By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will announce a Black-owned business coalition could win funding to revive downtown Milwaukee on a visit to Wisconsin on Wednesday, as he looks to shore up support in a state that may prove pivotal to his re-election chances in 2024.

Biden will visit the Milwaukee Black Chamber of Commerce to discuss what the White House called a boom in Black-owned small businesses. He will be joined by Rashawn Spivey, the founder and owner of Hero Plumbing, a Black-owned small business that removes lead pipes in Milwaukee.

Biden’s visit reflects an effort to bolster support from Black voters ahead of what his campaign team is expecting to be a tough battle for re-election.

Biden’s victories in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – all swing states that Republican Donald Trump carried in 2016 – were instrumental in his 2020 victory. He will likely will need to carry many of those states again to win re-election.

Black voters have for a long time been the most loyal Democratic constituency, but some feel disenchanted by the Biden presidency.

Biden is to announce that the Grow Milwaukee Coalition is one of 22 finalists for a Commerce Department program that would allocate funds to help create jobs in America’s hardest-hit communities.

The coalition’s proposal would invest in revitalizing Milwaukee’s historic 30th Street Industrial Corridor and connecting the historically segregated Black community to economic opportunity across the city.

A White House fact sheet said the share of Black households owning a business has doubled between 2019 and 2022, after falling between 2007 and 2019.

In Milwaukee alone, new business applications are up 70%, with Americans having filed a record 15 million applications to start new businesses nationwide, the fact sheet said.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll published on Dec. 5 found that Biden’s popularity was at 40%, near the lowest level of his presidency, a sign of the challenges ahead for his re-election bid.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Sonali Paul)