Teachers union launches nationwide get-out-the-vote bus tour | TheHill

Teachers union launches nationwide get-out-the-vote bus tour | TheHill

Teachers union launches nationwide get-out-the-vote bus tour

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation's second-largest teachers' union, announced Wednesday the launch of a nationwide get-out-the-vote (GOTV) tour targeting more than a dozen states in support of former Vice President Joe Biden (D).

In a video message announcing the campaign, AFT president Randi Weingarten said the Biden campaign would confront the COVID-19 outbreak rather than "deny it," as she argued the Trump administration has done.

"Joe Biden and [Sen.] Kamala Harris [D-Calif.] are the leaders we need to confront the crises we face and to reimagine a fairer and more just America," she said in the video.

“The AFT will stop at nothing to end this nightmare, fight for people’s dignity and fulfill this country’s founding promise,” she added in an accompanying press release. “And the solution to all of this is activism and voting: by mail or in person, early or on Election Day. Everything we do—this bus tour, the fight for a COVID-19 stimulus, confronting these crises, the Supreme Court fight, our GOTV work—is about preserving our democracy and making people’s lives better.”

Among the 15 states targeted for get-out-the-vote activities including phone and text banking are a number of states set to be battlegrounds in the 2020 presidential race, including Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. AFT officials stressed that "[a]ll events will be conducted under strict COVID-19 protocols," with participants wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines.

The AFT's bus tour headed for Las Vegas on Thursday after joining protesters outside Chevron's California headquarters Wednesday in support of a state ballot measure, California Proposition 15, which would establish property tax rates based on the current market value of the property rather than its original purchase value. Chevron opposes the measure.

The Biden campaign did not immediately return a request for comment. Polls show the former vice president with a wide lead over his opponent, President Trump, following their first in-person debate on Tuesday.

Teachers union launches nationwide get-out-the-vote bus tour | TheHill

CURMUDGUCATION: Dear Joe Biden:

CURMUDGUCATION: Dear Joe Biden:

Dear Joe Biden:

If someone has a pipeline to the campaign, please feel to send this along.

Dear VP Biden:

I know that this evening, you have your hands full with the Great Orange Loon in Cleveland. But you've got an education flavored fundraiser tomorrow night, and we really need to talk.

Here's the event:

It might have been of interest to educators, except, of course, the price of admission is, well-- a "champion" ponies up $5,600, and on the bottom end, an "attendee" pays $100. I mean, I was sorely tempted, but as a retired teacher with two toddlers at home, I don't have $100 to spend on something that will probably horrify me anyway.

Because here's the thing.

I really cannot state strongly enough how much actual working classroom teachers don't really like or trust Arne Duncan. Truthfully, they mostly don't know John King all that well--unless they're from New York, in which case they still have a bitter taste in their mouths from his disastrous tenure there.

I'm sure your campaign has a lovely working relationship with union leaders. But the rank and file, the teachers in the trenches, the people who represent millions of actual votes-- they are not so CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Dear Joe Biden:

CURMUDGUCATION: The Biden Education Red Flags

CURMUDGUCATION: The Biden Education Red Flags

The Biden Education Red Flags

Before I get started here, let me be clear about one thing--it is almost impossible to imagine a candidate worse for public education than Donald Trump. His "polan" for education has only two items-- school choice (via vouchers) for everyone, and make every school teach American exceptionalism, which, given his recent assaults on the 1619 project and diversity training, appears to mean getting back to the white-centric education that gramps enjoyed as a boy. Plus you've got Betsy DeVos, who is twelve kinds of awful when it comes to public education, which she seems to pretty much hate and wants to get rid of.

So just to be clear-- there's no universe in which Donald Trump is a better choice for public education.

Now, let's look at what we've been hearing from the Biden campaign.

First of all, you may remember that something called the Unity Committee drafted up some platformy ideas by smushing the Biden and Sanders campaigns together. That resulted in an education platform that repudiated the private profit motive in education and called for tighter charter controls. They also promised to "end the use of high stakes tests"--well, they promised to "work" to do that, and then blah blah blah multiple and holistic measures. It was weak sauce, but it was something.

That language has disappeared entirely from the Biden platform on K-12 education. The words "charter" and "profit" don't even appear on the page.

Then there's this piece from yesterday's the74, profiling "Biden's most important staffer you've never CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Biden Education Red Flags

Educators support Joe Biden’s stance on workers' rights and unions - Education Votes

Educators support Joe Biden’s stance on workers' rights and unions - Education Votes

Educators support Joe Biden’s stance on workers’ rights and unions

When unions are strong, our communities are strong. This is a long-held belief of former Vice President Joe Biden, who supports “laws that allow labor unions to flourish and fight for basic worker protections.” He knows that it was labor unions that led the fight for working families, winning protections such as the 8-hour day and the 40-hour week, overtime rights, and access to health care and retirement security. 

While the COVID-19 pandemic has knocked down many working families and small businesses, causing millions to lose jobs and healthcare, Biden has led with plans to protect all Americans from increased hardships. His Jobs and Economic Recovery Plan for Working Families addresses issues that were present long before the crisis, which disproportionately impact communities of color who have never been fully welcomed as participants in the economy or compensated equitably.

Workers in unions earn higher wages and are more likely to have employer-covered health coverage. President Donald Trump claims to align himself with workers, but supports “decreased labor protections, rolled back worker safety and weakened federal unions.” He has appointed anti-union judges and cabinet secretaries with life-long track records of fighting against working Americans. His education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has time and again tried to limit the voice of educators and educator unions since she was confirmed. 

Here are four ways Joe Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris will protect workers’ rights:

He will support collective bargaining legislation

Joe Biden believes “the federal government should not only defend workers’ right to organize and bargain collectively, but also encourage collective bargaining.” As president, he plans to make it easier for all workers to unionize and supports educators being able to bargain for better pay and benefits in addition to having a voice in decisions that affect their students.

He supports #RedForEd and closing the teacher pay gap

“These walkouts are vital,” said the former vice president of the #RedForEd movement. “Not just to make sure you get paid fairly, or you get health care…you’re walking out to make sure CONTINUE READING: Educators support Joe Biden’s stance on workers' rights and unions - Education Votes

Will Teachers Determine the Next President? | Ed In The Apple

Will Teachers Determine the Next President? | Ed In The Apple

Will Teachers Determine the Next President?

Ballots for the November 3rd presidential election are in the mail in North Carolina, we are in the countdown phase heading towards selecting a president.

Teachers live and work in every hamlet, town and city, in every one of the over 13,000 school districts. 

There are 3.2 million public school teachers in the nation, if you add in guidance counselors, school nurses, teacher aides, and paraprofessionals etc, over four million educators in public schools; about 70% of whom belong to one of the two teachers unions. (See all the data here).

A majority of students are non-white.

Here’s a racial breakdown of the student population in American public schools, as of 2017:

• White students: 47.6%
• Hispanic students: 26.7%
• Black students: 15.2%
• Asian students: 5.2%
• Two or more race students: 3.9%
• American Indian/Alaska Native students: 1.0%
• Pacific Islander students: 0.4%

When it comes to race, America’s teachers look very different from its student CONTINUE READING: Will Teachers Determine the Next President? | Ed In The Apple

Choose a Teacher! | Live Long and Prosper

Choose a Teacher! | Live Long and Prosper

Choose a Teacher!

IN NOVEMBER: DUMP DEVOS

The upcoming election gives us the chance to change the occupant of the White House, which would also, thankfully, remove the person who purchased the office of Secretary of Education.

Betsy DeVos’s tenure at the US Education Department has not gone well. From her lack of educational qualifications to the “Where are the pencils” tweet to the attempt to “strip public money from public schools,” she has shown, to put it mildly, a general lack of interest in public schools.

The vast majority of American students attend public schools and they will all benefit when “dead end” DeVos goes back to her Michigan mansion and her yachts.

But who should replace her? Joe Biden, should he take the Presidential 0ath of Office on January 20, 2021, will nominate someone other than DeVos for Secretary, and he has promised to nominate a teacher.

But if you’ve been a public school educator in the last 20 years, you know that a promise from any presidential candidate, Republican or Democratic, about CONTINUE READING:  Choose a Teacher! | Live Long and Prosper

Open Letter to Joe Biden: Ed Sec “That Has Been in Public Schools” is Not Enough

 Open Letter to Joe Biden: Ed Sec “That Has Been in Public Schools” is Not Enough

Open Letter to Joe Biden: Ed Sec “That Has Been in Public Schools” is Not Enough

Dear Candidate Biden:

On September 01, 2020, I saw part of the interview your wife, Jill, did with CNN contributor, Biana Goldryga, on the topic of K12 education. In that interview, Jill said that you plan to replace Betsy DeVos as US secretary of education “with somebody that has been in the public schools.”

On the surface, that sounds fantastic. On the surface.

The problem is that the education reform movement specializes in its members having temp time “in the public schools” as a resume-padding device designed to catapult them into leadership positions in K12 education, such as district and state superintendents. So, technically, one of these classroom-exiting, sleight-of-experience resume padders could slide right on in as the next secretary of education, without spending but a moment’s time as a classroom teacher, and you, sir, might not know the difference because the person is *technically* able to declare having been “in the public schools.”

In fact, hearing Jill Biden say that you plan to appoint as next ed sec “someone who has been in the public schools” makes me realize that being “in” the public schools doesn’t really commit to having as ed sec someone who has spent time in the classroom at all, much less years enough in the classroom to see a wave of ed trends come and go. I’ll pursue the classroom longevity issue in more detail shortly; for now, I will assume that Jill Biden’s use of “in the public schools” means having been a classroom teacher “in the public schools.”

Let’s return to the education reform movement’s penchant for churning out token teachers who really desire speedy procurement of positions of power and influence over the K12 classroom, not an actual classroom teaching career.

The principal vehicle for this career catapult is ed-reform teacher-temp agency, CONTINUE READING:  Open Letter to Joe Biden: Ed Sec “That Has Been in Public Schools” is Not Enough

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools

On Wednesday, Joe Biden will seek to put a spotlight on President Trump’s handling of the pandemic, particularly when it comes to safely reopening the country’s schools.

Joseph R. Biden Jr., pressing his argument that President Trump is failing the country with his handling of the coronavirus, plans on Wednesday to make the case that Mr. Trump is hurting the nation’s parents, teachers and schoolchildren with his push for schools to reopen.

Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, a community college professor, are scheduled to receive a briefing in Wilmington, Del., from a group of experts, including Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who served as secretary of health and human services for President Barack Obama and is now the president of American University, and Linda Darling-Hammond, the president of the California State Board of Education.

Mr. Biden will then give a speech on what his campaign described as Mr. Trump’s failures on the pandemic as well as Mr. Biden’s plan to reopen schools safely.

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser for the Biden campaign, said Mr. Trump was “barreling forward trying to reopen schools because he thinks it will help his own re-election.”

“We believe this is a key contrast for voters,” Ms. Sanders said. “President Trump, who continues to ignore the science and has no plan to get the virus under control, and Joe Biden, who is working with the experts and putting together an effective plan to beat the virus and reopen schools safely.”

Mr. Trump has demanded that schools reopen this fall and threatened to cut federal funding for school districts that defied his wishes. But his effort to pressure schools did not have the effect he desired, and many districts decided to begin the school year with remote instruction.

The lone exception among the country’s largest school districts is New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio reached a deal with unions on Tuesday to begin remote and in-person classes on Sept. 21, 10 days later than had been planned.

In July, Mr. Biden released his own plan for safely reopening schools, which emphasized deference to local decision-making on whether and how schools could reopen in a safe manner. His plan also called for Congress to pass an emergency funding package to help enable schools to adapt for reopening. CONTINUE READING: Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Biden and Democrats Turn Away from Two Decades of Test-Based Public School Accountability and Privatization | janresseger

Biden and Democrats Turn Away from Two Decades of Test-Based Public School Accountability and Privatization | janresseger

Biden and Democrats Turn Away from Two Decades of Test-Based Public School Accountability and Privatization

Joe Biden’s education plan and the Democratic Platform on education this year should be recognized as a significant development. Biden’s plan embodies something new for Democrats—a turn away from two decades when Democrats bought into neoliberal experimentation in education. Biden supports expanding opportunity for children through better federal funding of public schools and at the same time curtailing abuses in charter schools.

This blog will take a short end of summer break.  Look for a new post Wednesday, September 9.

Donald Trump’s stance on education has not changed. For four years, the President has been endorsing marketplace school choice—code language for the expansion of school privatization at public expense. As a candidate for reelection, Trump merely says he will go on trying to expand marketplace school choice if he wins a second term. He and Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos endorse the continuation of the federal Charter Schools Program. Trump and DeVos are also pushing a $5 billion federal tuition tax credit program they got got someone to introduce into both the House and Senate as “The School Choice Now Act.” This is the same  Education Freedom Scholarship Program DeVos has inserted year after year into  the President’s proposed federal budget. Every year Congress has made sure that it didn’t make it into the final appropriations bill as passed. While the President says he will push school choice—more charters and an expansion of tuition tax credit school vouchers to pay for private school tuition—he never mentions the public schools except for demanding that they reopen as the vehicle for getting parents back to work.

But for Democrats, the direction of education policy seems finally to have shifted.  Shifted in a very positive direction.

Some History: Two Decades of Education “Reform”

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was enacted by Congress with bipartisan support in 2001 and CONTINUE READING: Biden and Democrats Turn Away from Two Decades of Test-Based Public School Accountability and Privatization | janresseger

Biden, Trump offer two distinct paths; for public education, there’s one clear choice - Education Votes

Biden, Trump offer two distinct paths; for public education, there’s one clear choice - Education Votes

Biden, Trump offer two distinct paths; for public education, there’s one clear choice

From the first day of the Republican National Convention, there were stark differences from the previous week’s speeches and messages directed at educators, parents, and students at the Democratic National Convention. Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris have focused on listening to educators and supporting public schools. President Trump hounded on privatization as the way forward while he, Republicans in Congress, and those speaking at the RNC failed to take the global pandemic seriously. Educators know that without safely reopening schools by providing necessary funding and equipment for educators and students, the economy will not recover. During the coronavirus pandemic, the lives of students and educators are at risk with no support — now is not the time to play politics with our students’ futures.

President Trump during his acceptance speech said that if reelected, he would expand charter schools and voucher programs that take money from public schools, even though Congress has continuously rejected the administration’s voucher schemes. Vouchers and tax credits were a main talking point throughout the RNC, but with the backdrop of national protests against racist institutions, Trump ignored the fact that these policies leave out students of color and families who cannot afford a private education. Just prior to the start of the RNC, the Trump Administration released it’s second term agenda which only listed two priorities for the education sector: voucher schemes and “teach American exceptionalism”. 

Last week, Biden and the DNC focused on supporting public education. He emphasized his ability and experience in leading during a pandemic, and his dream of building together a more  equitable version of America.

“It’s time for us, for we, the people, to come together. And make no mistake. United we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America,” said Biden. The platform throughout the CONTINUE READING: Biden, Trump offer two distinct paths; for public education, there’s one clear choice - Education Votes

Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide - Education Votes

Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide - Education Votes

Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide

COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on a specific aspect of the digital divide known as the homework gap—the inability to do schoolwork at home due to lack of high-speed internet access. Nationwide, 15-16 million students are affected—roughly 1 in 3. A disproportionate share of those students are African-American or Hispanic, come from low-income households, or live in rural areas.

Congress has taken steps to aid students and educators during the pandemic, but NEA members are dismayed that Congress has refused to provide adequate direct funding for WiFi hotspots, connection devices, and mobile wireless service through the existing and successful E-rate program to help our students most in need. 

President Trump has promised to improve American infrastructure, including access to broadband, since his earliest days in office, but has failed to deliver. Educators called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Trump administration to provide at least $175 billion in education stabilization funds. In addition, NEA calls on lawmakers to include at least $4 billion to schools to ensure all students have internet access from home for the 2020-2021 school year. Due to the severity of the issue, NEA is calling on lawmakers to support at least this level of funding. 

Where the Trump administration and Senate leadership have failed, Joe Biden is prepared to step in and deliver a solution to the most immediate issues around the homework gap, and the underlying infrastructure issues that have perpetuated the digital divide. Here are three key pieces of Biden’s approach:

1. He supports an infusion of resources to help schools address the “homework gap”

During the pandemic, educators in high-poverty schools report lower class attendance, and believe that closing the homework gap aspect of the digital divide should be a top priority. Pew research shows that among families with school-age children, 25 percent of all Black households and 23 percent of Hispanic households lack high-speed internet, compared to only 10 percent of white households with school children. 

Biden has called time and again for the Senate to pass the HEROES Act, which would CONTINUE READING: Joe Biden’s 3 big ideas to close the digital divide - Education Votes

NANCY BAILEY: Biden, Harris, and Dr. Biden Will Send DeVos Yachting!

Biden, Harris, and Dr. Biden Will Send DeVos Yachting!

Biden, Harris, and Dr. Biden Will Send DeVos Yachting!

You gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true? ~from the Broadway Play South Pacific

If you’re Democrat or Republican, and you care about public education, vote for V.P. Joe Biden to remove Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from the U.S. Department of Education! Four more years of Betsy DeVos means the end of public education.

With a President Biden, public schools have a chance of surviving. With a President Trump, they don’t. It’s as simple as that.

You may be thinking, Democratic leadership has failed public education in the past. Many were disappointed in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top.

Once there’s a President Biden, the country can remind him of this. But the odds of CONTINUE READING: Biden, Harris, and Dr. Biden Will Send DeVos Yachting!

Democrats Recognize Essential Role of Public Schools, Whose Needs Trump and DeVos Don’t Bother to Notice | janresseger

Democrats Recognize Essential Role of Public Schools, Whose Needs Trump and DeVos Don’t Bother to Notice | janresseger

Democrats Recognize Essential Role of Public Schools, Whose Needs Trump and DeVos Don’t Bother to Notice

In a refreshing development this week, as Democrats held their convention to nominate Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for President and Kamala Harris for Vice President, public education was made visible again as an institution of vital importance to American life.

For President Donald Trump, opening schools matters only to enable parents to go to work.  I have never heard Trump or his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, speak about the needs of children or acknowledge the importance of our nation’s system of universally available public schools in cities, towns, rural areas and suburbs across America.

If you watched the Democrats on Tuesday night, however, you know that Jill Biden spoke from the Brandywine High School classroom where she once taught in Wilmington, Delaware. Education Week‘s Andrew Ujifusa reports her remarks: “You can hear the anxiety that echoes down empty hallways. There’s no scent of new notebooks or freshly waxed floors… The rooms are dark as the bright young faces that should fill them are now confined to boxes on a computer screen… I hear it from so many of you: the frustration of parents juggling work while they support their children’s learning—or are afraid that their kids might get sick from school. The concern of every person working without enough protection. The despair in the lines that stretch out before food banks.” Ujifusa continues: “Joe Biden appeared at the end of her video segment to underscore his wife’s role in schools: ‘Just think of your favorite educator who gave you the confidence to believe in yourself.'”

And you may also remember that, as she announced Arizona’s votes in the nomination Roll Call, Marisol Garcia, a public middle school teacher and the vice president of the Arizona Education Association, wore a “Red4Ed” t-shirt and spoke about the needs of her state’s public schools.

On Tuesday, the delegates passed a strong, pro-public schools platform that reflects Joe Biden’s priorities. As Education Week’s Andrew Ujifusa reports, the Democratic Platform supports CONTINUE READING: Democrats Recognize Essential Role of Public Schools, Whose Needs Trump and DeVos Don’t Bother to Notice | janresseger

Joe Biden: The Right Man for the Moment | Diane Ravitch's blog

Joe Biden: The Right Man for the Moment | Diane Ravitch's blog

Joe Biden: The Right Man for the Moment

Joe Biden gave a wonderful speech last night. He was sharp, hopeful, eloquent, compassionate, determined, visionary.

If you missed it, watch it now. He was superb.

He laid out a vision of a renewed America, united to conquer the virus, rebuild our infrastructure, bring people together, and heal the deep wounds inflicted on us during the past four years.

After his speech, Republican consultant Rick Wilson—active in the Lincoln Project—said on Brian Williams’ MSNBC show that the choice in the election is stark. He said, “it’s a choice between a good man and a very bad man; between a decent man and an indecent man; between a moral man and a deeply immoral man.”

After listening to Biden lay out an inspiring call to rebuild and uplift our nation, I saw clips of Trump speaking spitefully in Scranton, Biden’s hometown. Trump was vicious, ridiculing Biden and accusing him of abandoning Scranton 70 years ago! Same old, same old: mean-spirited, nasty, divisive, sowing hatred and chaos. Again, he broke a norm of American politics in which each party goes silent while the other convenes. Not Trump. He was desperate to rain on Biden’s big night, but his me-me-me failed. It was Biden’s night.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post said that Biden spoke from a place unknown to Trump: the heart.

He wrote: CONTINUE READING: Joe Biden: The Right Man for the Moment | Diane Ravitch's blog

Kamala Harris Has Strongly Supported Public Schools and Cracked Down on Unscrupulous For-Profit Charter Management Companies and For-Profit Colleges | janresseger #BidenHarris2020 #DemConvention2020

Kamala Harris Has Strongly Supported Public Schools and Cracked Down on Unscrupulous For-Profit Charter Management Companies and For-Profit Colleges | janresseger

Kamala Harris Has Strongly Supported Public Schools and Cracked Down on Unscrupulous For-Profit Charter Management Companies and For-Profit Colleges

Senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s choice as the Democratic candidate for vice president, has a solid record supporting public schools. As California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017, Harris also worked aggressively to protect California’s citizens from fraud committed by the nation’s largest for-profit charter school management company.  She also won a lawsuit in 2016 to provide relief to student borrowers who had been victimized by fraudulent advertising by for-profit colleges and trade schools.

The National Education Association (NEA) reports: “Harris gave her maiden speech on the Senate floor in opposition to the nomination of Betsy DeVos, focusing on her utter lack of qualifications and experience as a teacher.  In support of the #Red4Ed movement, she also supported educators’ strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland, California in 2019 saying, ‘Teachers in my hometown of Oakland will begin striking tomorrow because they know they deserve a raise. It’s shameful that they don’t earn enough to live in the communities where they teach.'” The 2018-2019 #Red4Ed teachers’ strikes across the United States were instrumental for forcing a number of states to remedy some of the deep budget cuts lingering from the 2008 recession, cuts that had, in Los Angeles, for example, pushed class sizes to over 40 students in public schools serving some of the city’s poorest children, many of them learning English.

NEA reports that, like Joe Biden, Harris has pushed for “increasing funding for Title I schools to make sure every student has a nurse and social worker… in addition to providing incentives to states to conduct racial and resource equity audits, increase their public school spending, and adopt more equitable funding formulas.” Like Biden she has advocated for fully funding important and federally mandated programs for disabled students. When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the promise was that 40 percent of the cost of the programs would be federally funded. Both Biden and Harris have said that that CONTINUE READING: Kamala Harris Has Strongly Supported Public Schools and Cracked Down on Unscrupulous For-Profit Charter Management Companies and For-Profit Colleges | janresseger

Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump? - The Washington Post

Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump? - The Washington Post

Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump?

On the chaotic day that Joe Biden called Sen. Kamala D. Harris to ask whether she’d be his running mate, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s phone rang. As one of four co-chairs on Biden’s vice-presidential selection committee, Garcetti was one of a handful of people on the planet privy to that extensive and secretive process. On the other end of the line was someone even more involved in the decision: Joe’s wife of 43 years, Jill.

So central was Jill Biden’s role in the process that the selection committee had presented their initial findings to the Bidens as a pair. With Jill’s input, Joe narrowed the field of more than 20 to the 11 whom he then interviewed one on one. Joe called the other contenders to tell them Harris was his choice, and Jill was the one calling the four selection committee co-chairs to tell them the news.

The extent of Jill Biden’s influence on big decisions in her husband’s campaign to unseat President Trump is both mysterious and not. “It’s a marriage” is her standard line, which is to say, of course they’ve talked about this, they bounce things off each other all the time, and we don’t get to know the details. (Her staff declined to make her available for an interview.)

Here’s something we do know: The Jill Biden who will address the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night is playing a far more active role in her husband’s campaign than she has in his past two White House bids, in 1988 and 2008, according to close friends and confidants. Though she’s spent eight years in and near the White House, her speech at the virtual convention will probably serve as a reintroduction to voters — a big moment for a potential first lady, even under these circumstances. CONTINUE READING: Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump? - The Washington Post