J. Trump four years ago, and of the stakes of the election for issues like abortion access.Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times
This week will be one of the biggest of the 2024 campaign so far, with a forceful push from President Biden around the second anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the first general-election debate between him and former President Donald J. Trump scheduled for Thursday night.
Monday is the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, which eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion. After days of events leading up to it, the Biden campaign is sending Vice President Kamala Harris to Maryland and Arizona, and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to Michigan.
Mr. Trump, for his part, will be in New Orleans for a fund-raiser with Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
That event has been on the calendar for some time, but Louisiana took on new significance last week when its Republican governor, Jeff Landry, signed into law a requirement that all public-school classrooms display the Ten Commandments. That measure, which Mr. Trump praised, is part of a broader effort to inject conservative Christianity into American law.
Then attention will turn to the debate, to be held in a CNN studio in Atlanta with no live audience. It will be the first time Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump have faced off directly since the fall of 2020 — practically a lifetime ago, before coronavirus vaccines, before Jan. 6 and all that has come since.
Though the general-election campaign has been in full force for months, Thursday could be the first time that some less politically engaged voters really tune in. Mr. Biden hopes to use the debate as an opportunity to reset a campaign in which he has mostly trailed in polls, though they have moved in his direction since Mr. Trump’s criminal conviction last month.
Mr. Biden is expected to try to remind voters of why they rejected Mr. Trump four years ago, and of the stakes of the election for democracy and issues like abortion access. Mr. Trump will try to cast Mr. Biden as a failed president who has made Americans less economically and physically secure.
Tuesday will bring primary elections in Colorado, New York and Utah.
Among many other races, Representative Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, is fighting for a chance to stay in Congress after moving to a different district. In New York, Representative Jamaal Bowman has a pro-Israel challenger in his Democratic primary. And in Utah, a Trump-aligned candidate, Trent Staggs, is facing a comparative moderate, Representative John Curtis, in the Republican primary for the Senate seat that Mitt Romney is vacating.
On Wednesday, the first lady, Jill Biden, will host a Pride Month celebration at the White House.
And on Friday, as the dust settles after the debate, both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump will head back on the road: Mr. Biden for a fund-raiser in New York, and Mr. Trump for a rally in Chesapeake, Va.
