Ashley Biden in the spotlight ahead of president’s DNC speech

(WASHINGTON) — When President Joe Biden bids the Democratic National Convention a bittersweet farewell Monday night, he will be introduced by one of his closest champions, his youngest daughter, Ashley.

Although she has remained mostly out of the spotlight compared to her siblings and mother, she has helped promote and advocate on behalf of her father as far back as her childhood.

Ashley Biden, 43, was born in June 1981, the only child of the then-Delaware senator and his second wife, Jill Biden. Ashley’s older half-brothers, Beau and Hunter, quickly developed a strong bond with her, her mother told Delaware Today magazine in 2018.

“Her brothers looked after her. And, she always looked up to them. Wherever they went, she wanted to go, and they took her,” she told the magazine.

At an early age, Ashley Biden was vocal about animal rights, and talked to her father about the issues facing dolphins being caught in tuna fishing nets. Then-Sen. Biden would go on to introduce the 1990 Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act, which required tuna manufacturers to label their products as dolphin free, and he worked with then-California Democratic Rep. Barbara Boxer to help get it passed.

She would go on to earn a degree in cultural anthropology from Tulane University in 2003 and worked as a social worker in Philadelphia and at the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families.

She earned a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice in 2010. Two years later, she married physician Dr. Howard Krein.

Ashley Biden would frequently be seen on the campaign trail with her father in 2008 and after he was elected would be seen with him during major events in Washington, D.C., and around the world. Among those trips was a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.

In 2012, she joined the Delaware Center for Justice and where she worked on programs to combat gun violence and teenage gang activity. She would eventually be promoted to serve as the non-profit’s executive director.

She stepped down from her position at the non-profit in 2019 to help with her father’s presidential campaign. Throughout the campaign season, Ashley Biden made visits to several stops and touted her father’s work and policies to voters.

She was also active on social media encouraging voters to support her father.

It was also during this time that Ashley Biden became a victim of identity theft by two Florida residents.

Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander stole a diary she left behind at one of her former residences in September 2020 and then sold it to right-wing activist group Project Veritas, according to federal prosecutors.

Harris and Kurlander pleaded guilty in August 2022 to “to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property involving the theft of personal belongings of an immediate family member of a then-former government official who was a candidate for national political office,” according to the Justice Department.

Harris was sentenced in April to one month in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and Kurlander’s sentencing is slated for the fall. Ashley Biden did not attend the sentencing hearing, “because it would only increase my pain,” she said in a letter to the judge.

“The point of the theft, I assume, was to be able to peddle grotesque lies by distorting my stream-of-consciousness thoughts,” she said.

She asked the judge to impose prison time on Harris in the letter that was unsealed after the sentencing.

“My goal in asking Your Honor to impose a term of incarceration is to ensure that another woman isn’t bullied and shamed like this ever again. The despair I have often felt will never truly go away,” she wrote. “But I ask Your Honor to hold Ms. Harris accountable so that she thinks twice before doing it to someone else.”

After her father was elected to the White House, Ashley Biden continued to be at her family’s side and accompanied them on several trips including June’s visit to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

When the president delivered his speech declaring that he would not seek reelection last month, Ashley Biden was among the family members who was in the Oval Office. She was seen teary-eyed and hugging her father after the speech was done.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.