Vice President Kamala Harris visited Durham on Thursday in her second trip to the Bull City this year.
Harris arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport shortly after noon and headed to the Durham Center for Senior Life for her first event of the day, where she will tour the facility and be joined by Gov. Roy Cooper before delivering remarks on the Biden administration's efforts to lower health care costs through the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.
The sweeping climate, health care and tax legislation, which caps the price of insulin at $35 per month for Medicare recipients and empowers health officials to begin negotiating the costs of certain prescription drugs for those on Medicare over the next several years, passed Congress on two party-line votes last month. The bill moved out of the Senate after Harris cast a tie-breaking vote.
After her remarks at the senior care center, Harris will speak at a private fundraiser for the Democratic Party, before returning to Washington.
Thursday's visit is Harris' second to Durham in six months. In early March, the vice president spoke at Durham Technical Community College to promote union jobs as the way forward for economic recovery and expansion.
Harris' visit comes just over two months before the midterm election, when North Carolinians will go to the polls to elect candidates in all 14 U.S. House seats and in an open U.S. Senate race. With the Democratic Party controlling both chambers of Congress by thin margins, especially in the Senate, November's election could be crucial in determining which party has a majority going forward.
President Joe Biden's national approval rating, which could indicate how voters feel about the incumbent administration heading into the upcoming election, increased to 44% in recent weeks after sinking to a personal low of 38% in July, according to the polling organization Gallup.
Biden has recorded lower approval ratings in North Carolina specifically. An April poll by High Point University found his approval rating among North Carolinians at 35% while a subsequent poll by Meredith College in May found the number at 40%.
In a statement, the North Carolina Democratic Party said it was "thrilled" that Harris was returning to Durham to tout the administration's efforts to lower health care costs.
"The Vice President's visit today makes clear that Democrats are delivering results for our state while Republicans don't have a plan to help working people," NCDP Chair Bobbie Richardson said.
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, called the Biden administration's approval rating in North Carolina "abysmal."
"Kamala Harris is not welcomed by North Carolinians as evidenced by the Biden administration's abysmal approval rating in the Tar Heel State," said RNC spokeswoman Taylor Mazock. "Republicans are working hard to engage voters across the state and send Ted Budd to Washington in order to and deliver on policies that North Carolinians care about the most."
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
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