President Joe Biden will spend part of his last full day in office in South Carolina on Sunday, according to the White House.
The news came Tuesday morning and details remain forthcoming, but this will be the president's final visit to the state that propelled him to the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2020 primary.
Biden's last visit was on October 2 when he landed at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport for an update on the damage caused by Hurricane Helene days prior. Following a tarmac briefing with Gov. Henry McMaster, Sen. Lindsey Graham and other officials, Biden boarded Marine One for an aerial tour of hard-hit western North Carolina.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida on September 26 as a Category 4 storm before reaching the Carolinas with tropical storm force winds and river flooding. Helene was the deadliest storm to ever hit South Carolina leaving 49 people died. The storm spawned 21 tornadoes which contributed to 1.3 million South Carolinians losing power, destroying or damaging more than 4,200 homes and $621 million in agricultural damages.
Biden's visit comes days before members of the Democratic National Committee Southern Caucus are set to meet in Charleston as the DNC works to select its new chairman. Southern Democratic leaders will host a chairman candidate forum on January 24 to hear from those vying to replace outgoing DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison of South Carolina. DNC officer elections are on February 1.

The DNC, at Biden's request, made South Carolina the first in the nation primary state a move widely seen as a thank you for the role the state played in propelling him to the nomination in 2020. That win was due primarily to the state's diverse voting population that officials say is more representative of the Democratic Party, compared to Iowa and New Hampshire. The fate of the newly-minted first in the nation status will be in the hands of those newly elected national party leaders.
“I wouldn’t be here without the Democrats of South Carolina,” Biden told state Democrats last January. “You’re the reason Donald Trump is a loser."
Biden's speech last January came days after his January 8 visit to Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, home of one of the worst racially-motivated mass shootings in recent history which left nine Black parishioners dead on June 17, 2015.
During that speech Biden made a subtle dig at former Governor Nikki Haley who said slavery didn't cause the Civil War. Haley was running against former President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
"Slavery was the cause of the Civil War," Biden said to applause. "Now we’re living in an era of a second Lost Cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying — trying to turn a loss into a lie — a lie, which if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country. This time, the lie is about the 2020 election, the election which you made your voices heard and your power known."