This weekend, the spouses of the Democratic candidates for president and vice president will be barnstorming Virginia.
Perhaps the most colorful example of a spouse of a presidential candidate hitting the campaign trail was the Lady Bird Express, a whistle-stop tour that started at the Alexandria train station and headed south in October 1964. Lady Bird Johnson was hoping to counter resistance to the Civil Rights Act, which President Lyndon Johnson signed into law that summer.
"As I rode along and looked out the window, it's easy to see why Virginians love this land so much," Johnson says in film preserved at the LBJ Presidential Library.
When the Lady Bird Express arrived in Richmond, Congressman Vaughan Gary introduced a surprise guest.
"It is my very pleasant duty now to present to you your great lieutenant governor, Mills Godwin and Mrs. Godwin," Gary says in the film.
"Congressman, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. We have had a delightful trip down from Alexandria," Godwin responds.
Mills Godwin had been a leader in the state Senate in the massive resistance movement that shut down public schools rather than integrate them. So his on the Lady Bird Express appearance was a surprise to conservative Democrats. But he used the appearance to curry favor with Democrats who supported the Civil Rights Act, building a coalition that got him elected governor the next year.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
