Jill Biden bonds with teachers over stakes of the election at Delco union campaign launch

First lady Jill Biden visited a canvass launch for Vice President Kamala Harris geared at teachers and union members Saturday at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Delaware County.

The visit was part of a jam-packed weekend of campaign events in Pennsylvania as the clock ticks to Election Day.

Biden, a community college teacher who has roots in the Philadelphia area, was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd at the campaign stop, which was hosted by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and Delaware County AFL-CIO. Biden waved at the cheering volunteers who surrounded her behind a black rope in the high school’s gymnasium. A union member herself, she was all smiles, wearing a pink blazer over a flowery dress, and had immediate rapport with the crowd.

“Since I’ve been teaching 40 years …” Biden started to say.

“Forty-four!” an attendee shouted from the crowd, one-upping her.

“There’s always one!” Biden joked, laughing with supporters. “I feel like you’re just family to me.”

“Yes, we are,” someone responded.

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

“We cannot let that happen again,” she said about former President Donald Trump’s win over Hillary Clinton.

After her remarks, Biden went around greeting attendees and taking photos with them. Some eager volunteers crowded near the first lady, trying to get selfies with her in the background.

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

It wasn’t Jamal Johnson’s first time in the Penn Wood gymnasium. The Nether Providence Democratic Committee chair graduated from the school in 1996. While returning to the school at age 46 made him feel old, Johnson said, he has fond memories of watching Rap Curry — a teacher, a coach, an activist, a hall of fame basketball player, and State Rep. Gina Curry’s late husband — playing basketball in that same gym.

“It seems like everyone really knows that there’s a lot of votes to be had here, a lot of energy, a lot of people we need to drive out to the polls, so it’s lovely to see Delco getting that recognition,” Johnson said.

Anndra Wilson, 38, a temporary political organizer and K-8 music teacher at Mayfair Elementary School in Northeast Philadelphia, said Trump’s stated agenda to abolish the U.S. Department of Education would be detrimental to her students, and she fears the federal government would no longer provide free meals for students at low-income schools. She said she hopes Democratic State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta wins the state auditor general race because he wants to bring back school audits in Pennsylvania.

“It’s important to me to be on this team because education is the great equalizer, and if we have Trump take away the Department of Education, that suddenly takes 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 — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, once a teacher himself — with Trump’s stances against President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts and in favor of abolishing the Department of Education.

“It’s critical for our democracy that we have an informed electorate,” Scanlon said. “… It’s really important that we elevate our education rather than letting it sink to the lowest common denominator or get privatized.”

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

Some volunteers in attendance Saturday came from as far as New York, aware of how important Pennsylvania — and specifically the Philadelphia suburbs — can be for a national victory.

Evelyn DeJesus, 64, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Biden coming to the canvassing launch was validating for union members.

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

DeJesus, who is also president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, also works to engage Latino voters. She said that when she recently knocked on doors in Allentown to reach older voters, she found that a lot of Latinos who don’t speak fluent English were confused about the voting process. DeJesus, who lives in New York and works in D.C., said she will be in Latino-rich Reading in the coming days.

“I think it’s important for people to know, for Latino voters, voting is an honor and a privilege for us, and it’s like religion,” she said. “When I grew up, my mother used to take us all, my grandmother, my mother, my father, my tías, my tíos — uncles — and we all took it very seriously.”

Aimee Serfaty, 60, who sported a shirt that said “Moms for Mommala,” woke up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to the event from Long Island, N.Y. 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 it’s a really important time in our history, and I am fortunate that I could get up early in the morning and get here, so here I am,” she said.