Jill Biden closes out campaign with her own push for Harris

By Arlette Saenz, CNN

Spring House, Pennsylvania (CNN) — First lady Jill Biden stood at a church roughly 10 miles from the Philadelphia suburb where she grew up Sunday morning, making an urgent plea before several hundred churchgoers, many of whom held fans with a picture of the woman at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“One vote can win an election, and one election can set a new course,” Biden said at one of two morning services at the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Spring House, Pennsylvania. “Will you be that person? Will you act now? Will you speak up and use your voice and decide our future? Will you vote?”

The Sunday church stop kicked off a full day of events for the self-described “Philly girl” in the critical battleground of Pennsylvania as she spent the final weekend before Election Day stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris. While her husband, President Joe Biden, has been a scarce presence on the campaign trial, the first lady has been one Biden in demand for the Harris campaign.

Harris’ team has deployed the first lady to all seven battleground states in the last month. By Election Day, she will have appeared at nearly 30 campaign events over a three-week period, including trips to Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the closing days of the race.

Speaking at a canvass launch in Savannah, Georgia, on Saturday, Jill Biden told the volunteers there were only days left “to elect a new generation of leaders,” urging them to “meet this moment as if our democracy is on the line because it is.”

Her fall campaign sprint has looked far different than what she imagined earlier this year. The first lady, an ardent protector of the president and her family, was an active campaigner in his reelection bid from start to finish.

She supported her husband as he vowed to stay in the 2024 race after his halting debate performance against former President Donald Trump in late June and was at his side just over three weeks later when he decided to call it quits.

It marked a difficult period for the Biden family, which saw many fellow Democrats publicly and privately push for the 81-year-old president to step aside from the campaign. But the first lady has said she and her husband are “totally at peace” with the decision

“We’ve been in politics over 50years, I think it’s — we’re ready for the new journey,” Biden told ABC News last month. “It was the right call.”

But before that journey outside of politics begins, the first lady is working to get Harris elected. While she’s tailored her speech to stump for a different nominee, much of her argument remains the same. She’s been a fierce critic of the former president, whose return to the White House would also threaten her husband’s legacy.

“Donald Trump wakes up every morning thinking about one person and one person only: himself,” she said at a stop in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, last month. “Another Trump administration would lead to more chaos, more greed, more division.”

She’s also been motivated by the threats Democrats see to abortion rights. The first lady spoke out following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision ending the constitutional right to an abortion and has frequently blamed Trump, who solidified the court’s conservative majority, for curtailing women’s reproductive freedoms.

“Secrecy, shame, silence, danger, even death,” the first lady said in Phoenix, Arizona, last month as she recounted what women faced before Roe v. Wade. “That was the reality back then, and that’s where Donald Trump has left women today — less safe and less free right now in America.”

“The government shouldn’t be telling women what to do. So let’s elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” she added.

The Harris campaign has deployed the first lady in targeted ways, having her speak in smaller markets like Carson City, Nevada, and Macon, Georgia. The campaign has tapped into some of her personal interests through her campaign events as well, like leading a canvass launch for military families in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and making calls to fellow teachers in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

“You’re just getting home from school. You know I’m a teacher too,” she said over the phone to a teacher named Matt. “Are you going to come and 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 on the road with Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz — an educator who could follow in Dr. Biden’s footsteps if she becomes second lady — for campaign events in Michigan and Wisconsin.

“As a teacher, mom, and grandmother, the first lady’s trusted voice is crucial to mobilizing the voters we need to win in this election” said Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

Biden has said she’s developed a close friendship with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who could make history as the White House’s first first gentleman. She told ABC News the first advice she gave to Emhoff was “just be yourself.”

At a recent campaign stop in Arizona, the first lady said she’s bonded with Harris “over many things,” including both losing their mothers to cancer “long before we were done needing them.” Harris also worked with the Bidens’ late son Beau when they served as state attorneys general together.

The first lady’s experience with loss was front and center as she campaigned in Pennsylvania on Sunday. Speaking before the Baptist congregation, she choked up as she recalled how she lost her faith in 2015, saying her prayer to God went unanswered as Beau passed away from brain cancer.

She said years later she regained that connection to God, and urged the churchgoers to turn their faith into action in the closing hours of the campaign.

“We are called to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God,” she said. “Choosing who leads our communities is one way we can live out our faith. So make a plan to get to the polls on Tuesday and help your friends and neighbors and loved ones as well. Because even if it seems small, every single vote counts.”

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