Biden's Portland Visit To Include Infrastructure Talk, Fundraising

PORTLAND, OR — President Joe Biden will be in Portland on Thursday, talking up the recently-passed infrastructure bill. He will then attend a fundraiser and head up to Seattle for a talk on the economy.

The White House said that Biden will arrive in town sometime after 1:30 p.m., flying into the Oregon Air National Guard Base by Portland International Airport. He is expected to begin speaking at 2 p.m.

Biden will be joined by senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden as well as Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Kurt Schrader as he discusses plans to invest in upgrading the runways at the airport to make them earthquake resilient, the White House said.

Including Schrader is a gift to the congressman, a conservative Democrat. Schrader is involved in a tough primary race.

Biden will also be here to raise money for Democrats, according to two sources familiar with the fundraiser that will be held Thursday night.

The fundraiser was originally scheduled to be held at the home shared by two local Democrats with national profiles: Win McCormack, a major donor, and Carol Butler, a political consultant.

The event, a fundraiser for the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, has since been moved to a larger location to allow for more people to attend, the sources said. It will now be held at the Portland Yacht Club.

Tickets for the fundraiser, which sold out Wednesday, ranged up to $36,500, according to the sources.

One source said that it is possible the president will announce some degree of funding for the interstate bridge replacement project.

Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley recently announced that more than $200 million in federal funds, including a $153 million investment in transit infrastructure, are coming to Oregon as a result of the spending bill.

The bill also includes more than $6 million in funding for work by the Army Corps of Engineers at Willamette Falls.

Two of the sources said that it is unlikely that Biden will make a return trip to Salt & Straw, where he stopped for a cone in 2014 when he was vice president and in town to campaign for Merkley.