Jill Biden Attends Campaign Launch with Teachers Union in Lansdowne

First Lady Jill Biden attended a presentation of the vice presidential campaign Kamala Harris aimed at teachers and union members Saturday at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Delaware County.

The visit was part eventful weekend in Pennsylvania as the clock ticks down to Election Day.

Biden, community college teacher who has roots in the Philadelphia area, was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd at a campaign stop hosted by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the Delaware County AFL-CIO. Biden waved to cheering volunteers who surrounded her behind a black rope in the high school gym. A union member herself, she was all smiles, wore a pink jacket over a floral dress and immediately hit it off with the crowd.

“Because I’ve been teaching for 40 years…” Biden began to say.

“Forty four!” – shouted a participant from the crowd, ahead of her.

“He’s always there!” Biden joked as he laughed with supporters. “I feel like you’re just family to me.”

“Yes, we are,” someone replied.

Biden encouraged volunteers to think about how they felt the morning after the 2016 election and use that as motivation so they don’t regret not doing more this year.

“We can’t let this happen again,” she said of the former president. Donald TrumpVictory over Hillary Clinton.

After her speech, Biden greeted those present and posed for photos with them. Several eager volunteers milled around the first lady, trying to take selfies with her in the background.

Before leaving about 15 minutes later, she shouted, “Thank you, Pennsylvania!”

“We need to get a lot of votes here.”

This wasn’t Jamal Johnson’s first time attending Penn Wood Grammar School. The chairman of the Lower Providence Democratic Committee graduated from the school in 1996. Johnson said returning to school at age 46 made him feel old and he has fond memories of watching Rap Curry — teacher, coach, activist, Hall of Fame basketball player and late husband of state Rep. Gina Curry — plays basketball in the same gym.

“Everyone really seems to know that there’s a lot of votes to get here, a lot of energy, a lot of people that we need to get out to the polls, so it’s nice to see Delco getting that kind of recognition,” Johnson said.

Annadra Wilson, 38, an interim political organizer and K-8 music teacher at Mayfair Elementary School in northeast Philadelphia, said Trump’s announced agenda to abolish the U.S. Department of Education would harm her students and she fears the federal government will will no longer provide free meals to students in low-income schools. She said she hopes Democratic Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta wins the race for state auditor general because he wants to bring back school auditing in Pennsylvania.

“It’s important to me to be on this team because education is the great equalizer, and if we get Trump to remove the Department of Education, it will suddenly take away a lot of opportunities for my students,” Wilson said.

In an interview, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) contrasted Harris’ vice presidential nominee, the governor of Minnesota. Tim Walzone day the teacher himself – with Trump’s position against President Joe Bidenefforts for student loan forgiveness and in favor of canceling Department of Education.

“It is critical to our democracy that we have an informed electorate,” Scanlon said. “…It is very important that we elevate our education rather than allow it to sink to the lowest common denominator or be privatized.”

Scanlon said her mother was a community college teacher, just like Biden, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College.

Some of the volunteers at Saturday’s event came from as far away as New York City, recognizing how important Pennsylvania, and especially the Philadelphia suburbs, were to the national victory.

Evelyn DeJesus, 64, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Biden’s attendance at the campaign event was a validation for union members.

“She’s one of us,” DeJesus said. “…We honor her, respect her and love her very much.”

DeJesus, who is also president of the Labor Council for the Development of Latin America, is also working to attract Latino voters. She said when she knocked on doors in Allentown recently to reach older voters, she found that many Latinos who don’t speak fluent English didn’t understand the voting process. DeJesus, who lives in New York and works in Washington, said she will be in Latino-rich Reading in the coming days.

“I think it’s important for people to know that for Latino voters, voting is an honor and a privilege for us, and it’s like a religion,” she said. “When I was growing up, my mother took us all: my grandmother, my mother, my father, my thiasmy thios — uncles — and we all took it very seriously.”

Aimee Serfaty, 60, who wore a shirt that read “Moms for Mammala,” woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the event from Long Island, New York. Serfaty, a school counselor in Bayside, Queens, said she supports Harris because she wants her children to have access to education, health care and reproductive rights.

“I think this is a really important time in our history and I’m lucky that I was able to get up early in the morning and come here, that’s why I’m here,” she said.