Jill Biden coming to Pittsburgh on Saturday to attend Italian Sons and Daughters of America dinner

First Lady Jill Biden made a surprise visit to Pittsburgh Pride on Saturday June 1, 2024, and took photos with attendees before taking the stage. (Capital-Star photo)

First lady Jill Biden will be in Pittsburgh on Saturday to attend an Italian Sons and Daughters of America dinner, the White House announced Wednesday. 

Biden is the first Italian-American first lady, hosting an Italian-American heritage month reception at the White House in October, and often attends events celebrating Italian heritage and culture. She was in swing state Wisconsin last month attending the annual Festa Italiana in Milwaukee.

Her visit to Pittsburgh comes the same day former president and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump will be holding a campaign rally in Butler, about an hour north of Pittsburgh. It’s Trump’s first campaign rally in western Pennsylvania since July 2023, when he spoke in Erie. 

Jill Biden joined President Joe Biden in a campaign visit to Pennsylvania last weekend, as the president spoke at a church service in Philadelphia and a union hall in Harrisburg. The president has been working to reassure voters  and fellow Democrats he is up for the job after a poor performance in the June 27 presidential debate. Some members of the Democratic Party have questioned whether the president should step aside as the presumptive nominee, but most in the party have continued to support him publicly. Biden has said he does not plan to drop out of the race.

Jill Biden was last in Pittsburgh in June, speaking on the first day of Pride Month celebrations,  and near the anniversary of the Dobbs decision to speak about reproductive rights.

President Biden last visited western Pennsylvania in April, when he made a three-day campaign swing through the state with stops in Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia ahead of the state’s primary election.