Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Jill Biden worked to carve her own identity
Once-reluctant politico could be first lady
WILMINGTON, Del. — Jill Biden is a prankster.
It’s the first thing most of her friends and former aides say when asked about her character. She has dressed up as the Grinch to toy with colleagues during Christmas. And she likes to put on a red wig with a bob to pop up unnoticed at events or make her husband, Joe Biden, laugh.
That sense of humor has helped Joe Biden navigate decades in public life marked by achievements, defeats and considerable personal loss.
Voters got a close-up view of her Tuesday night during the Democratic National Convention.
Those who have worked closely with Jill Biden say her warmth will appeal to Americans confronting tough times of their own.
“She has a very good sense of, especially in these times, that bringing a little smile, some joy, some levity into moments is important,” said Courtney O’Donnell, who served as Jill Biden’s communications director during her husband’s first term as vice president.
Jill Biden married the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in 1977, more than four years after his first wife and young daughter were killed in a car accident. She helped raise his surviving sons, Beau and Hunter, before giving birth to daughter Ashley in 1981.
As Joe Biden commuted between Delaware and Washington as a senator, Jill Biden built a career as a teacher, earning two master’s degrees and then a doctorate in education.
Along the way, former coworkers say, Jill Biden, 69, became one of her husband’s most valuable political advisers, someone whose opinion was paramount in most of his biggest decisions, both political and personal.
Those who know Jill Biden best say she’s slightly perplexed at being called one of her husband’s most significant “advisers,” insisting her relationship with her husband is far deeper and more nuanced.
A self-described introvert, Jill Biden was initially a reluctant political wife. In her memoir, she writes of giving her first political speech and having no desire to “give any speeches, anytime, anywhere — just the thought of doing so made me so nervous I felt sick.”
But after eight years as the vice president’s wife and then giving speeches and appearing at events after her husband left office, Jill Biden has become one of her husband’s most prominent surrogates. She has appeared in virtual events in more than 17 cities since May, and is one one of the campaign’s primary surrogates to Latino voters, headlining town halls and holding frequent calls with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
She’s also one of his most protective surrogates, a quality she writes about in her memoir — and one that was on full display during a Super Tuesday speech Joe Biden gave in March when a handful of protesters rushed the stage. Jill moved between the protesters and her husband, pushing a protester away.
But the resistance to being called an “adviser” on Biden’s team reflects Jill Biden’s persistent and successful efforts to carve out her own career and identity independent of her husband’s political ambitions, something she prioritized even during his time in the Senate.
“They lived in Delaware always, through all those Senate campaigns, and she had her own life. She was raising her children, she was teaching, she was going to school at night at different times,” said Cathy Russell, who was Jill Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration and is now a vice chair on the campaign. “She was never a part of the Washington scene. That political life just wasn’t her life.”
Aides say she’ll continue to advocate for many of the same issues she championed as the vice president’s wife if she returns to the White House as first lady, including a focus on military spouses and families.