Joe Biden has long forgotten North Carolina: Today’s visit is too late

With about 40 days left until the election, President Trump and Vice President Pence have been crisscrossing the state to meet with as many North Carolinians as possible. During that same period of time, however, Joe Biden has been notably absent.

I know this all too well.

Over the past few months, I have been alongside the president and vice president during their visits with churches, our heroic law enforcement officers, and vaccine-developing medical professionals as they relentlessly fight for our state.

But, no word from Joe Biden. No visit to hear our state’s concerns.

Now, the former vice president will make his first visit to North Carolina since Feb. 29 — more than six months ago. This immense absence from a presidential candidate in a large, competitive state brings up a great question. Why should North Carolinians vote for a candidate like Joe Biden who largely refuses to acknowledge the opinions or even the existence of the more than 10 million people of the Tar Heel State?

However, after diving into his radical platform, his disappearing act makes more sense: Joe Biden’s agenda is not aligned with our state’s values.

When it comes to the economy, Joe Biden consistently falls short. Under President Trump, with the help of strong leadership from congressional Republicans, America reached new economic heights yet the former vice president has attempted to claim credit. In reality, the Obama-Biden administration led the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression, and Biden now wants to raise taxes by $4 trillion, shrink the economy by 1.5 percent and eliminate 585,000 jobs.

I am confident we can work with President Trump to do it all again in rebuilding our post-pandemic economy. The latest evidence? Look no further than the most recent jobs report, which showed an unemployment rate tumbling and 1.4 million jobs added in August.

As I talk to small business owners in North Carolina who are still being told by Gov. Roy Cooper that they can’t open — even as a lifeline to survive — the last thing they want is to take steps backward to more needless restrictions.

It’s clear Joe Biden has not talked to them. He unbelievably vowed to shut all of our businesses down again should he be elected. This would be devastating to our state, especially to the more than 290,000 North Carolinians who have gained their jobs back since April. To call this a slap in the face to the American people who have suffered for much of 2020 is a vast understatement.

Plainly put: Just because Joe Biden prefers to be in a basement disconnected from the real world doesn’t mean you should have to follow his lead into the darkness.

Sadly, this simple economic example is indicative of the larger Joe Biden candidacy model — blatant disregard for the needs of the American people.

It has been seen in the violent riots in Raleigh and nationwide, where his likely supporters have been busy terrorizing small business owners, destroying their livelihoods in the process. It has been heard through Biden’s tone-deaf words regarding human-rights abuser, China. It has been told by former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

But, most emphatically, it has been expressed by his own vice presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

During the Democratic debates last year, Joe Biden was rightfully confronted by his now-ally regarding his horrific nearly five-decade career in politics. The leader of the 1994 crime bill was admonished by Harris for his close relationships with segregationist senators, as well as his opposition to the very school busing she grew up with in California.

Biden’s removed-from-reality story is being told on repeat at family dinner tables across our state. And now with a Supreme Court Justice nomination in the air, it’s clear that Biden has not done the homework to represent North Carolina’s voice on this extremely important and influential decision.

So as this very unique 2020 presidential cycle heads toward the finish line, it’s become clear which candidate is willing to meet North Carolina voters where they stand.

President Trump rises to that moment. Joe Biden has failed to show up until it was too late.

Mark Walker represents North Carolina’s 6th District and is Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference.