President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden will visit NC next Friday. What to know.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to travel to North Carolina Friday to highlight initiatives from the Biden administration that help students prepare for good-paying jobs and another that supports service members.

White House officials announced the trip to McClatchy Saturday evening.

The Bidens plan to spend part of their day in Rocky Mount to discuss Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The Bidens will speak about how career-connected learning and workforce training programs help prepare students for work in both the state and nationwide.

Since 2021, businesses have committed more than $470 billion in private sector investments across the U.S. to create jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, according to the White House. Those investments include $16 billion in North Carolina, from companies like Wolfspeed, VinFast, Toyota and Siemens.

In Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, the Bidens will discuss Jill Biden’s efforts to support military families, caregivers and survivors at an event supporting Joining Forces. Joining Forces focuses on the needs of military families including employment and entrepreneurship for military spouses, education for their children and the health and well-being of military families.

Friday will be the Bidens’ first visit to Fort Liberty since the Army base was renamed from Fort Bragg last week. Gen. Braxton Bragg was a confederate soldier known to have owned slaves.

Biden is coming to North Carolina this week in his official capacity as president. But his presidential campaign for 2024 has made it known that it plans to fully invest in the battleground state, the Washington Post reported.

It will also be the president’s first trip to North Carolina since he helped negotiate a bipartisan debt ceiling bill with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina, that stopped a breach of the debt ceiling, which would have had catastrophic impacts on the U.S. economy.

The president last traveled to North Carolina in March, visiting Wolfspeed in Durham to kick off his Investing in America tour.

The couple last visited North Carolina together in November when they had “Friendsgiving” with service members at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.