How Jill Biden’s DNC speech is a milestone for her as first lady

CHICAGO (AP) — Jill Biden once said that she knew marrying Joe Biden – then a senator from Delaware — would mean “a life in the spotlight that I had never wanted.”

On Monday night, now very accustomed to that spotlight, the first lady will stand before the Democratic National Convention to do her part to highlight her husband’s 50 years of public service as his presidency begins to draw to a close.

Her words will mark the beginning of an end for her, too.

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Before the president walks across the stage at the United Center to deliver the keynote speech on the convention’s opening night, the first lady will use her address to speak to his character and reiterate her support for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a person familiar with the first lady’s remarks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a speech not yet delivered.

Jill Biden will urge Americans to unite with “faith in each other, hope for a brighter future, and love for our country,” said the person, quoting from the first lady’s prepared remarks.

President Biden endorsed Harris shortly after he dropped out of the presidential race in July, and she has succeeded him as the Democratic Party’s nominee.

In the weeks before Biden decided to leave the race, the first lady had declared that she was “all in” on her husband’s reelection plan, even as Democrats began calling on him to drop out following his disastrous performance in a debate against Republican Donald Trump on June 27.

READ MORE: Biden finalized his decision to drop out Sunday. His staff knew one minute before the public did

Biden himself had brushed aside those calls, repeatedly insisting that he was staying in the race. His wife, one of his fiercest supporters and defenders, backed him up.

“For all the talk out there about this race, Joe has made it clear that he’s all in,” the first lady told a crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina, on July 8. “That’s the decision that he’s made, and just as he has always supported my career, I am all in, too.”

Biden pulled the plug on his campaign on July 21.

The first night of the four-day Democratic convention was rearranged after Biden bowed out. Now it will honor his record of public service, including six terms as a U.S. senator from Delaware, eight years as vice president and one four-year term as president.

Jill Biden was with her husband through it all and now both are figuring out what they want to accomplish in the time they have left in the White House.

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During the remaining months of the administration, which ends in mid-January, aides say Jill Biden will continue work on her favored causes: supporting military families through her Joining Forces initiative, reducing cancer’s toll through the Biden Cancer Moonshot, advancing research into women’s health under an effort launched in November 2023, and increasing opportunities for education.

She is also expected to campaign for Harris this fall.

The first lady charted a new path for presidential spouses when she became the first to hold a paying job outside the White House. She is an English and writing professor at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has taught since 2009, and has been working on her lesson plans for the coming fall semester, aides said.

As first lady, Jill Biden traveled to over 40 states, over 200 towns and cities, and 19 countries, most recently leading a delegation to support Team USA at the Olympic Games in France.

She spent the first year of the administration traveling around the United States encouraging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

In 2022, she traveled to Ukraine after Russia’s military invasion to show U.S. support for Ukrainians.