First lady Jill Biden mingled with Silicon Valley campaign donors and educators Friday at a fundraiser hosted by philanthropist Shannon Hunt-Scott in the scenic hills of Los Gatos, urging the reelection of President Joe Biden, whom she described as the “only person for the job.”
Biden’s visit to the Bay Area was part of a fundraising tour for the Biden Victory Fund, following recent stops by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The California push has so far raised tens of millions of dollars for the president’s reelection campaign.
On Friday morning, cars parked along the street outside Hunt-Scott’s Los Gatos home, while vans full of guests made trips up the winding hillside roads. Shortly after noon, the first lady’s motorcade turned off Highway 17 in a procession of black cars and drove through Los Gatos. Nearby, a family walked with their children, with each kid holding a miniature U.S. flag.
Around 70 to 80 guests gathered on Hunt-Scott’s covered porch overlooking the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to a media pool report. Hunt-Scott said the audience included 40 educators, a nod to Biden’s career as a teacher, which began in Delaware some 45 years ago.
In her remarks, Biden described her husband’s commitment to family and country, even in the most difficult times.
“Through the highest peaks and deepest valleys of our lives, through our painful losses and our triumphant victories, Joe has always been strong and steady. Always unflappable. Always unflinching. You’ve seen it in these last few years,” she said.
She went on to speak about the skills that her husband brings to the presidency, differentiating his “hard-earned wisdom and steady character” from his Republican opponent.
“He isn’t just the right person for the job. He’s the only person for the job,” she said. “Joe wakes up every morning thinking about how he can make the lives of Americans better. Donald Trump wakes up every morning caring about one person and one person only: Himself. He’s dangerous to our families, to our institutions, and to our democracy.”
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California donations have contributed up to nearly 25% of President Biden’s fundraising nationwide, reaching $60 million for his reelection campaign as well as affiliate political action committees and organizations. In May, the president attended Silicon Valley fundraisers at the homes of former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in Palo Alto and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla in Portola Valley.
Earlier this month, Vice President Kamala Harris attended a fundraiser in Oakland hosted by Amit Jain, an executive at Palantir Technologies, and Smita Trivedi, a business professor at San Francisco State University. The event welcomed about 60 attendees with tickets costing between $5,000 and $25,000 for a couple.
Several Bay Area cities rank highly for contributions from its residents to the Biden campaign, including San Francisco — whose residents have given $23 million alone — as well as Palo Alto, Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose and Portola Valley.
“We can’t wake up on November 6 thinking if we’d only made more calls or knocked on more doors or donated more money. No,” Jill Biden said in her remarks. “We have to work harder than we ever worked before. We have to push further than we pushed in the past. We have to meet this moment as if our rights are at stake. Because they are. As if our democracy is on the line. Because it is.”
