Jill Biden marks her anniversary as first lady with thank you note to nation as she continues her healer in chief role and prepares to step her up outreach in coming year
- Jill Biden sent a thank you note to the nation on Thursday - the one year annivesary of Joe Biden's presidency and her tenure as first lady
- It's part of her role as 'healer in chief'
- 'To All Americans: Thank you. You continue to inspire us and we're working hard for you every day. XO, Jill,' she wrote
- She has visited COVID clinics, schools, and cancer hospitals - in red states and blue ones as first lady
- And Biden's looking to step up her outreach in the coming year
- She'll mark anniversary as first lady with visit to New Jersey community college
Jill Biden sent a thank you note to the nation on Thursday - the one year annivesary of Joe Biden's presidency and her tenure as first lady - as she continues her role as 'healer in chief.'
Biden, 70, offer of kind words and the public gesture has been emblematic of her time in the White House, from posting heart-shaped signs on the North Lawn on Valentine's Day to using her platform as first lady to visit those in need - whether they voted for her husband or not.
She has visited COVID clinics, schools, and cancer hospitals - in red states and blue ones. And she's looking to step up her outreach in the coming year.
'To All Americans: Thank you. You continue to inspire us and we're working hard for you every day. XO, Jill,' she wrote in the note posted to her social media accounts on Thursday.
Written in her handwriting, it was dated January 20, 2022 and was on her monogrammed stationary.
'One year ago, we began a journey towards healing together. You continue to inspire us, and we're working hard for you every day,' she posted along side the picture of her note.
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Biden has been one of the most active first lady in modern times, holding events and traveling the country from the start.
In contrast, Melania Trump rarely appeared in public during her time in the White House. Michelle Obama's public presence didn't really grow until her husband's second term, when her two children had gotten older and settled into life in Washington.
Biden will spend her one-year annivesary of her time in the White House in New Jersey, where she and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will visit Bergen Community College in Paramus.
Biden, a teacher, has made education one of the main focuses of her first year in the White House. She's also revived Joining Forces, the program she founded as second lady with Michelle Obama to support military families and veterans.
In the coming year, Biden looks to be even more active on the political stage as Democrats fight to keep control of Congress in the midterm elections.
It's a marked contrast to her predecessors - neither Melania Trump nor Michelle Obama liked to campaign and it was rare to see them at political events.
She has expanded her communications team, bringing aboard Kelsey Donohue, who worked as an assistant press secretary for first lady Michelle Obama, Axios reported, to lead digital media efforts.
The first lady has already proved popular with Democrats facing tough re-election campaigns.
She traveled to New Jersey and Virigina last year to help Democratic gubenatorial candidates.
'Heck, today's Friday. So go grab a beer and go vote,' she said to great applause during an October stop in Edison, New Jersey.
When the first lady visited a COVID clinic in Georgia in November, Sen. Raphael Warnock, the most endangered Democratic senator, was touring it with her. And when the first lady went to New Hampshire for a July 4th barbeque, vulnerable Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan joined her for the celebration.
First ladies are popular surrogates on the campaign trail - bringing the glamour of the White House without the politics of the presidency.
Thus far, Jill Biden traveled to 35 states, over 60 cities and three countries.
But, as the United States remains deeply polarized, the first lady has taken on more of a healing role.
'I didn't kind of expect, which was like a healing role, because we've faced so much as a nation,' she told the Associated Press last week.
'I would want to know that my president and first lady cared about me,' she noted. 'I think that's an important part of what I do. I mean, just helping people through the tough times.'
Biden has visited three disaster sites in the past two months: She was in Bowling Green, Kentucky, last week to visit victims of December's tornado, she joined President Biden on a trip to Colorado to see the damage from the wildfires; and she and second gentleman Doug Emhoff met with family members of the victims the Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis.
On those trips she offers hugs, a friendly ear and warm words of support.
'This is who we are as Americans,' she said in Kentucky last week. 'We come together and we help one another.'
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Biden has visited several red states - ones that did not vote for her husband - as part of her healing campaign and as part of the administration's bid to get more people vaccinated from COVID.
She talked about her faith in Mississippi, visited a beer garden/vaccine clinic in Tennessee with country music star Brad Paisley, and visited a pre-K class in Alabama.
'People have asked me why. Why go to Mississippi or Alabama or Alaska—why talk to people who will never agree with you? And the answer is that I'm their First Lady too,' she explained in October during a speech at the Kennedy Center.
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