By Michael Shepherd with Billy Kobin - July 27, 2023
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Here's what we know about the president's guest list and the early reaction to his visit. Details are taking shape on President Joe Biden's Maine visit on Friday. He will land at the former Navy air base in Brunswick and go to Auburn Manufacturing Co. for remarks on economic policy.

Gov. Janet Mills has said she will join him on the visit, and local officials including Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque and Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline are expected to be there as well. The latter mayor has already tweeted a picture of the challenge coin that he plans to present the president with.

The congressional delegation is dealing with a number of scheduling issues. Only Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has said she will not be there, while no other members have confirmed their attendance. One hiccup for Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, both Democrats, is that Friday is the last day of House votes until a short August break.

It is a rare thing for the Lewiston-Auburn area. As the Sun Journal documented on Wednesday, it will be the first trip by a sitting president to Auburn since William Howard Taft rode through the city in 1912. Lewiston has gotten some more recent attention, from John F. Kennedy closing his campaign there in 1960 to George H.W. Bush reading to kids there in 1991.

I noted Auburn's status as a swing city earlier this week. I was on full display this week as residents gave CBS News 13 some mixed reactions to the visit. One man called Biden the best president since 1950, while a woman said the president was "wasting his time" because he can't help people there.

Regardless of party, local officials are going to use the trip to promote the city. That includes Levesque, who has higher political ambitions and has gotten national recognition for loosening housing policies to boost construction.

"I hope this visit will help other municipalities around the country recognize that it’s possible to have vibrant industry," the mayor told the Sun Journal.

It will also provide a platform to up-and-coming critics of Biden, with Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, a two-time congressional candidate, "welcoming" the president to his city in a statement on Wednesday.

"We need free markets that empower people to save and invest in our own communities — not the government-directed, trickle-down polices that have come to define 'Bidenomics,'" he wrote on Twitter.