(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden highlighted a $60 million investment from Enphase Energy Inc. as proof his economic agenda is creating jobs for American workers, taking his “Bidenomics” pitch to South Carolina.

“Our plan is working. And one of the things I’m proudest of is it’s working everywhere,” Biden said Thursday in West Columbia, his latest trip outside Washington to highlight his efforts on the economy to skeptical voters as he seeks reelection. “It’s no accident. It’s Bidenomics in action.”

Enphase’s investment will create 1,800 jobs across the US, including 600 jobs in South Carolina between the solar-energy equipment firm and its partner — manufacturing giant Flex Ltd. 

Biden was joined by Flex Chief Executive Officer Revathi Advaithi and Badri Kothandaraman, president and CEO of Enphase. He toured a Flex facility, where the company will make products for Enphase. Enphase sells microinverters and batteries for solar arrays but its products are manufactured at factories in China, Mexico and India. Thursday’s announcement marks Enphase’s first US-based contract manufacturing facility. 

“Jobs that used to go to Mexico, India, Romania and China are now coming home to South Carolina,” Biden said.

Read more: Biden to Announce $60 Million Enphase Energy Investment

Thursday’s visit took Biden to a state where he turned around his 2020 campaign. Biden has credited the state’s Black voters, who delivered his first primary victory in that campaign, with helping him secure the Democratic nomination and the White House. Biden subsequently pushed the Democratic National Committee to move South Carolina first in its presidential primary calendar. 

But the state went for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election and has produced two 2024 GOP presidential candidates, US Senator Tim Scott and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

Speaking in the Republican-controlled state, Biden argued his policies have sought to help all voters, even those who did not back him.

Biden took a jab at GOP lawmakers he said opposed his policies but then took credit for investments in their states, citing one project in Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district.

“Guess what? I’ll be there for the groundbreaking,” Biden said.

Biden spoke in South Carolina days after Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, held a rally in the state. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Trump with a slim head-to-head lead nationally. 

Skeptical Voters

Biden’s efforts to create domestic manufacturing jobs have been a centerpiece of his economic agenda, boosted in part by legislation he signed into law, including the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act and the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act. 

The president has insisted his policies are already delivering benefits for voters and creating lasting changes for US industry by encouraging smart investments in clean energy, growing the middle class and promoting competition to lower costs for consumers and small businesses.

Still voters, racked by unusually high inflation and fears of a looming potential recession, have been reluctant to credit the president’s efforts. Biden has been weighed down by low polling numbers and voter perceptions that he has accomplished little in office. 

To counter that, Biden has been stepping up his economic messaging. Last week, he delivered what the White House billed as a major address on Bidenomics, contrasting his economic agenda with the small-government philosophy Republicans have espoused for decades and seeking to reclaim a moniker the GOP has deployed derisively.  

Earlier: Biden Pitches Bidenomics as Reversal From ‘Failed’ Trickle-Down

Many of his measures, though, will not bear fruit for years as new manufacturing facilities gradually come online, posing a challenge for a president whose reelection prospects are tied to voter perceptions about the state of the economy.

Republicans have seized on polling data showing Americans have a dim view of the economy to hammer Biden’s policies. 

Scott criticized Biden’s policies earlier Thursday, saying Americans needed relief from soaring inflation.

“I hope he is gonna start his apology tour here in South Carolina because what the president wants the American people to do is to believe what he says and not what we see with our own eyes,” Scott said on Fox News. “Every single month since he’s been in office, except for one, inflation is outpacing increases in wages.”

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