First Lady Jill Biden called on Virginia voters to elect Democrat Terry McAuliffe as the commonwealth's next governor during a speech at the one-time governor's Friday night rally.
"Virginia, you need somebody that you can trust and that’s Terry McAuliffe," Biden said while standing next to McAuliffe on stage. "You know that because you know Terry."
"County by county, we will win this," she continued. "It takes all of us coming together, doing our part, today and tomorrow and every day until Terry McAuliffe wins on Nov. 2."
McAuliffe is facing a tough gubernatorial reelection bid against Republican Glenn Youngkin. A recent Fox News poll has McAuliffe leading by a slim margin, with 51 percent support from likely Virginia voters, compared to 46 percent for Youngkin. The poll's results are within the margin of error.
"Almost one year ago I was not far from here, sitting with a handful of moms and they talked about how frustrated they were about, guess what, all the things that were out of control," said Biden, who is also a teacher.
"The pandemic, schools closing, growing divisions in our communities," she continued. "But they were hopeful, too. They told me that they had faith in Joe Biden that he would change the course of this country so we could breathe again."
Education has become a hot button topic in the Virginia gubernatorial race as school board meetings in the commonwealth have increasingly become controversial because of school policies surrounding critical race theory and transgender pronouns.
And while the Fox News poll found that voters give a slight edge to McAuliffe on education, they also indicated that parents should decide what is taught at their children's schools. McAuliffe said at a recent debate with Younkin that he does not think parents should decide what is taught in schools.
McAuliffe is bringing in high profile Democrats to help him campaign, including former President Barrack Obama.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday during a press briefing that "we're going to do everything we can to help former Governor McAuliffe, and we believe in the agenda he’s representing."
This prompted an ethics complaint from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a government watchdog group, who allege that Psaki's remarks were in violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal government employees, with the president and vice president being exceptions, from engaging in political campaign activities in their official capacity.
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