How Jill Biden helped Joe get to yes on running for reelection at 80

“She sees herself as a wife and a mom and a nana. And what wife, mom and Nana wouldn’t defend their family?” one senior Biden adviser said. “She is going to defend her family and take issues with attacks on her family. But she has been in politics a long time. 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.”

And 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. The issue of “book banning” featured prominently in Biden’s reelection launch video.

“She can reach suburban women, in particular, in a way that really resonates with them. 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. “I think she brings a credibility that comes from having kept her job as a teacher, even as they came into the White House, both when he was V.P. and now.”

Aides expect the first lady to keep up an intense travel schedule — she already boasts the most travel among the four White House principals — but her responsibilities on the reelection trail won’t just be public facing. Instead, she’ll serve as a confidant for her husband as he tries to defy naysayers who fear he is too old and too much of a political relic.