Spring House, Pennsylvania
CNN
—
First lady Jill Biden stood Sunday morning in a church about 10 miles from the Philadelphia suburb where she grew up and made an urgent appeal to hundreds of churchgoers, many of whom were on the Democratic ticket. He was holding a fan holding a photo of a woman at the top.
“One vote can win an election, one election can set a new direction,” Biden said during one of two morning services at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Spring House, Pennsylvania. I can do that.” “Will you be that person? Will you act now? Will you speak up and decide our future? Will you vote?”
A Sunday church visit was a full day for the self-proclaimed “Philadelphia girl,” a key battleground state in Pennsylvania where she spent the final weekend before Election Day struggling for Vice President Kamala Harris. It was the beginning of the day’s events. Although her husband, President Joe Biden, had little presence at the election hearing, the first lady was one of Biden’s most sought after members of the Harris campaign.
Harris’ team sent the first lady to all seven battleground states last month. Leading up to Election Day, she will appear at nearly 30 campaign events in three weeks, including trips to Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the final stages of the campaign.
At a canvass launch in Savannah, Georgia, on Saturday, Jill Biden told volunteers there were only days left to “elect a new generation of leaders,” adding, “It’s as if our “Let us approach this moment as if democracy were at stake.” teeth. ”
Her fall campaign sprint was much different than she had imagined earlier this year. An ardent protector of the president and his family, the first lady actively campaigned for re-election from beginning to end.
She supported her husband as he vowed to remain in the 2024 campaign after he canceled his debate performance against former President Donald Trump in late June, only three weeks later when he decided to cancel the debate. I was by your side.
It has been a difficult time for the Biden family, with many Democrats publicly and privately urging the 81-year-old president to withdraw from the campaign. But the first lady said she and her husband were “completely happy” with the decision.
“We’ve been in politics for over 50 years, and I think we’re ready for a new journey,” Biden told ABC News last month. “It was the right decision.”
But before her journey outside politics begins, the first lady is working to elect Harris. Although she has tailored her speech to a different candidate, many of her arguments remain the same. She has been a fierce critic of the former president, and her husband’s legacy would be threatened if he returned to the White House.
“Donald Trump wakes up every morning and thinks about only one person: himself,” she said last month during a stop in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. “A second Trump administration will bring more chaos, more greed, and more division.”
She’s also motivating Democrats’ threats to abortion rights. The first lady spoke out following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that abolished the constitutional right to abortion, and said President Trump, who solidified the court’s conservative majority, would limit women’s reproductive freedom. I have often criticized him for being so.
“Secrets, shame, silence, danger and even death,” the first lady said in Phoenix, Arizona, last month, describing the conditions women faced before Roe v. Wade. “That was the reality then, and that’s where Donald Trump leaves women today: less safe and less free in America today.”
“Government shouldn’t be telling women what to do. So let’s elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” she added.
The Harris campaign took a targeted approach, placing the first lady to speak in small markets such as Carson City, Nevada, and Macon, Georgia. The campaign leverages her personal interests through campaign events, such as leading the launch of Canvas for Military Families in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and calling fellow teachers in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Some of them are also used.
“You just got home from school, and you know I’m a teacher too,” she said over the phone to a teacher named Matt. “Would you like to come volunteer for us? You know how important this election is.”
The first lady, who still works full-time as an English professor, also teamed up with Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz, an educator who could potentially follow in Biden’s footsteps if she becomes second lady, to help the Michigan He participated in election campaigns in the state and in Wisconsin. .
“As a teacher, mother, and grandmother, the First Lady’s authentic voice is critical to mobilizing the voters we need to win this election,” said Harris Walz Campaign Director Julie Chavez Rodriguez. ” he said.
Biden said he has developed a close friendship with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who could go down in history as the first first gentleman in the White House. She told ABC News that the first piece of advice she gave Emhoff was to “just be yourself.”
At a recent campaign event in Arizona, the first lady said she and Harris bonded over “a lot of things.” That includes both losing their mothers to cancer “long before we ever needed them.” Harris also worked with the Bidens’ late son, Beau, when they both served as state attorneys general.
The first lady’s experience of loss came to the forefront as she campaigned in Pennsylvania on Sunday. Speaking before a Baptist congregation, she choked up as she recalled the time she lost her faith in 2015, saying her prayers to God went unanswered as Beau died of a brain tumor.
Years later, she said she had reconnected with God and, near the end of her campaign, appealed to church members to put their faith into action.
“We are called to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God,” she said. “Choosing people to lead our communities is one way we live out our faith, so go to the polls on Tuesday and make plans to help your friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Please stand up, because every vote counts, no matter how small it may seem.”
