Jill Biden said at a Monday afternoon campaign rally that women could determine the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election.

“Our voices are more powerful than we know,” Biden said. “We can’t sit back and watch what happens, we have to decide what happens — especially women.” 

Biden held a campaign event in Allison Park, Pa. — about 20 minutes north of Pitt’s campus — geared at energizing suburban women to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Pennsylvania’s suburbs helped Trump win the presidency in 2016. Current polling shows Biden leading among suburban women by about 23%.

The event also featured a number of down ballot Democratic candidates such as Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-38), Emily Skopov (running for the state House 28th District), Michele Knoll (running for the state House 44th District) and Lissa Geiger Shulman (running for the state House 30th District).

Biden focused on her husband’s education policies such as investing in public schools and universal pre-kindergarten for all children. She also mentioned Biden’s stance on providing affordable health care and his plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Biden added that her husband of 43 years “couldn’t be more different” than President Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump has spent his lifetime attempting to lie and cheat his way into success and prestige and most of all profit,” Biden said. “Again and again he tells this Donald Trump story about America that truth doesn’t matter, that decent doesn’t matter.” 

For both national and local elections, Williams said it’s important to continue campaigning until the last possible minute to ensure a Democratic victory. She referenced her canvassing experience in 2008 knocking doors for President Barack Obama, and said she was able to take a woman who had just become a citizen to vote for the first time. 

“We ran into a voter who planned on voting, but was left without a car. And so we put her in the car and drove her to the polls,” Williams said. “I got the privilege of driving someone to the polls to vote for the very first time on the afternoon of Election Day.” 

Biden said Pennsylvania — and its female voters, in particular — are critical leading into tomorrow’s presidential election.

“We know how to organize, we know how to fight for the women we love and we win elections,” Biden said. “This state, one state, this state of Pennsylvania could decide our future for generations to come.”