Dr. Jill Biden made a brief stop at the Eagle Grove Memorial Library on Tuesday, Jan. 21. The mission – to make a “pitch” to voters on her “three good reasons” they should vote for her husband, Joe, during the upcoming caucus, which will take place this coming Monday evening, Feb. 3.
Dr. Biden spoke to a small group of voters who, according to her caucus staff members, were called and invited to attend the event. She opened by saying “When you’re thinking about who you’re going to be supporting (in the caucus), it’s important that you know one of the important things to consider in choosing Joe Biden as a candidate is that one of the things he brings to the table is Indepenent voters…because he’s a moderate and he’s not too far one way or the other way.”
Because of this, she believes a lot of independent’s, as well as Republicans, are “rethinking” who or what party they want to vote for, especially the farmers. She said, “They felt they were disallusioned…that Trump wasn’t who they expected him to be.”
The second reason Dr. Biden gave to vote for Joe was that they believe he is most able to win the swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida.
The third reason: Acheavablility.
“Joe has a lot of really good plans that are achieveable. They’re bold and they’re progressive, but he knows how he’s going to pay for them,” said Dr. Biden.
With those being her top three reasons, she added one more comment.
“If your goal is to beat Donald Trump, then Joe is naturally your candidate.”
“On day one, Joe can walk into the Oval Office and go to work…he knows people on a global stage,” said Dr. Biden.
She also spoke about her husband’s education plan, saying “It’s teacher approved.”
One issue is making college affordable. Part of his plan, as explained by Dr. Biden, is that when a student graduates from college, they will have to be earning above $25,000 before they are required to start repaying the loan. Once they reach that pay scale, repayments will be based on discretional income, meaning five percent (instead of 10 percent as it is now) after cost-of-living expenses come out like food, rent, taxes etc. Dr. Biden stated that Joe’s plan also has a loan forgiveness clause after 20 years of payments. Joe also advocates for dual credit high school classes as well as free community or vocational schooling after high school.
“We must help the middle class. That’s all there is to it,” said Dr. Biden. “This is one of his plans that are acheivable.”
Dr. Biden later polled the small crowd who would actually take the time to caucus, and tried to encourage each of them to do so, to make their voice heard.
A member of the Joe Biden team also took the opportunity to address the fact that they had some “debunking” to do and mentioned a new video (that was released after the EG meeting) that “debunks Ukraine, that goes through it and says ‘Let me tell you what that was all about. Let me go through and actually break it down for you,’…this video starts that dialouge in a very conversational way.’”
The campaign also reminded the attendees that at the end of the Obama administration, the president put an award around then Vice President Joe Biden’s neck and said, “He is the best vice president that ever served.”
“If the election were held tomorrow, who would you want to step in to straighten it out?” Dr. Biden asked the voters. “Joe has the experience to do that.”
The Democratic Caucus event will take place at Robert Blue Middle School in the multi-purpose room beginning at 7 p.m. You must be a registered Democrat to participate in the caucus. If you’re not already registered, you can register as a Democrat on caucus night at your precinct location.
