Joe Biden’s campaign sent two powerful women to Pennsylvania on Saturday to rally voters to support the president in November.
First lady Jill Biden was at Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore for a reception held by the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) Presidential Town Hall in Philadelphia.
Both were finished with their appearances before word reached them that former President Donald Trump, Mr. Biden’s presumptive opponent in the upcoming general election, had been injured in an incident later Saturday in Butler County.
Ms. Biden told her audience that she and the president were counting on voter support in “the most existential, consequential and important election of our lifetime.”
She received a standing ovation from about 200 people at a reception, held by one of the nation’s largest Italian-American organizations.
Ms. Biden, the first Italian-American first lady, said she was proud of the perseverance of Italian immigrants.
“So many generations of Italian-Americans have shared the beauty of our culture with their communities and made this country a little brighter, and a little better along the way,” she said. “That work is personal to Joe, and to me — he's making sure that no matter where you start in life, there's no limit to what you can achieve.”
She said her husband had helped the nation heal from the pandemic, created millions of jobs, especially union jobs, and directed “the strongest economic recovery in modern history,” giving families a sense of “real security in the middle class.”
“Let's consider how our ancestors would feel if they saw us tonight — this, this is what they dreamed of,” she said.
Ms. Biden has been in the region several times in recent months.
In November, she stood at a former Hazelwood steel operation with union leaders and Allegheny County officials to praise the region’s manufacturing industry and to tout her husband’s economic agenda. In March, she was joined at the State of the Union address by Samantha Ervin-Upsher, an apprentice with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 432 in Pittsburgh whom she had met the previous July as union laborers worked on the new $1.4 billion terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport.
She made a surprise appearance at the Pittsburgh Pride Parade in June, and she hammered the Republican agenda on abortion and reproductive health care during a stop in Millvale a few weeks later.
Meanwhile, the vice president spoke at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) Presidential Town Hall in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon, telling voters that she and Mr. Biden were counting on their support in “the most existential, consequential and important election of our lifetime.”
“President Biden and I know this is a community that is a force and must always be recognized, and must always be recognized for the leadership that has provided for so much progress throughout the history of our country,” Ms. Harris said, according to WHYY, the National Public Radio affiliate in Philadelphia.
Ms. Harris emphasized the administration’s commitment to strengthening and protecting the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights. She also highlighted the nearly $160 million in federal investment to cap the Vine Street Expressway in Philadelphia — the “Chinatown Stitch” — to support and transform communities that have experienced “long standing inequities.”
“Fundamentally, this election will come down to this,” she told the approximately 1,200 attendees, according to WHYY. “President Biden and I fight for the American people. Donald Trump does not.”
Ms. Harris referenced ongoing concerns about Mr. Biden’s health, and doubled down on her support for his candidacy.
“The past few days have been a reminder that running for president of the United States is never easy, nor should it be,” she said. “But one thing we know about our President Joe Biden, he is a fighter. And he is the first to say, when you get knocked down, you get right back up.”
This report contains information from Post-Gazette staff writer Laura Esposito and from WHYY, the NPR affiliate in Philadelphia.
First Published: July 14, 2024, 12:29 a.m.
