Jill Biden is putting aside her initial feelings of betrayal around the movement to push Joe Biden out of the presidential race to make her first campaign foray for Kamala Harris.
The first lady will kick off a five-day swing to several critical battleground states on Friday in her first time back on the campaign trail since her husband was pushed out of the race.
She will target the key voting blocs of suburban women and undecided voters where she will stress the reproductive rights, an issue that has proven a winning one for Democrats.
It’s been about 10 weeks since President Biden exited the 2024 campaign. At the time, the first lady felt the sting of ‘betrayal’ from Democrats who privately offered support for her husband – and then publicly called for him to exit the presidential race, those close to her told DailyMail.com.
Jill Biden will make her first campaign foray for Kamala Harris, traveling to the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania
Jill Biden was at Joe Biden’s side in Wilmington, Delaware, on that fateful day he made his decision and even got on the phone with Harris to declare her support for the vice president.
‘We love you,’ she told Harris, a source familiar with the conversation said. She also called Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff, who she is close to.
Now, she is taking her support public with a high-profile campaign swing for Harris.
Jill Biden’s first stops will be out west in Arizona and Nevada and then she’ll target the ‘blue wall’ states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania – three states the party sees as essential for Harris’ victory.
‘The First Lady will reach suburban women on key issues voters care about from education, to lowering household costs, and reproductive rights,’ a source familiar told DailyMail.com.
‘Her travel will include smaller, targeted markets like Yuma, AZ and Carson City and Reno, NV where there are a fair amount of undecided voters.’
It’s Jill Biden’s first return to the campaign trail since husband Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July and comes after reports of early tension between the first lady and Vice President Harris.
Before President Biden stepped down, Jill Biden was a high-profile Democratic surrogate both for her husband and other members of the party. In the 2022 midterm election, more congressional and Senate candidates wanted her at their rallies than they wanted the president.
Jill Biden had been an enthusatic campaigner for her husband, regularly going out to tout his accomplishments before voters. She led the Women for Biden-Harris’ effort that had her traveling to battleground states where she praised the president and criticized Republican Donald Trump.
The first lady, who supported the president when he was pushing back against party leaders to stay in the contest, faded from the campaign spotlight after he stepped down.
She did speak at the Democratic National Convention and formally endorsed Harris but has otherwise concentrated on Joining Forces, women’s health and her other initiatives as first lady.
President Joe Biden gives wife Jill Biden a kiss after he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in August
Early in the administration Jill Biden was reported to be angry at Kamala Harris over an incident in the 2020 primary debates
Early in the Biden administration there were reports of hard feelings between Jill Biden – who is known to hold a grudge – and Harris.
Biden was upset at Harris for an attack line in one of the early primary debates, targeting Joe Biden for his record on school busing in the 1960s as part of desegregation efforts.
But those feelings – along with any lingering feelings of resentment about her husband’s treatment by party leaders – appear to have been set aside for the greater goal of winning the election.
Jill Biden has been a fierce critic of Trump, slamming him by name as a threat to democracy and to women’s reproductive health.
She’s expected to take a similar tone during her campaign swing where she will hit areas not only key to Harris’ victory but also to Democratic hopes of keeping control of the U.S. Senate.
All five states the first lady is visiting have competitive Senate races that Democrats want to win.
Biden kicks off her trip near the U.S.-Mexico border with a stop in Yuma, Arizona, on Friday and then will campaign in Phoenix on Saturday.
She’ll be in Carson City and Reno, Nevada, on Sunday while she’ll spend Monday in the Detroit suburbs and in Madison, Wisconsin.
Her trip will wrap up on Tuesday with a stop in her hometown of Philadelphia.
Early voting began in Arizona on October 9 and mail ballots are going out in all five.
Jill Biden with President Joe Biden after he gave his Oval Office address explaining his decision to exit the presidential race
She has said she is at peace with President Biden’s decision to step down.
‘I’m totally at peace. And so is he,’ she told NBC News in September..
Asked whether she was relieved for her husband that the weight was lifted off of his shoulders, she responded, ‘Yeah, I guess I am.’
‘I’m just so used to seeing Joe work in government, and I think it’s always been a role that he’s had and played, and I think he’ll miss it, but I think he’s done a great job,’ she said.
