“This can’t happen again”: First Lady Jill Biden advocates for the Madison community

First lady Jill Biden emphasized the importance of civic engagement by volunteers and voters on Monday in Madison as part of her tour of battleground states ahead of the Nov. 5 election on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign.

On her second state visit since August 2023City and state leaders, including Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Attorney General Josh Kaul, met with Biden at a WisDems campaign office on Madison’s West Side. With just 22 days until the election, the visit is the Harris-Walz campaign’s latest attempt to win over Wisconsin voters.

“You’ve probably heard all kinds of lies about Kamala Harris, or you might talk to your friends or neighbors who say, ‘Hey, I just don’t know enough about her,'” she said. “Today I’m telling you about Kamala Harris.”

Kalina Stevens introduced Biden, a mother from Wisconsin who grew up in a conservative family. She attributed conversations with family and neighbors to why she changed political parties.

“These conversations made me realize that I am far more committed to the Democratic Party than to the other side. I realized it’s really just common sense,” Stevens said.

Biden, a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, emotionally told the crowd how she told her class that she would miss a meeting to attend her sister Jan’s stem cell transplant to treat her cancer, hiding her face toward the whiteboard to to gather.

“And when I turned back around, my entire class was standing and they were lining up and hugging me one by one. “At the end of the day, we all need this community, whether we’re in a blue state or a red state,” she said. “None of us can survive this life alone.”

Biden also advocated for abortion rights during the visit and shared the importance of this election for the possible selection of future justices on the United States Supreme Court.

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and with it the constitutional right to abortion. The decision caused an 1849 Wisconsin law forbid Almost all abortions in the state, with the exception of rape or incest, will be reinstated.

Opposition to abortion restrictions in Wisconsin played a role Key role in securing Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz victory last April, when the Wisconsin Supreme Court received a 4-3 liberal majority.

Just as Wisconsin voters were mobilized to vote for Protasiewicz by those abortion restrictions, Biden urged the crowd to vote and reminded them what a second administration under former President Donald Trump could mean for Wisconsin by recounting the first.

Biden was met with groans as she told the crowd about the morning after Trump won the 2016 election, followed by hums of approval as she urged the crowd to vote early or on Election Day.

“We must approach this moment as if our rights are at stake, because they are,” she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to visit La Crosse, Green Bay and Milwaukee on Thursday. Yesterday, vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gathered in Eau Claire and Green Bay, as did his wife Gwen Walz last week stopped in Madison.

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