Second gentleman Doug Emhoff touts Biden student loan relief in AZ: 'Fixing a broken system'

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, made a three-stop swing on Monday through the Phoenix area.

Emhoff appeared alongside local education leaders to tout President Joe Biden’s recently unveiled proposal to forgive millions of Americans’ student loan debt.

“People are getting trapped by predatory loans at higher interest rates. They can't get help and this is just plain wrong,” Emhoff said at the Phoenix headquarters of a local union, AFSCME Local 2960. “Part of that solution is debt cancellation.”

Under Biden’s latest plan, previewed Monday, more than 4 million student loan borrowers — many of whom have been paying down their debt for 20 years or more — could see the rest of their debt canceled, according to the White House. In addition, more than 10 million borrowers could get $5,000 or more in relief.

Biden also hopes to eliminate interest past the original loan amounts of 23 million borrowers.

The announcement represents Biden's most aggressive action yet trying to work around the Supreme Court’s rebuke of his first student loan relief gambit, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of low- and middle-income borrowers.

Emhoff nodded to that history in his remarks.

“At the beginning of the administration, President Biden proposed a major plan that would have provided student debt relief to more than 40 million Americans. It would have made an incredible, real difference in people's lives. But Republican elected officials and special interest groups challenged the administration,” he said.

They invited Arizonans whose loans have been relieved under Biden’s plans so far.

“I'm a proud mother, a single mother, of three children,” said Kanika Jones, a social worker who lives in Laveen. “Loan forgiveness means that I can continue focusing to provide for them, and set them up for success. And I can continue to work in public service without having that heavy burden.”

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election, has praised the Supreme Court for halting one part of Biden’s debt forgiveness plans, arguing it was unfair to the people who have already paid their student loans.

The panel’s remarks echoed the tone Biden has recently struck on the issue: validate voters’ pessimism on affordability issues, even while arguing that the administration is making progress on the matter.

“I've seen firsthand the power of higher education, but I've also seen how higher education has become out of reach for too many people,” said Nasser Paydar, Biden’s assistant secretary for postsecondary education.

Paydar said that the administration has relieved student loan debt for 4 million Americans, including 52,420 in Arizona.

Earlier in the day, Emhoff visited a field office for Biden’s re-election campaign. His remarks centered on abortion access, delivered the day before the Arizona Supreme Court was expected to issue a highly anticipated ruling on the topic.

“No matter which way the Supreme Court rules, decisions on reproductive freedom will still be restricted here in Arizona,” Emhoff told dozens of campaign volunteers and supporters.

Emhoff highlighted Trump’s platform, released Monday morning, which endorsed the Supreme Court’s rollback of the landmark abortion case, Roe vs. Wade, and said he believes the matter should be left to the states. He did not endorse a national ban on abortion, which has been floated by some in his party.

“Trump's comments today are an endorsement of the nightmare that we're seeing play out across the country,” Emhoff said, referencing statewide abortion bans.

With Emhoff’s visit, the president, vice president, and both of their spouses have all separately visited Arizona since the beginning of March, a sign of Arizona’s paramount importance in President Joe Biden’s re-election effort this year.

In 2020, Biden defeated his predecessor, Trump, in Arizona by less than half a percentage point.

Biden visited Arizona in mid-March to mobilize Latino voters and announce a multibillion-dollar grant for technology giant Intel Corp. under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.

Shortly before that, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a speech in Phoenix to criticize Republican-led efforts to restrict abortion.

And first lady Jill Biden visited Tucson in early March for another event centered on abortion.

That’s on top of other surrogates, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a co-chair of Biden’s re-election bid, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the influential House Oversight and Accountability Committee, who have both visited Arizona recently to campaign on behalf of Biden.

It’s not Emhoff’s first visit to Arizona during the administration, the White House said. In 2023, he visited the state with Harris and met with military veterans from the Gila River Indian Community in Laveen Village. And in 2021, Emhoff and Jill Biden toured a pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Phoenix to encourage people to get vaccinated.

Monday evening, Emhoff was expected to attend the NCAA men’s basketball championship game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.

USA TODAY’s Zachary Schermele and Alia Wong contributed to this article.

Laura Gersony covers national politics for the Arizona Republic. Contact her at lgersony@gannett.com or 480-372-0389.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Doug Emhoff touts President Biden's student loan relief in Arizona