After earning her degree from the University of Delaware in 1967, she became a teacher at Wilmington Friends School. She was a driving force behind the earliest family triumph, serving as campaign manager for Biden’s upset victory in a 1972 U.S. Senate race that he won by 3,163 votes. Like any family success or tragedy, it was an all-hands-on deck effort. Biden Owens had the clever idea of recruiting some of her students to help.
“The press called us the Children’s Crusade. The kids were the Biden post office. We had no money for stamps. We had no money for brochures. We had no money for anything. So, we did it all ourselves.”
Biden Owens handled the job of campaign manager ever since, all the way up until the 2020 election, when she served as campaign co-chair. She said 2020 was the first time she wasn’t gung-ho about her brother running. She feared that Donald Trump would try to destroy Biden and his family in an ugly campaign.
“I thought, you know, why? You know, Joe, you’ve done it. Why don’t you get that beach house and let me come and stay there?” she said. “But it was Charlottesville, when they marched with torches and chants ... Joe said, ‘Val, I can’t back away.’ It was ugly. But then it [the ugliness of the campaign] exceeded my expectations. He’s the right man at the right time for all the right reasons.”
Toward the end of the evening, Biden Owens and Brzenzinski shared their challenges as working mothers. As she often does, Biden Owens switched chairs – figuratively – and became the interviewer. She asked Brzenzinski about a very near tragedy when she fell down the stairs while holding her baby. Luckily, her child escaped serious injury. Brzenzinski believes the accident occurred because she was taking on too much, making it impossible to balance work and life demands. She said the ordeal was a wakeup call for her.
“It was an incredible lesson for young women to really listen to your body, listen to what you need, pace yourself. You have a long time. Simmer down, you know, don't be a control freak,” Brzenzinski said. “You have to take your time, there isn't a rush. And it was one of a number of challenges I faced … should I go back, you know, after allowing something like that to happen?”
While reminding women to pump the brakes when necessary, the duo also gave them the green light to hit the gas and grab an opportunity when it presented itself. During the Q&A portion of the evening, Cyndie Romer, a Newark resident who is running for state representative in Delaware’s 25th district, seized the opportunity by stumping for herself and asking for advice for a first-time candidate. “I just love that you’re stepping up and running. We need lots of women, right?” Brzenzinski said.
But the mastermind behind Biden’s first-ever political win had some advice for all new candidates.
“There are two things which I say to any first-time candidate, man or a woman … ‘ask yourself what is it worth losing over. [Meaning] where will you stand, that’s worth losing over.’ The second one is ‘get your personal life in order.’ It’s hard enough outside in the environment, in the political world, because you have incoming from all areas,” Biden Owens told the audience. “If your spouse, your significant other, your family, if your parents are elderly, if you’ve got little babies … whatever it is. If you don't have that support, you are making your life so much more difficult because you have to have a respite when you come home.
