jill scott tour philadelphia

The Roots & Live Nation Urban Announce “Roots Picnic” 2024

JUNE 1 & 2 2024 | THE MANN IN FAIRMOUNT PARK | PHILADELPHIA, PA

Blockbuster lineup to feature a special performance & celebration of new orleans with lil wayne & the roots, jill scott, andré 3000,  victoria monét, gunna, nas, tyla, sexyy red, babyface, cam’ron, fantasia, muni long & more, tickets go on sale friday, february 23, “hip-hop’s greatest festival” – rolling stone.

Delivering a musical and cultural experience without comparison, GRAMMY® Award-winning multi-platinum hip-hop luminaries The Roots and Live Nation Urban proudly present the 2024 installment of “Roots Picnic . ” The two-day festival returns to its longtime home of The Mann in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday and Sunday, June 1-2, 2024 . Building anticipation, the Roots Picnic alumni presale goes live on Tuesday, February 20th at 10 AM ET , while general on-sale begins Friday, February 23rd at 10 AM ET . Weekend tickets and VIP packages will be available HERE .

Upholding a tradition, the lineup unites a cohort of generational voices with some of the culture’s most influential rising acts. As such, multi-GRAMMY Award-winning legend Lil Wayne will headline the festival with The Roots delivering a set highlighted by decades of definitive hits and an immersive celebration of his multi-cultural hometown New Orleans which will include special guests PJ Morton, and Trombone Shorty . Additionally, powerhouse Jill Scott , who is coming off the heels of a massive 20th anniversary tour of her 2000 seminal debut album, Who Is Jill Scott?, will co-headline and continue to captivate with spirit, style, and soul in her hometown of Philadelphia.

At its core, the DNA of “Roots Picnic” represents a spirit of boundless collaboration and unfettered creativity. In response to overwhelming fan demand, this year, the festival notably welcomes Victoria Monét , hot off multiple 2024 GRAMMY® Award wins and her career-defining LP Jaguar II . Among other icons, André 3000 will perform in support of his acclaimed solo debut, New Blue Sun . After reaching arena status last year with a sellout at Barclays Arena in Brooklyn for his first headlining performance in over two years, Gunna returns to Philadelphia as one of the weekend’s marquee acts. The impressive and eclectic lineup also features Sexyy Red , Tyla , Smino , Babyface, Adam Blackstone featuring Fantasia & Muni Long, Cam’ron, Nas , Wale , Robert Glasper featuring Yebba , Tasha Cobbs Leonard and more. Full confirmed lineup below.

Offering an inimitable experience, “Roots Picnic” will boast the Parkside Stage (formerly Podcast Stage) hosting a wide range of curated experiential media along with live podcasts and DJ driven immersive experiences ranging from Million Dollaz Worth of Game, R&B Only & U+ME+RNB to Tonight’s Conversation, Juan Epstein Podcast , World Series of Spades and They Have the Range. The concourse will be populated by various immersive activations to be announced soon.

Last year, “Roots Picnic ” showcased unforgettable sets from super bowl performer  Usher & The Roots , Ms. Lauryn Hill with a surprise Fugees reunion, Dave Chappelle , State Property , Lil Uzi Vert , and more. Variety raved, “The 2023 iteration of the Roots Picnic wound up being its most thoroughly engaging, and surprise-filled festival , ” and Rolling Stone christened it “a Philly institution . ” ESSENCE raved, “The weekend marked a beautiful celebration of culture, art, music, and the city of brotherly love . ”

2023 Roots Picnic

(Left: Ms. Lauryn Hill & Fugees, Right: Usher & Black Thought – Credit: Taylor Hill/Getty)

“Roots Picnic” has continued to be one of the summer’s most highly anticipated festivals and a celebration of Philadelphia’s robust music scene. Over the years, it’s been named one of UPROXX’s “Best Festivals For Hip-Hop Fans Of Any Generation” and lauded as “a major staple within the Black community.” Billboard included the Roots Picnic in their Top 50 Music Festivals round-up, and perhaps BET put it best, “the two-day event proves why hip hop is such a regenerative force of nature.”

Since launching in 2007, The Roots Picnic has stood at the crossroads of music and culture, entertaining, engaging, and enlightening millions of fans along the way. Its dynamic lineups have included everyone from The Weeknd, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, Phantogram, Usher, Nas, A$AP Rocky, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Future to Vampire Weekend, The War on Drugs, Gary Clark, Jr., Solange, Diplo, Gnarls Barkley, and more. “Roots Picnic” isn’t just a cornerstone of the group’s career, but a cornerstone of the culture.

FULL LINEUP:

Lil Wayne & The Roots Celebrate New Orleans (feat. Special guests PJ Morton, Trombone Shorty)

Victoria Monét

Robert Glasper & Yebba

J.Period Live Mixtape featuring Black Thought, Method Man, and Redman

Adam Blackstone’s Legacy Experience featuring Fantasia and Muni Long

Marsha Ambrosius

Baller Alert Presents Backyard Band featuring Scarface & Amerie

October London

Leon Thomas

Tasha Cobbs Leonard

Julian King

Rec Philly Presents Chioke

DJ Diamond Kuts

PARKSIDE STAGE (formerly podcast stage):

R&B Only

They Have the Range

Million Dollaz Worth of Game

Tonight’s Conversation

Juan Epstein Podcast

World Series of Spades

**Lineup subject to change  

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live NationConcerts, and Live Nation Media & Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com .

Live Nation Urban (LNU) is a partnership with Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s leading live entertainment company. Specifically focusing on Hip-Hop, R&B, and Gospel, LNU builds platforms, events, and festivals globally and develops dynamic content strategies based upon the live properties created. Live Nation Urban considers itself the most powerful source for live urban music. For additional information, visit www.livenationurban.com .

About the Mann Center for the Performing Arts

As one of the foremost outdoor music centers in the country, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, a leading non-profit organization, has a historical legacy of artistic excellence as a world-class entertainment destination presenting premier artists, now in association with Live Nation Entertainment. Each summer season, renowned symphony orchestras, iconic rock stars, and the latest touring artists in indie rock, hip hop, R&B, and pop take the stage here. The Mann is the summer home of The Philadelphia Orchestra and has presented critically acclaimed performers in every decade since the 1930s. Located in the heart of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, the Mann hosts more than 400,000 visitors annually. Signature concert experiences are surrounded by Philadelphia’s stunning skyline and include seats beneath the Mann’s acoustically acclaimed TD Pavilion; picnics, blankets, and music under the stars on its Great Lawn or at the top of the hill at the Highmark Skyline Stage @ the Mann; and dining in Crescendo, the venue’s spectacular tented restaurant. In addition, the Mann’s Education & Community Engagement Program reaches tens of thousands of young people annually through free programming and educational initiatives as well as its virtual Mann Music Room. Mann’s unique setting also provides an unparalleled opportunity to activate the campus’s six unique event spaces available to host concert presentations, intimate gatherings, corporate events, and private functions. For more information, visit www.manncenter.org .

For more information, contact:

Live Nation Urban

Carleen Donovan: [email protected]

Nina Lee: [email protected]

For sponsorship inquiries, contact:

Brandon Pankey: [email protected]

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Jill Scott returns to Philadelphia for 'Who is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds Vol. 1' anniversary tour

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The COVID-19 pandemic shut down Jill Scott's 2020 tour, but "Jilly from Philly" is finally getting back on the road.

The "Who is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds Vol. 1" 23rd Anniversary Tour will be at The Met on Thursday, March 16 and Saturday, March 18.

Scott will play her iconic debut album front to back, with hits such as "A Long Walk," "Gettin the Way," and "He Loves Me."

This will mark the first time the North Philadelphia native will play at The Met.

Pre-sale tickets start Tuesday. Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday.

The Philadelphia stop also includes a fundraiser at the Arden Theatre in support of her nonprofit, the Blues Babe Foundation .

"Who is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds Vol. 1" was released in July 2000 and became a double platinum album, earning Scott several Grammy nominations including Best New Artist.

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December 07, 2022

Jill Scott set for return to Philly in 2023 as part of anniversary tour for debut album

The neo-soul singer's 2020 tour celebrating 'who is jill scott words and sounds vol. 1' was cut short due to covid-19; she will also host a fundraiser at the arden during her stay.

After a national tour commemorating the 20th anniversary of Jill Scott's debut studio album was cut short due to COVID-19, the North Philadelphia native is set to hit the road again in 2023, with two back-to-back performances in her hometown. 

Scott, whose debut album "Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1," put the neo-soul singer on the map, will perform at The Met on March 16 and March 18 .  The tour kicks off on Feb. 28 in Augusta, Georgia and wraps up in Los Angeles on June 22.  

MORE:  Shop, snack and sing at Philadelphia Premium Outlets' holiday celebration

Scott will perform the album front to back, including hits like "Gettin' In The Way" and "A Long Walk." It's unclear if the R&B singer will perform hits from her later albums, though longtime fans can reminisce with Scott as she performs some of her earliest work. 

"My band and I were so excited three years ago, but that damn COVID shut us down," Scott said in a release. "Now, we outside! Come see me. Come feel again. Relive your favorite moments. Ya'll ready to settle down and get with this?! It's a lot of love here." 

Along with the pair of concerts, Scott will head over to The Arden Theater in Old City during her stay for a fundraiser supporting the Blues Babe Foundation , her nonprofit that offers scholarships, academic enrichment and mentoring programs to underserved kids in Philly and Camden. The organization holds a day camp in North Philly each summer. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jill Scott (@missjillscott)

Scott was discovered by Questlove in the late 1990s, and was asked to join The Roots in studio as they were recording 1999's "Things Fall Apart." The R&B singer co-wrote one of the band's most popular songs, "You Got Me," though her vocals were replaced with Erykah Badu's before release, as Scott was relatively unknown outside of Philly at the time. 

Still, Scott performed the song with The Roots while the hip-hop collective toured the album, and later collaborated with other artists including Common and Will Smith before signing to Hidden Beach Recordings in 2000. She released "Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1" on July 18, 2000. 

The album peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip Hop albums chart following its release, and Scott was subsequently nominated for three Grammy Awards the following year — Best New Artist, Best R&B Album and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Though she didn't win those awards, her decades-long career includes three Grammy wins and 14 nominations. 

After two decades, Scott's debut still resonates with listeners across the world. In 2019, Pitchfork reviewed the album and gave it a 7.7 out of 10 , lauding the album as a project that "brought love and sex to the everywoman" in an era before social media. On the album's 20th anniversary, Essence editor Brooklyn White wrote about "Who Is Jill Scott?" for a Gen Z audience, calling the singer a "beacon of tenderness." 

Tickets  to the anniversary shows go on sale Friday, Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. Fans can access the sale through Ticketmaster or Scott's official website. 

"Who Is Jill Scott?" 23rd Anniversary Tour

March 16 and March 18, 2023 8 p.m. | Prices vary The Met Philadelphia 858 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130

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• March 19, 2023 Setlist

Jill Scott Setlist at Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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Philly Live

Your guide to the 2024 roots picnic in philly, lil wayne, jill scott, andré 3000, nas, babyface, gunna, fantasia, method man, redman and more will perform at the 2024 roots picnic in philly, by david chang • published february 19, 2024 • updated on february 19, 2024 at 12:52 pm.

The Roots Picnic is back and a hip hop legend and a Philly soul music icon will headline this year’s festival! 

The legendary Roots crew will be joined by Lil Wayne , Jill Scott and more on June 1 and June 2 at Fairmount Park’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts. 

Check out NBC10’s full guide to this year’s show: 

Where is the Roots Picnic being held?

Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.

The Roots Picnic will return to the Mann in Fairmount Park.  

The Mann is located at 5201 Parkside Drive in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park.

When will the Roots Picnic take place? 

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The two-day festival will take place June 1, 2024, and June 2, 2024. 

Who are the headliners for the 2024 Roots Picnic? 

This year’s headliners are multi-Grammy award-winning hip hop star Lil Wayne and soul singer Jill Scott. 

The Roots will join Lil Wayne in a set that will highlight the musical legacy of the rap star’s hometown of New Orleans. The performance will also feature special guests PJ Morton and Trombone Shorty.  

Philly native and Grammy Award-winning soul singer Jill Scott will also be a headliner. Her performance will come off the heels of her 20th anniversary tour commemorating her 2000 debut album “Who Is Jill Scott?” 

Who else will perform at the Roots Picnic? 

The show will also feature hip hop icons André 3000 , Nas , Method Man, and Redman, legendary R&B producer and singer Babyface , singer and actress Fantasia Barrino and hip hop star Gunna .

Here is the full lineup: 

Lil Wayne & The Roots Celebrate New Orleans (feat. Special guests PJ Morton, Trombone Shorty)

Victoria Monét

Robert Glasper & Yebba

J.Period Live Mixtape featuring Black Thought, Method Man , and Redman

Adam Blackstone’s Legacy Experience featuring Fantasia and Muni Long

Marsha Ambrosius

Baller Alert Presents Backyard Band featuring Scarface & Amerie

October London

Leon Thomas

Tasha Cobbs Leonard

Julian King

Rec Philly Presents Chioke

DJ Diamond Kuts

Which podcasts will be featured? 

The Roots Picnic will also feature the Parkside Stage (formerly known as the Podcast Stage) which will host several live podcasts and immersive experiences. The stage will feature the following live podcasts: 

Million Dollaz Worth of Game

R&B Only & U+ME+RNB 

Tonight’s Conversation

Juan Epstein Podcast

World Series of Spades 

They Have the Range

When and where can I buy tickets?

Presale tickets go live on Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 10 a.m. ET while general on-sale begins Friday, Feb. 23, at 10 a.m. ET. 

Weekend tickets and VIP packages will be available here.

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Jill Scott Adds 2023 Tour Dates: Ticket Presale Code & On-Sale Info

by Francesco Marano

Published february 22, 2023.

This week, Philly soul singer Jill Scott added 2023 tour dates.

Commemorating the 23rd anniversary of her debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1, the newly announced shows are set in June and July in Houston, Dallas, London, Paris, and Chicago. The tour is scheduled to begin later this month and extend into late July. The tour originally began in February of 2020, but had to be interrupted due to the pandemic.

Jill Scott All Tour Dates and Tickets

When do jill scott 2023 tour tickets go on sale and what is the presale code.

For the new dates, the general public on-sale begins as early as February 23. Presales are currently underway for VIP packages, fan club members, Chase cardholders, Live Nation, LN Mobile App., and local venues / radio. Tickets for the previously announced shows are now on sale. Keep in mind, each date is different and details are subject to change.

For the Chase presale, you can use the promo passcode 541712 , but you will need the card to complete your purchase. The Live Nation presale password is CHORUS , and the LN Mobile App code is COVERT . Click through the individual concert links for more information about the show you're interested in.

We recommend signing up for Jill Scott's email newsletter (bottom of the page) and your local venue newsletter, as well as following her on social media to get the most up-to-date information.

For Jill Scott's latest music, news, and tour dates, check out her Zumic artist page .

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The Roots Plot 2024 Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life Tour With Arrested Development, Digable Planets

The run of shows will kick off on May 11 in Saratoga, CA and keep them on the road through Sept. 1.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

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Arrested Development

Teddy swims, lauren spencer smith & paul russell to perform on 'american idol', trending on billboard.

A quick pop-in at the Reggae Rise Up Maryland 2024 festival in Baltimore on June 23 will be followed by a June 29 gig at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and then a pair of dates in July in Denver and Seattle, before a hop over the Atlantic for a couple of dates in England and Germany before a return to U.S. shores in August for shows in Houston and Irving, Texas, Highland Park, IL, Sterling Heights, MI, Atlanta, Vienna, VA and a Sept. 1 show at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston.

In keeping with their job supporting Fallon since 2009 — on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and then, beginning in 2014 on The Tonight Show — the majority of this summer’s dates will be weekend gigs that will allow the group to be in their spots in Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center in New York for their nightly gig.

Check out the dates for the Roots’ Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life 2024 tour below .

May 11 – Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery Concert Series

May 12 – San Diego, CA @ Wonderfront Festival

June 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic 2024

June 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic 2024

June 23 – Baltimore, MD @ Reggae Rise Up Maryland 2024

July 20 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom

July 21 – Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Zoo

August 1 – Tower Of London, UK @ Crystal Palace Bowl

August 2 – Margate, UK @ Dreamland

August 5 – Berlin, DE @ Uber Eats Music Hall

August 16 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall *^

August 17 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion At Toyota Music Factory *^

August 24 – Highland Park, IL @ Ravinia Festival *^

August 25 – Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill *^

August 29 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *^

August 31 – Vienna, VA @ Filene Center at Wolf Trap *^

Sept. 1 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *^’July 20 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom

* = w/ Arrested Development ^ = w/ Digable Planets

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The Made In America festival is canceled again this year

Jay-Z's Labor Day weekend music festival in Philadelphia is not happening, for the second year in a row.

For the second year in a row, the Made in America festival has been canceled.

The 2024 version of the festival — which is curated by Jay-Z, and produced by his entertainment company Roc Nation in partnership with concert promoter Live Nation — has been called off.

The announcement was made on the festival’s social media accounts just after noon on Wednesday. “Made in America will not take place in 2024,” the statement read. It went on to say that “As purveyors of change, the Made in America executive production team is reimagining a live music experience that affirms our love and dedication to music and the work we do. We promise an exciting return to the festival.”

Made in America was first staged on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia in 2012, with Jay-Z and Pearl Jam as headliners. It continued every year on Labor Day weekend until it was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then resumed the following year. It was last staged in 2022, when Puerto Rican rap star Bad Bunny headlined the closing night of the festival , which drew a crowd of 50,000 to the main stage set up in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Rocky Steps.

Last year, MIA was canceled in August , after Lizzo, one of the two scheduled headliners along with SZA, was sued by many of her dancers on accusations of harassment, though no official reason was given for the festival’s cancellation.

The news that MIA is off this year comes at a time when large-scale multi-day music festivals, which grew to be a dominant force in the concert industry in the 2000s and 2010s, have struggled in the years since the pandemic, even as the concert industry as a whole has bounded back behind big name acts such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.

Delaware’s Firefly Festival , which was also founded in 2012, drew diminished crowds in 2022 and took a planned year off last year. In February, it was announced that the festival is again canceled this year. While the Xponential Music Festival , the annual festival presented by radio station WXPN-FM (88.5) has carried on in its new spot on the concert calendar in September, its is now a smaller gathering, with bands playing only the more intimate Wiggins Park in Camden, and not also occupying the adjacent Freedom Mortgage Pavilion.

The Philadelphia exception is the Roots Picnic, which has grown in recent years from one day to two, with the gathering curated by and starring the Philly hip-hop band once again scheduled to take over the expanded campus of the Mann Center in Fairmount Park with a bill that includes Lil Wayne, André 300, Jill Scott, and others .

The cancelation means a major loss of revenue for the city and festival workers, for the second year in a row.

Last year, Michael Barnes, president of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 8 , said that MIA generated about $1 million a year from the festival, making it the union’s largest annual live event.

“People count on that,” he said. “For that to cancel within weeks of the concert is overly impactful to the live event and entertainment workers.”

“The people who are most impacted by this are our frontline employees. The bellmen, the housekeepers, the restaurant employees, the bartenders,” Ed Grose, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, told The Inquirer last year.

Before MIA, Labor Day weekend was traditionally a slow time for Philadelphia hotels, with summer vacationers enjoying one last weekend at the beach. But in 2021, AirBnB said Philadelphia was its third-most popular-city on Labor Day Weekend .

In 2018, when MIA was under threat to be moved off the Ben Franklin Parkway and perhaps leave Philadelphia, Jay-Z wrote a commentary for The Inquirer and Daily News, saying: “We are disappointed that the mayor of Philadelphia would evict us from the heart of the city.”

He said that, up to that point, the festival had a $102.8 million economic impact on the city in its first six years. The festival paid the city $3.4 million in rent from 2012 to 2017, he said, and employed more than 1,000 local residents every day of the festivals.

Inflation has skyrocketed since then. Jeff Apruzzese, director of the music industry program at Drexel University and former bassist for Passion Pit , pointed to a 2023 study that showed Bonnaroo, the four-day festival held in Tennessee, pumped more than $339.8 million into the local economy, including more than $5.1 million in tax revenue.

Made in America, Apruzzese said, is ”probably within that same ballpark,” considering how many people it brings into the city and how much money those visitors spend.

But there are costs, too: Philadelphia paid $1.54 million in festival-related services in 2022, the last year it was held, a city spokesperson said last year, with MIA reimbursing the city $627,000.

The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau said it could not provide projections or insight into the economic impact because it is not involved with booking the event.

Inquirer staff writer Erin McCarthy contributed to this article.

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• Saturday May 11, 2024 Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Jill Scott, and Fat Joe Barclays Center, Brooklyn
• Saturday June 01, 2024 Jill Scott, Lil Wayne, Nas, and Gunna TD Pavilion at the Mann, Philadelphia

Saturday 18 March 2023

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The Roots show love for Hip-Hop with 2024 tour: See the dates

The Roots  have announced additional dates for their spring into summer Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life Tour .

Listen to  Conscious Hip Hop  and more on the free Audacy app

After first announcing an initial small slate of dates for the outing last week, as well as the expected special guests Digable Planets and Arrested Development , The Tonight Show  house band has filled the roster out with many additional stops, that will span from May through September.

The list of mostly weekend shows, to allow the group to be in their spots in Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center in New York for their nightly gig with Jimmy Fallon , will kick off on May 11 in Saratoga, CA, followed by a May 12 spot on the Wonderfront Festival lineup in San Diego. Then after a brief break, they’ll return for a two-day, double-billing at their own Roots Picnic Festival in Philadelphia on June 1 and 2.

This year’s Roots Picnic will feature Lil Wanye , Nas , André 3000 and his bag of magical flutes, Jill Scott , Gunna , Victoria Monét , Sexyy Redd , Method Man , Redman and more.

From then, The Roots will make some stops at the Reggae Rise Up Maryland 2024 festival in Baltimore, play The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles California, and make stops in Denver, CO and Seattle, WA, before hopping over the Atlantic for a couple of dates in England and Germany. Returning to U.S. for a continuation of a few more shows before wrapping up in Boston, MA on September 1.

For more information and to purchase tickets click — HERE . Plus, check out the updated list of Roots Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life 2024 Tour dates below.

May 11 – Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery Concert Series

May 12 – San Diego, CA @ Wonderfront Festival

June 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic 2024

June 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic 2024

June 23 – Baltimore, MD @ Reggae Rise Up Maryland 2024

June 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl *^

July 20 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom

July 21 – Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Zoo

August 1 – Tower Of London, UK @ Crystal Palace Bowl

August 2 – Margate, UK @ Dreamland

August 5 – Berlin, DE @ Uber Eats Music Hall

August 16 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall *^

August 17 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion At Toyota Music Factory *^

August 24 – Highland Park, IL @ Ravinia Festival *^

August 25 – Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill *^

August 29 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *^

August 31 – Vienna, VA @ Filene Center at Wolf Trap *^

Sept. 1 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *^’

* = w/ Arrested Development

^ = w/ Digable Planets

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The Roots Announce U.S. Tour With Arrested Development and Digable Planets

By Jazz Monroe

The Roots will tour with Arrested Development and Digable Planets this summer. The groups will all appear at the Roots’ inaugural Los Angeles edition of Roots Picnic, which, like the tour, is subtitled Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life. The U.S. jaunt begins in earnest in August in Houston, Texas in August, and wraps two weeks later in Boston, Massachusetts. Check out the itinerary below.

Before all that, the Roots have a handful of concerts and festival appearances in the diary, including at their own Roots Picnic in Philadelphia in early June. The lineup for that features André 3000, Jill Scott, and Lil Wayne, who will perform in a special New Orleans celebration backed by the Roots.

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05-11 Saratoga, CA - Mountain Winery Concert Series 05-12 San Diego, CA - Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival 06-01 Philadelphia, PA - Roots Picnic 06-02 Philadelphia, PA - Roots Picnic 06-23 Baltimore, MD - Reggae Rise Up Maryland 06-29 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl ^* 07-20 Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom 07-21 Seattle, WA - Woodland Park Zoo 08-01 London, England - Crystal Palace Bowl 08-02 Margate, England - Dreamland 08-05 Berlin, Germany - Uber Eats Music Hall 08-16 Houston, TX - 713 Music Hall ^* 08-17 Irving, TX - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory ^* 08-23 TBA ^* 08-24 Highland Park, IL - Ravinia Festival ^* 08-25 Sterling Heights, MI - Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill ^* 08-29 Atlanta, GA - Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park ^* 08-31 Vienna, VA - Filene Center at Wolf Trap ^* 09-01 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway ^*

^ with Arrested Development * with Digable Planets

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Lil Wayne coming to WrestleMania 40, debuting new single

By Alexandra Simon

Updated on: April 2, 2024 / 10:21 AM EDT / CBS Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- WrestleMania 40 is gearing up to be a star-studded event.

The latest name added to the roster of celebrities heading to Philadelphia is rapper Lil Wayne, who confirmed he'll be in the City of Brotherly Love during WWE wrestling's biggest weekend.

Lil Wayne made the announcement on WWE Monday Night RAW . During the show, superstar Jey Uso "ran into" the five-time Grammy winner backstage in Brooklyn, New York and invited Lil Wayne to "come through to Philly" if he's free this weekend.

"Imma be there and you know what, I'm bringing my single. World premiere. WrestleMania. You know what it is," he responded.

The "A Milli " and "Lollipop" singer will be back in Philadelphia again in June to headline the 2024 Roots Picnic at The Mann in Fairmount Park. Philadelphia native Jill Scott is set to co-headline the 2024 festival.

WrestleMania 40 will take place at Lincoln Financial Field April 6-7. WWE World , the five-day fan experience at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, kicks off on Thursday, April 4.

Over the weekend, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan confirmed he'll be at WWE World on Sunday, April 7.

Tickets for WrestleMania 40 are on sale now.

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Alexandra Simon is a digital content producer at CBS Philadelphia. Alex started her career at CBS21 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania before joining KARE 11 News in Minneapolis, where she covered breaking news, features and often cold weather.

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Election Updates: Defending his abortion position, Trump attacks anti-abortion ‘hardliners.’

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Nicholas Nehamas

President Biden tried to roll out a big announcement on student debt relief today. Instead, it felt like he was eclipsed not only by what happened in the sky — which had long seemed likely— but also by former President Donald J. Trump’s statement that abortion should be left to the states.

In Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris promoted the Biden administration’s latest efforts to provide student loan debt relief, saying “people should not have to carry this kind of worry.” With President Biden visiting Wisconsin today, his campaign is trying to get its message out on student debt in two crucial swing states.

Chris Cameron

President Biden has been experimenting with a new style of campaign video on social media where he watches a video clip of Trump on his phone before delivering a rebuttal. In the latest of these videos, Biden — dressed more casually without a suit jacket — addressed Trump's new position on abortion. "Donald Trump is the reason Roe v. Wade was ended," he said, and he encouraged people to vote for him.

In defending his new position on abortion, Donald J. Trump has also sought to rewrite history, falsely saying on his social media site that leaving the issue to be decided by states “was the policy of the Republican Party and conservatives for over 50 years.” But Republicans in Congress have tried for decades to enact a national abortion ban, either through legislation or a constitutional amendment.

Former President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham have been at odds over abortion today, with Trump hitting back at Graham after he disagreed with Trump saying abortion laws should be decided at the state level. “Senator Lindsey Graham is doing a great disservice to the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on his social media site, adding “Many good Republicans lost elections because of this Issue.”

I’m here at an elementary school in Philadelphia where Vice President Kamala Harris is set to talk about the Biden administration’s major new push to forgive student loan debt. But all the day’s attention has been soaked up by Donald J. Trump and his announcement that he believes abortion should be left up to the states.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Asked about Trump’s recent statement on abortion, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said “the only reason extreme abortion bans are now in effect all over the country are because of judges the previous president and Senate Republicans put in the court.” The White House and the Biden campaign on Monday have been working to pin Trump to abortion bans across the nation.

Reid J. Epstein

The Biden campaign is out with a new abortion-focused ad that shares the emotional story of a Texas woman who was forced to deliver a baby at 18 weeks and was not allowed to undergo a procedure to end her pregnancy because of her state’s abortion ban. It ends with a white letters on a black screen: “Donald Trump did this,” before Biden announces he approved the message.

Michael Gold

Mike Pence, Donald J. Trump’s former vice president who has since broken with him, said on social media that Trump’s announcement was “a slap in the face” to “millions of pro-life Americans” who backed him in the past two elections. Pence, an evangelical Christian, criticized Trump and other Republicans for being “too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life.”

The Biden campaign complained that news coverage of former President Donald J. Trump’s abortion statement didn’t fully reflect his role in reducing abortion rights and access across the nation. “Trump didn’t decline anything,” Brooke Goren, a campaign spokeswoman, said after reading several headlines about Mr. Trump’s not endorsing a national ban. “All he did was take credit for the nightmare that he created.”

A number of anti-abortion groups have released statements expressing support for Donald J. Trump’s statement on abortion, even as they have been pushing for a federal ban. Penny Nance, the chief executive of Concerned Women for America, which argues that life begins at conception, noted said that she would back Trump in November given “the reality of a stark choice” between him and President Biden.

Kellen Browning

Senator Jacky Rosen, the incumbent Democrat in Nevada, said she raised $5 million in the most recent quarter and has $13.2 million cash on hand as she prepares for what’s expected to be a competitive general election fight. Her leading Republican challenger, Sam Brown, raised $2.2 million in the same period.

Jazmine Ulloa

In the battleground of Arizona, where election fraud conspiracies have run rampant since former President Donald J. Trump’s loss in 2020, a Spanish-language radio network looks to counter misinformation aimed at Latino voters. Radio Campesina, founded by Mexican-American civil-rights leader César Chavez, is educating listeners on voting, mail-in ballots and spotting falsehoods, according to the Associated Press .

President Biden is traveling to Wisconsin today to announce a new push to forgive student loans for tens of millions of Americans. It’s a politically potent issue for Democrats — being announced in a crucial swing state — but the effort could face logistical and legal hurdles.

The Biden campaign on social media this morning has been posting clips of past interviews and speeches in which former President Donald J. Trump claimed credit for the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

President Biden’s campaign has issued a 604-word statement in his name responding to former President Donald J. Trump’s video statement about abortion this morning. “Trump is scrambling,” Biden said. “He’s worried that since he’s the one responsible for overturning Roe the voters will hold him accountable in 2024. Well, I have news for Donald. They will.”

The Biden campaign has argued that former President Donald J. Trump, whose Supreme Court appointees helped overturn Roe v. Wade, is responsible for the restrictive abortion laws being passed in Republican states. Trump’s statement today that abortion should be left up to the states will not soften that line of attack.

Donald J. Trump said in a video Monday morning that individual states should decide abortion rights , “and whatever they decide must be the law of the land, and in this case, the law of the state.” The former president endorsed exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. The statement came after months of mixed signals in response to questions on the matter.

Trump attacks his conservative critics while defending his new stance on abortion.

Former President Donald J. Trump on Monday defended his new position on abortion from critics to his right, attacking anti-abortion “hardliners” who he said were “making it impossible” for Republicans to win elections in competitive races.

In a fiery stream of posts on his social media site, Truth Social, Mr. Trump singled out Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, as well as Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. Ms. Dannenfelser and Mr. Graham expressed disappointment with the former president earlier on Monday for not supporting a national ban on abortion and for saying instead that the issue should be left to the states .

“Senator Lindsey Graham is doing a great disservice to the Republican Party, and to our country,” Mr. Trump wrote, adding that “people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency.”

Mr. Trump also suggested that Mr. Graham and Ms. Dannenfelser, as well as other Republicans with strict positions against abortion, had hurt Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections.

“When the Supreme Court had the courage to do the right thing LEGALLY, and terminate Roe v. Wade,” Mr. Trump said, those Republicans “were gone and of absolutely no help, as the Democrats staged rallies and won elections they should never have won.”

He continued: “Lindsey, Marjorie, and others fought for years, unsuccessfully, until I came along and got the job done. Then they were gone, never to be heard from again, until now. We cannot let our country suffer any further damage by losing elections on an issue that should always have been decided by the states, and now will be!”

In attacking his anti-abortion critics, Mr. Trump also sought to rewrite history, falsely suggesting that conservatives had never pursued a national abortion ban after the Supreme Court ruled, in 1973 in Roe v. Wade, that Americans had a constitutional right to an abortion.

In reality, Republicans tried for nearly half a century to institute such a ban, either through legislation or through a constitutional amendment that would have overridden the Supreme Court’s decision .

A leading anti-abortion group slammed Donald J. Trump’s comments on abortion.

After former President Donald J. Trump announced his position that abortion rights should be decided by individual states, the leading anti-abortion group supporting Republican candidates said his stance fell short.

In a statement Monday morning, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said she was “deeply disappointed” in Mr. Trump’s refusal to endorse a federal ban on abortion, adding that allowing states to decide “cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy.”

“If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights,” she added.

Still, Ms. Dannenfelser said that the group and its grass-roots members will work “tirelessly” to defeat President Biden and Democrats in November.

Anti-abortion groups like Susan B. Anthony have long endorsed a federal ban on abortion and have pushed conservative lawmakers to support one. Allowing the states to decide their own abortion measures, they argue, would make the procedure available in some states led by Democrats and lawmakers who support abortion access.

Individual Republicans also weighed in on Mr. Trump’s announcement. In a rare rebuff of the former president, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also criticized his stance, saying he disagreed with the assertion that abortion rights should be considered “a states’ rights issue.”

The “movement has always been about the well-being of the unborn child — not geography,” Mr. Graham said in a statement, adding that Mr. Trump’s position “will age about as well as the Dred Scott decision” — a Supreme Court ruling that denied enslaved people full American citizenship.

Mr. Trump hit back, accusing Mr. Graham in a post on his social media site of shifting his stance for political convenience while also calling him “unrelenting” in a way that will help Democrats win elections.

Penny Nance, the president and chief executive of Concerned Women for America, a conservative policy advocacy group, said in a statement on Monday that she, too, preferred a federal ban on abortion but still endorsed Mr. Trump for president, saying that he “gave us three constitutionalist justices, 220 lower court judges, appointees who support life and the overturn of Roe v Wade. ”

Some conservative groups were supportive of Mr. Trump’s stance.

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life Action, a group that trains and supports young anti-abortion organizers, called the former president’s statement “a step in the right direction,” and said she was encouraged by his refusal to call for “a divisive late-term limit.” She maintained that the group still supports a federal ban and added, “your state lines should never mean the beginning or end of your human rights.”

Anjali Huynh

Pence attacks Trump’s abortion statement as a ‘slap in the face.’

Former Vice President Mike Pence delivered a scathing rebuke to former President Donald J. Trump’s announcement on Monday that he thought abortion rights should be left to the states, calling Mr. Trump’s video statement a “slap in the face” to the anti-abortion voters who supported him in 2016 and 2020.

In a statement on social media, he described Mr. Trump as retreating on the issue and indicated that his discontent was centered on Mr. Trump’s lack of endorsement, or any mention at all, of a federal ban.

“Too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life,” wrote Mr. Pence, who told Fox News last month that he would not endorse his former boss after briefly running against him last year.

He repeated a line that he has said often, noting that the Trump-Pence administration “helped send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs” by nominating justices to the Supreme Court who ultimately helped overturn Roe during their tenure.

Many Republicans have shied away from backing national abortion restrictions, after the politically potent issue helped boost Democrats in the last several elections. Mr. Trump’s statement, in which he said that whatever each state decides “must be the law of the land, and in this case, the law of the state,” came after months of concern that the issue could hurt him this fall.

But Mr. Pence, an evangelical Christian who embraced abortion restrictions at the federal level shortly after Roe was overturned, has criticized fellow Republicans for their wavering stances and has said that the procedure should be outlawed in every state . Mr. Pence has long centered abortion restrictions in his political platform, dating back to his time as a congressman from Indiana, and his selection as Mr. Trump’s vice president helped boost Mr. Trump among evangelical voters.

Mr. Pence’s own presidential bid counted on reaching those voters, as he backed a federal ban at six weeks, and he, at times, criticized Mr. Trump over his position on abortion, telling listeners at a conservative conference in September that Mr. Trump and other candidates were “trying to marginalize the cause of life.” But his run ended in October after he struggled to find a viable path to the nomination.

“However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life,” Mr. Pence said Monday, “I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country.”

Biden and other Democrats tie Trump to limits on abortion rights.

Democrats, seeking to tie abortion restrictions to former President Donald J. Trump and Republicans, again laid the blame for limits on reproductive rights at Mr. Trump’s feet, saying the former president’s statement on Monday calling for abortion restrictions to be decided by states was part of a pattern of “extreme” lawmaking.

In the video he released, Mr. Trump said that states should decide through legislation and make it “the law of the land, and in this case, the law of the state.” A handful of Republicans disagreed, saying he did not go far enough by not endorsing a federal ban or discussing it at all. But Democrats, who have identified reproductive rights as a top campaign issue this year, argue that Mr. Trump effectively did endorse a total ban by leaving the decision to states who will implement one and that, if re-elected, he will enact a total ban on the procedure — something Mr. Trump has not specifically said he would do.

In a blistering 604-word statement, President Biden said via his campaign that Mr. Trump was “responsible for creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America since the Dobbs decision,” referring to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe v. Wade. The president said that his opponent’s abortion stance has created a crisis of his own making. Mr. Trump, he said, is “lying” about the number of Americans who support abortion restrictions and “scrambling” to craft a message around his record.

“Here’s what Donald Trump doesn’t understand: When he ripped away Roe v. Wade, he ripped away a fundamental right for the women of America that the United States Supreme Court had affirmed and reaffirmed for 50 years. As a fundamental right, it didn’t matter where you lived,” Mr. Biden said in the statement.

The president also challenged Mr. Trump’s false statement that Americans widely support restrictions on abortion and said the former president made a “political deal” to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade in exchange for support from anti-abortion voters.

“Trump admits as much in his statement today,” Mr. Biden said. “Having created the chaos of overturning Roe, he’s trying to say, ‘Oh, never mind. Don’t punish me for that. I just want to win.’”

Democrats running in down-ballot races also pounced on Mr. Trump’s comments. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, facing a tough re-election matchup in November, tied the former president’s comments to that of her Republican opponent, Eric Hovde, saying in a statement that both “will ensure abortion is illegal for women across our state.”

Mr. Hovde has said he supports exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. Ben Voelkel, a spokesman for Mr. Hovde, said that Ms. Baldwin was “lying” in her statement and that in addition to supporting exceptions for abortion, Mr. Hovde endorsed having the issue decided at the state level and believes “there should be a period of time at the beginning of a pregnancy for a woman to make a decision.”

In Ohio, the state’s Democratic Party issued a press email arguing that Bernie Moreno, the Republican seeking to unseat Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, would support a national abortion ban with no exceptions. A spokeswoman for Mr. Moreno’s campaign, Reagan McCarthy, pointed to a February debate performance in which Mr. Moreno endorsed a 15-week ban with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.

President Biden’s campaign held a call with reporters Monday afternoon to discuss the former president’s comments. Shortly after, it released a new advertisement featuring a woman who was denied medical care after having a miscarriage, causing her to develop sepsis and imperiling her chances of becoming pregnant again. The words “Donald Trump did this” flash across the screen after she tearfully shares the contents of a baby box with items she would have used for the baby, named Willow, had she carried her to term.

Democratic groups also weighed in. Jessica Mackler, president of the group Emily’s List, which helps fund candidates who support abortion rights, said that through his comments, Mr. Trump “endorsed every ban that has been introduced across the country.”

“Today’s statement is just a clear sign that Trump understands how toxic his record is to voters,” she said.

Maggie Haberman ,  Jonathan Swan and Michael Gold

Trump says abortion law should be left to the states.

Former President Donald J. Trump said in a video statement on Monday that abortion rights should be left up to the states, remarks that came after months of mixed signals on an issue that he and his advisers have worried could cost him dearly in the election.

Mr. Trump said his view was that the states should decide through legislation, and that “whatever they decide must be the law of the land, and in this case, the law of the state.” But he added that he was “strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”

“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be,” Mr. Trump said in the video, which he posted on his Truth Social website.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about will of the people,” he added. “That’s where we are right now and that’s what we want — the will of the people.”

Mr. Trump’s comments came as Democrats, who saw their voting base energized against Republicans in 2022 after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, have attacked the former president at every turn on the issue of abortion.

Mr. Trump, who has been trying to balance his desire to please the conservative base with his attempts to avoid alienating swing voters, faced blowback after The New York Times reported in February that he had said privately that he liked the idea of a 16-week national ban. He then talked about such a ban publicly, and the backlash continued. So Mr. Trump’s advisers tried to find a way for him to avoid a more specific position at a time when Republicans across the country are struggling with how to address abortion.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, anti-abortion groups have called for a national ban, which would face steep odds in the House and Senate. Mr. Trump did not refer to a national ban in his remarks, but his comments about leaving the matter to the states suggested that he was trying to avoid being pulled deeper into the issue.

But politically, Mr. Trump’s announcement that abortion should be left to the states will allow Democrats to tag him with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, including a six-week ban in Florida that he has said was a “terrible mistake.”

In a statement, President Biden accused Mr. Trump, who appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who were pivotal in overturning Roe, of fostering “cruelty” and “chaos” surrounding abortion in the wake of the decision. He added that Mr. Trump’s position was effectively an endorsement of states that had passed tougher abortion restrictions, including six-week bans.

He also contended that Mr. Trump, despite his statement, would be likely to back a federal abortion ban if he won in November. “If Donald Trump is elected and the MAGA Republicans in Congress put a national abortion ban on the Resolute Desk, Trump will sign it into law,” Mr. Biden said.

By contrast, Mr. Trump’s remarks drew blistering criticism from his former vice president, Mike Pence, a staunch conservative whose presence on the 2016 presidential ticket was vital in giving Mr. Trump, a billionaire former abortion rights supporter, credibility with evangelicals.

“President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020,” Mr. Pence wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding, “However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country.”

And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who unlike Mr. Pence remains a Trump ally, also broke with the former president.

“I respectfully disagree with President Trump’s statement that abortion is a states’ rights issue,” he said in a statement, adding, “I will continue to advocate that there should be a national minimum standard limiting abortion at 15 weeks.”

Mr. Trump spent hours on Monday afternoon lashing out at Mr. Graham and other Republican allies who had offered relatively tame criticism of his move.

“Many Good Republicans lost Elections because of this Issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency,” he wrote on social media.

In the video, Mr. Trump said he was “proudly the person responsible” for overturning Roe and eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years. Mr. Trump falsely claimed that “all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact demanded” that Roe should be ended.

He then falsely claimed that Democrats wanted babies “executed after birth.”

For months, Mr. Trump has debated with advisers what he should say about abortion to stop Democrats from using the issue against him in November, as they did so successfully to outperform expectations against Republicans in the 2022 midterms.

Some anti-abortion activists had pushed Mr. Trump to support a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks, to set a minimum national standard and to block later-term abortions in Democratic-controlled states.

As recently as February, Mr. Trump had privately told advisers he liked the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother, according to two people with direct knowledge of his deliberations. He made those comments as he was trying to fend off his last significant primary rival, Nikki Haley, in her home state, South Carolina.

He told his aides he wanted to wait until the Republican presidential primary contest was over to publicly discuss his views, because he didn’t want to alienate social conservatives before he wrapped up the nomination, the two people said.

Mr. Trump, who has approached abortion transactionally — and has spoken about it clumsily — since beginning his political career in 2015, told aides he liked the idea of a 16-week federal ban on abortion because it was a round number.

“Know what I like about 16?” Mr. Trump told one of these people, who was given anonymity to describe a private conversation. “It’s even. It’s four months.”

The Trump campaign called the reporting “fake news” at the time, but Mr. Trump then publicly made clear he was considering supporting a 15-week ban, and his advisers issued statements saying he would come up with a national consensus.

Democrats immediately seized on the report of Mr. Trump’s plans, saying that Mr. Trump favored a national abortion ban. The blowback played a role in his decision to back away from announcing a national limit, according to people who spoke with Mr. Trump afterward. Some campaign advisers tried to distance Mr. Trump from the Times report about what he had been saying privately.

Mr. Trump’s statement on Monday disappointed some conservatives who were hoping for more restrictive efforts nationally.

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act.”

She added, “Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats.”

Others were more supportive of Mr. Trump, however. Carol Tobias, the president of the group National Right to Life, said that thanks to him, “the American people and their elected representatives on the state and federal levels now have greater authority to determine abortion policy and pass meaningful protections for unborn children and their mothers.”

Late into adulthood, Mr. Trump described himself as “very pro-choice” before announcing that he was “pro-life” as he considered running for the Republican nomination in 2011. In the 2016 election, he secured evangelical support by promising to choose his Supreme Court justices from a list of conservative judges who would be expected to favor overturning Roe.

But after the Supreme Court did what Mr. Trump engineered it to do, in June 2022, he told advisers the abortion issue could hurt Republicans badly in that year’s midterm elections. By the time the results were coming in — underwhelming for Republicans — Mr. Trump was privately discussing the issue as if he were a television pundit, claiming credit for being right about how abortion would cost Republicans politically.

Mr. Trump was scathing in his private assessments of Republicans who he thought were overly “harsh” in their positions on abortion, according to advisers. He often criticized two failed G.O.P. candidates for governor — Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon in Michigan — for being too hard-line on abortion and for not supporting sufficient exceptions.

Still, even as Mr. Trump has avoided taking a clear public position on abortion, he often proudly highlights his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who ultimately allowed Roe to be overturned.

And at a Christian media convention in February, even as he avoided uttering the word abortion, Mr. Trump told attendees that he “took historic action to protect the unborn.” He also demonized Democrats on the issue, making the exaggerated claim that liberals support policies that would “kill the unborn in the sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth months, even after birth” and falsely claiming that the Biden administration had “hunted down” anti-abortion activists.

Anti-abortion activists are hopeful that Mr. Trump will be as willing to allow them to shape policy in a second administration as he often did when he became president in 2017.

“You must follow your heart on this issue,” Mr. Trump said in his video. “But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.”

Campaign money machine spins into high gear; Biden visits Wisconsin to talk student debt.

Democrats and Republicans are raising — and spending — record sums as the general election comes into full view and both parties contend with unpopular presidential candidates atop the ticket.

On Sunday, the Democratic super PAC House Majority PAC announced a $186 million investment across 58 media markets and 45 districts in the party’s effort to retake the majority in the House of Representatives this November. That hefty investment follows an announcement from President Biden’s re-election campaign that, combined with allied Democratic groups and the national party, it has $192 million in cash on hand entering the month of April.

Republicans have aimed to close the fund-raising gap, particularly on the presidential level. Former President Donald J. Trump held a high-dollar fund-raiser in Palm Beach, Fla., on Saturday that his campaign said brought in $50.5 million — more than doubling the $25 million Mr. Biden raised at a campaign event with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at Radio City Music Hall last month . Mr. Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee said they brought in $65 million in March , bringing their total to $93.1 million and doubling what they raised the previous month.

It is unclear, however, how much this spending will change voters’ opinions. Most polls of the presidential race show a tight matchup between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, with the former president slightly ahead in battleground states. The president will head to one such state today, Wisconsin, to speak about his efforts to erase student loan debts, which will coincide with an event on student loans with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, in another crucial swing state.

In addition to digital and broadcast advertisements, both parties are heavily reliant on prominent surrogates to deliver their campaign messages. And those messages are starting to take shape.

In an interview on Sunday, Mike Smith, president of the House Majority PAC, said the advertisements his group bought will underline the party’s record on the economy and reproductive rights, while painting Republicans as “extremists” who are out of touch with average voters.

The G.O.P., for its part, has cited the increased number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and rising prices under inflation as failures of Mr. Biden’s administration. In interviews on Sunday, Republican leaders offered a look at the message they are crafting to underline Democrats’ perceived shortcomings.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas told the host Martha MacCallum that Democrats like Mr. Biden and Mayor Eric Adams of New York are playing “political games” with the border and sanctuary cities that threaten the country in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

The Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Whatley, said the party was appealing to a broader swath of voters to include more people of color.

“The thing we see with every single American family is a very constant need,” he said, pointing to the economy, public safety and education. “Republican candidates up and down the ballot, all across the country are listening to those voters, listening to those families and putting solutions on the table for them.”

Reporting from Washington

As Kamala Harris visits Philadelphia, Democrats in Pennsylvania urge the Biden campaign to branch out.

President Biden loves Philadelphia. And he loves campaigning there, too.

No part of the country has seen more visits from Mr. Biden so far this year, or throughout his presidency. Four years ago, the city — and its increasingly Democratic suburbs — cast one-third of the total votes in Pennsylvania, the nation’s most populous battleground state. Winning the region by large margins is essential for Mr. Biden’s hopes in November.

On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris will stop in Philadelphia to promote the Biden administration’s efforts to forgive student debt , her third trip there since last summer.

Now, some Democrats are saying that it is time for Mr. Biden and his campaign to widen their reach across the Keystone State, which he narrowly won by about 80,000 votes last time around.

“Biden tiptoed in the right direction in 2020,” said former U.S. Representative Conor Lamb, a moderate Democrat who won a Pittsburgh-area district in 2018 that Donald J. Trump had carried by double digits. “And I think he needs to go much further this time.”

Mr. Biden won in 2020 not just because of Philadelphia. He also drove turnout in Pittsburgh, lifted his margins in smaller cities and flipped back swing counties that Barack Obama won in 2012 but that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016. And he prevented Mr. Trump from running up the score in the conservative, rural areas that span much of the state, partly with old-fashioned efforts like a whistle-stop Amtrak tour of western Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden will need to reunite that multiracial coalition of voters — which polling shows is in danger of fracturing — in 2024.

Mr. Lamb acknowledged that all candidates have time constraints, especially the president of the United States. But he urged Mr. Biden to spend more time in the state’s rural and rust-belt communities, which are predominantly home to white working-class voters but also have pockets of African American voters in former mill towns.

“I think people in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are reachable online and over TV in a way that voters in some of these smaller, older places might not be,” he said.

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, said that he had no doubt that Mr. Biden would campaign across the state as the race moved into full gear.

“You have to show up in communities sometimes where it’s not easy to be a Democrat,” said Mr. Davis, who is from the Pittsburgh area. “You have to address those voters’ concerns and talk about how you’re going to make their lives better.”

So far this year, Mr. Biden has visited Philadelphia and its suburbs three times. He also stopped in a small western Pennsylvania town on his way to visit East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed last year, and has campaigned in the Lehigh Valley. Ms. Harris appeared in Pittsburgh in February.

The Biden campaign says that it is taking a robust, statewide approach, opening 14 offices across Pennsylvania last month, including in swing areas like Erie County, a union stronghold in the state’s northwest that Mr. Biden flipped back to blue in 2020. It has also hired several senior staff members.

“Donald Trump has no presence in the battleground,” said Jack Doyle, the Biden campaign’s communications director for Pennsylvania.

Mr. Biden is expected to campaign in western Pennsylvania in the coming weeks, according to two people with firsthand knowledge of the planned trip who asked for anonymity because it had not yet been made public.

In contrast, Mr. Trump has yet to announce the opening of a single office in Pennsylvania. And his travel has been more limited. The former president spoke at a National Rifle Association event in Harrisburg, the state capital, this year. He also appeared at a sneaker convention in Philadelphia to promote Trump-branded shoes and was met with both loud boos and cheers. On Saturday, he plans to hold a rally in Lehigh County.

“Joe Biden secured his nomination on Jan. 1, but he’s underwater in national polls and just now — after three months — staffing up in key battleground states,” Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement. “We have the message, the operation and the money to propel President Trump to victory on Nov. 5.”

Polls generally show Mr. Trump with a narrow lead in Pennsylvania. It seems wildly improbable that Mr. Biden could win back the White House without carrying the state and its 19 electoral votes. Pennsylvania is part of the so-called blue wall that includes Michigan and Wisconsin.

“The road to 1600 Pennsylvania goes through Pennsylvania,” said Michael A. Nutter, a Democrat and former mayor of Philadelphia. “And when you’re in Philly, you’re really almost in half of the state because of the proximity of media and the attention you get.”

Democrats have been doing well at the ballot box in Pennsylvania, winning the governorship and picking up a Senate seat in 2022. They’ve also shown strength in local elections.

Mr. Biden’s connection to Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania more broadly, is personal. He spent much of his childhood in Scranton, in the state’s northeast. His wife, Jill Biden, is from the Philadelphia suburbs. And his home in Wilmington, Del., is less than an hour away, making Philadelphia an easy place to campaign. (Washington, D.C., is relatively close, too.)

“Folks, it feels good to be home,” Mr. Biden told union members at a rally in Philadelphia last summer.

His biggest trip outside Philadelphia this year took him to Allentown, a city of roughly 125,000 that is majority Hispanic. Mr. Trump is increasingly popular with Hispanic voters. Mr. Biden’s campaign has targeted Allentown’s Hispanic voters lately, with Ms. Harris doing an interview on a local Spanish-language radio channel.

Mayor Matt Tuerk of Allentown, a Democrat, said that the president’s January visit to the city was a good strategy.

“Historically, it’s a point of irritation for Latinos that politicians show up in October,” just before the election, Mr. Tuerk said.

Mr. Biden is also almost certain to return to his hometown, Scranton, where he campaigned on Election Day in 2020 and where the city’s mayor, Paige Cognetti, a Democrat, said that the president had maintained close ties.

“It’s hard to find somebody in Scranton who doesn’t know someone whose mother or father or aunt or uncle’s funeral he attended,” Ms. Cognetti said. “He’s very much a son of Scranton.”

Nick Corasaniti

A Democratic group is aiming to spend heavily to try to flip Wisconsin’s Assembly.

The States Project , a deep-pocketed outside group focused exclusively on state legislatures, is adding the Wisconsin State Assembly to its 2024 plans, a clear sign that Democrats are growing bullish on an opportunity to flip the chamber after the State Supreme Court ordered new maps to be drawn this year .

The organization said that it would include Wisconsin in its eight-figure 2024 budget and spend an additional $1 million there. (The group has not yet completed its 2024 total spending plans.) State legislative races, which play out in smaller districts than contests for Congress do, are often much less expensive than federal races. Large donations in these elections can have a significant impact.

National Democrats have zeroed in on the Wisconsin Legislature. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the state legislative arm of the Democratic National Committee, has already donated $24,000 directly to the party’s caucus in each chamber of the Legislature, the maximum legally allowed, and it has added Wisconsin to its national $60 million budget. Forward Majority, another outside group focused on state legislatures, plans to spend heavily in the state after spending more than $1 million in 2018.

The deluge of cash and attention into the Wisconsin Legislature presages a possible shift in the state’s politics. Dominated by extreme partisan gerrymanders for more than 13 years, both chambers of the Legislature have remained solidly in Republican control, even as Democrats have won statewide races for governor, Senate and the presidency in multiple elections.

The Republican State Leadership Committee, the arm of the Republican National Committee that focuses on state legislative races and others down the ballot, has not yet released a budget but did include Wisconsin on its initial list of states where it plans to defend majorities . A spokesman for the organization did not respond to requests for comment.

The new maps will make Wisconsin even more of a battleground, with President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump neck and neck in recent polling. But even with the new maps, Democrats acknowledge that flipping the chamber will be an uphill battle.

“Maps can make a chamber uncompetitive, but maps aren’t going to win a chamber,” said Daniel Squadron, a former Democratic state senator from New York and co-founder of the States Project. He pointed to the recent Democratic successes in flipping chambers in Michigan and Pennsylvania after significant redrawing of maps after Republican gerrymanders.

“Good candidates who have a great relationship with their constituents or their voters, who have a good recognition of who their voters are,” were the most successful in Michigan, Mr. Squadron said.

Democrats are hoping to find similar success in Wisconsin, including at the top of the 2024 ticket. And some organizations see the political realignment brought by Wisconsin’s new maps as a potential boon for the Biden campaign.

“These candidates in these races give voters another reason to turn out when they may not be that excited about Biden, given his abysmal approval rating,” said Vicky Hausman, a founder of Forward Majority, a Democratic super PAC. “There’s a lot of vibrance down ballot, with state legislatures being part of the story of 2022 and hopefully the story of 2024.”

The States Project is also expanding into North Carolina, joining an effort by other Democratic groups, including the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, to break up the state’s Republican supermajority in the legislature. The focus on the state legislative races will only compound the political pressures in North Carolina, which will host the most closely watched governor’s race in 2024 and which is emerging as a key target for Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign.

Maya King and Micah Green

Reporting from Huntsville, Ala.

How abortion, and I.V.F., flipped an Alabama State House seat.

When Marilyn Lands, a Democrat, won an election last month for a northern Alabama State House district that Republicans had held for more than two decades, she stretched the political power of reproductive rights into the edges of Appalachia.

Democrats lauded her victory as an example of how potent the issue will be in November, more than two years after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade. And while Republicans argued that Ms. Lands’s suburban district had been ripe for Democratic pickup for years, it forced some to acknowledge that they needed to rethink their approach to talking about abortion on the campaign trail.

Democrats had long eyed Alabama’s 10th District, which encompasses Madison County and its seat of Huntsville. Nestled in the mountains less than 100 miles from the Tennessee border, the area is home to both NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal — and with it, a growing number of young families, plus scores of engineers and federal government employees. In his 2020 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump won Madison County by eight points, his second slimmest margin in the state. The county is one of Alabama’s wealthiest and best educated.

And Ms. Lands’s contest, a special election called when a Republican resigned after pleading guilty to charges of voter fraud, received a seismic jolt. Weeks before the election, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos were considered children, casting immediate doubt on access to in vitro fertilization, a popular fertility treatment. Republican lawmakers in the state were forced to scramble in the face of public backlash and anger from families pursuing the treatment. And Ms. Lands adjusted, appealing to her party’s base voters as well as conservatives concerned about increasing restrictions on women’s health care.

“I’ve heard it said that there are these arcs in history and these places are where the pendulum swings,” Ms. Lands said in an interview at her home in Huntsville, which for the last three months served as the headquarters of her campaign’s canvassing operation. “And so I hope that’s where we’re at — that it’s beginning to tilt. Not necessarily so much in the other direction, but just back toward balance.”

Ms. Lands’s victory doesn’t disrupt the Republican supermajority in Alabama’s House, and only time will tell if it is a bellwether for Democrats’ fortunes in similar districts across the state or the South. Turnout was limited, with 6,000 voters casting ballots in the special election.

But by successfully tying abortion rights to I.V.F., she provided an early blueprint for members of her party who are eager to make reproductive rights central to their campaigns.

“It’s not a Black issue, it’s not a white issue. It’s an issue of dignity,” said the Rev. Dr. Randy Kelley, the Alabama Democratic state party chairman.

It’s possible that running on abortion rights alone might not have been enough to overcome the district’s conservative tilt. Ms. Lands ran and lost by seven points in 2022 despite being vocal about her support for abortion rights in the immediate aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, which came months into her first campaign. She had not yet publicly shared the story of her own abortion — something she said she and her team didn’t see as necessary when the Supreme Court’s ruling was so fresh on voters’ minds. But Alabama Republicans, who make up more than half the electorate, have largely supported limits on abortion, and in 2018 backed an initiative that helped clear the way for a near-total ban on the procedure.

Ms. Lands, 65, decided to run for the seat again when its Republican state representative resigned. In early February, she publicly shared the story of her choice to terminate a nonviable pregnancy. Days later, Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling came down.

Prominent Republicans, including former President Donald J. Trump, rushed to blunt the potential political fallout from the I.V.F. ruling. Alabama Republicans quickly passed a shield law so that families could restart the expensive treatments, which can take an emotional and physical toll. But Democrats seized on the ruling as an example of what they had been warning voters of since the fall of Roe: The same Republicans who championed “family values” would limit women’s ability to start their own.

Ms. Lands, who called Alabama “ground zero” for the fight over abortion rights, said that as she knocked on doors she heard from voters in her district, her lifelong home, about how the ruling would hurt them. Some said they worried for their children and grandchildren, some shared their own abortion stories and some indicated that they would be more hesitant to take jobs in the state, she said.

“I’ve heard from other families who say, ‘We’re going to move,’ you know, ‘we’re going leave,’” she said.

Ms. Lands’s campaign ads featured local OB-GYNs, her own abortion story from decades ago and the story of a young woman who said she was forced to drive hours for medical care after it became clear she could not carry her pregnancy to term last year because her baby would not survive.

“We need to repeal Alabama’s abortion ban and protect women’s freedoms,” Ms. Lands said in one of her ads, bemoaning a loss of rights that younger women are experiencing. “And if you elect me, that’s exactly what I plan to do.”

Ms. Lands’s campaign staff included an army of volunteers with both homegrown organizers and turnout experts from other parts of the state and neighboring Mississippi. All were spurred on by her story and had help from national groups like Planned Parenthood, whose southeast affiliate made Ms. Lands their first endorsement of the 2024 cycle. As a result, she received donations from nearly 1,200 individual donors, according to her campaign.

For other figures in the state, it was not just Ms. Lands’s message on abortion that compelled voters to support her — her connections to Black Democrats in her district made a big difference.

“When you say ‘Democrat,’ it’s synonymous with Black folk,” said Mr. Kelley, who helped recruit Ms. Lands to run for the seat and enlisted his church staff members to organize in the heavily Black corners of the district. Women’s health care was a major galvanizing force in Ms. Lands’s election, he said — one he expected to be tough. But, he added, “I believe the big variable that pushed her over was the Black vote.”

Ms. Lands herself is a product of Huntsville. Her family moved to the city when she was very young to parents from Michigan and South Carolina. Her father, a military veteran, worked for NASA. She attended the University of Alabama in Huntsville and worked for Boeing and the Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority before going to Alabama A&M University to pursue a degree in counseling. With her election, she is the only licensed mental health professional serving in the State House.

Her Republican opponent, Teddy Powell, did not talk about abortion on the campaign trail and focused instead on local issues. John Wahl, Alabama’s Republican Party chairman, said that was a mistake — and emblematic of larger issues the G.O.P. has in discussing social issues with policy implications.

“I do believe that Republicans need to do a better job with our messaging on the issue of abortion,” said Mr. Wahl, who added that he spoke to Mr. Powell about his campaign message and encouraged him to discuss abortion access. “So many candidates run from the issue and their consultants tell them, ‘don’t talk about it.’ And I think that is the wrong tactic for Republicans.”

After her victory, Ms. Lands was so widely celebrated that her supporters started a political action committee aimed at backing female lawmakers in the state. Her political activity comes with something of a new objective. Asked if her home county could flip further, notching a win for Democrats in November, Ms. Lands’s face brightened.

“Absolutely,” she said.

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