President Biden is heading to North Carolina on Thursday to announce $82 million in new investments to connect homes and businesses in the state to high-speed internet.
He will go to the Raleigh-Durham area in the critical battleground state to make the announcement, alongside Gov. Roy Cooper (D). The funding comes from the American Rescue Plan, which was the COVID-19 relief package Biden signed into law in 2021, and aims to connect an additional 16,000 homes and businesses in North Carolina.
The investment, according to a fact sheet from the White House, will also create jobs in manufacturing and construction to produce “Made-in-America fiber-optic cable that will build out internet infrastructure across the country.”
The investment will also save North Carolinians money on their internet bills every month, according to the fact sheet. The White House aims to help 885,000 North Carolina households, about 1 in 5, save up to $30 per month on their internet bills.
Biden will give remarks and discuss his goal to connect more than 300,000 more homes and businesses to high-speed internet by the end of 2026, through a total of $1 billion from the American Rescue Plan. Across the country, the goal is to connect all Americans to high-speed internet by 2030.
Biden’s remarks will highlight his so-called Bidenomics agenda, which is his economic plan to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.
Former President Trump beat Biden in North Carolina in 2020. Trump also won the state in the 2016 election, beating Democrat Hillary Clinton. Former President Obama won North Carolina in 2008 but lost it in 2012.
The Biden campaign recently beefed up its operations in the Tar Heel State, as well as other battleground states, and Vice President Harris went to the state last week to discuss combating gun violence.