Jill Biden Tries To Fire Up Democrats For Udall
LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) — Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president, joined Sen. Mark Udall Saturday on a swing through four Front Range cities Saturday, the latest female Democratic luminary to accompany the state's senior senator as he counts on women voters to win a tough re-election campaign.
Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren have all appeared with Udall in the campaign's closing weeks as he has tried to mobilize the state's abortion rights-supporting female swing voters to defeat Republican Rep. Cory Gardner.
On Saturday, Udall, Biden and Sen. Michael Bennet, whose 2010 win after emphasizing reproductive rights is the template for Udall's campaign, traveled by bus from Boulder to Greeley, stopping at four different Democratic offices to fire up volunteers.
In Longmont, Biden made reference to Udall's spot in the West's political dynasty — his father was a congressman and former presidential candidate, his uncle an interior secretary, and two of his cousins are senators, one Democrat and one Republican. Udall rarely references his family and bristled when Gardner, the son of a tractor salesman, contrasted it with the Republican's own upbringing.
But Biden compared the family to her own, noting that public service takes a toll on a family and yet her son Beau Biden serves as Delaware's Attorney General. "It's not easy to be a family involved in public service," Biden said. "The campaigns keep seeming to get more negative. ... I really applaud families like the Udall family that have stayed in public service."
Biden also alluded to the importance of women's issues in a race in which Udall has tried to cast Gardner, an opponent of abortion rights, as a foe of women's health.
"Women of my generation — and I see a couple of you here — you know how hard we had to fight to get here today," Biden said. "We cannot go back and fight those battles that we had to fight so long ago."
Gardner, who has led slightly in polls, had a lower-visibility weekend planned and is scheduled to attend a cattlemen's event in rural Elbert County on Saturday evening.
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