The two women leading Joe Biden to the White House

Joe Biden’s sister and his second wife are vital to his campaign, as well as a key part of his appeal to voters.

Joe Biden with wife Jill, centre, and sister Valerie in Los Angeles. Picture: AFP

When Joe Biden’s wife and daughter were killed in a car accident, his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, put her own life on hold to rebuild his broken family. And when Biden was attacked on stage last month by raging vegans, his second wife, Jill, stepped up to fight them off. These two women lie at the very heart of Biden’s life and his candidacy for president.

The former vice-president, a titan of US politics, stands on the brink of clinching the Democrat presidential nomination. Yet he could not have reached this point without his family and in particular the two women who stand unflinchingly by his side.

So integral are Jill and Valerie to Biden’s mission he confused their names on stage recently. It was an anxious moment for those worried about the 77-year-old’s cognitive fitness, but it spoke volumes about the essential roles both women play. “They’re a team,” said Marjorie Margolies, a long-time family friend. “It’s a very in-sync group. It must be lovely to have several people in your orbit who you just totally trust.”

After comfortable primary victories last Tuesday in Illinois, Arizona and Florida, Biden is on the cusp of claiming the nomination. His only remaining rival, Bernie Sanders, is “assessing his campaign” and could drop out soon.

Biden’s imminent triumph represents a stunning comeback for a candidate who was repeatedly written off as too old, too sleepy and too fuzzy.

At the core of his appeal is his experience, but also his history of resilience amid unspeakable tragedy — and his family, without whom he would never have come this far. Biden family lore has it that Valerie ran Joe’s first political campaign — for class president — when they were children in a large Catholic family in Wilmington, Delaware. She has played a central role in every campaign since as surrogate, adviser, confidante and friend.

When Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and his daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash in 1972, Valerie took control. Biden had just been elected senator for Delaware, but his life was in pieces. “Aunt Val” moved in with her brother for four years, through her own divorce and remarriage, caring for his sons, Hunter and Beau.

“It took less than a minute for her to step up to the plate, no questions asked,” said Margolies. “She was the mainstay during that awful time and did what was an almost impossible thing, keeping that family together.”

She was “the cornerstone that allowed me to sustain and then rebuild my family”, Biden wrote in his 2008 memoir, Promises to Keep.

Valerie, now 74, is a sharp political operator in her own right, unafraid to deliver home truths when required. “She’s really very, very candid,” Margolies said. “You need somebody on your team like that.”

Biden’s unwavering attachment to his family is a powerful political asset, as was the profound sympathy most Americans felt when son Beau died of cancer in 2015. Allegations of nepotism and self-dealing have emerged over the years, however. Most notably, these have come in relation to his younger son Hunter’s connections to Chinese financiers and the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Both are likely to play a central role in the Trump campaign’s attacks on a Biden bid for the White House.

The Bidens are braced for all that Trump will throw at them. “There has been pressure before, we know what we’re getting into,” Jill Biden told Vogue recently.

Jill, 68, is an English professor with four degrees and five grandchildren. Articulate and glamorous, “Dr Biden” has been a prominent surrogate on the campaign trail. “She’s smart and genuine,” said David Wade, who was communications chief on Biden’s 2008 vice-presidential campaign. “As somebody who has been an educator for decades, her command of policy comes across. But she’s also warm and connects with people personally.”

Jill has not always been as enthusiastic about her husband’s presidential ambitions. In 2004, Biden was on the verge of joining the race for the nomination, which was eventually won by his friend, John Kerry. As Biden gathered with his advisers in the library of the family home in Wilmington, Jill was determined he should not run. But her message wasn’t getting through. She recalled in an interview: “Finally, I was so mad. I was sitting out at the pool in a bikini and got a Magic Marker and I wrote ‘No’ on my stomach, and I walked into the library. That got his attention.”

It was earlier this month on stage in Los Angeles, during Biden’s victory speech after Super Tuesday, that Jill batted away two vegan protesters who broke through the protective cordon. Valerie waded in too. “There was no getting past Jill or Valerie,” said Margolies. “They’re both extremely trim people. There was no hesitation there.”

Biden has a long road ahead. But barring an unexpected disaster, he will go up against Trump in the autumn. It’s going to a bare-knuckled fight. And if Biden does win, there’s no doubt it will have been a team effort. “Family is his foundation for everything,” said Wade.

The Sunday Times