She is really effective in talking about how the Biden agenda is good for moms, for women, for working women,” former White House communications director and 2020 deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said. “She can reach suburban women, in particular, in a way that really resonates with them. The issue of “book banning” featured prominently in Biden’s reelection launch video. And so they’re well aware that nasty attacks have come in the past and they’ll come now and they’ll come in the future.”Īnd at a time when suburban women are drifting toward Democrats and the nation’s schools have become political battlefields, the White House sees utility in having a prominent educator standing beside her husband. But she has been in politics a long time. “She is going to defend her family and take issues with attacks on her family. And what wife, mom and Nana wouldn’t defend their family?” one senior Biden adviser said. “She sees herself as a wife and a mom and a nana. “She is always his final gut check” is how the former senior adviser put it.Īdvisers are envisioning a role for Jill Biden on the campaign in which she serves as a character witness for her family - especially Hunter Biden - and a conduit to suburban swing voters who, they believe, relate to her. Close advisers say she feels a comfort level with her role inside the White House, balancing the ceremonial responsibilities of the office with the weight of serving as a trusted adviser to the president. Nearly a dozen aides and advisers in Biden world described the first lady as someone who has grown more willing to endure the rigors and demands of being in the political spotlight herself - and more convinced of her husband’s fit for the job.

Unlike the cliche applied to wives of major political figures - that they’re the “secret weapon” behind their husband’s success - there’s nothing that secret about the role she is playing. Her gentle encouragement of her husband’s reelection run comes as she’s relishing her role, hanging out at the Super Bowl and the women’s Final Four, and actively posting on social media.

Where the Light Enters by Jill Biden