Lilly Ledbetter, whose name became synonymous with the fight for equal pay, is endorsing Joe Biden for president on Tuesday as the country marks Equal Pay Day. She cited the former vice president’s decades of experience in Washington, including his sponsorship of the Violence Against Women Act as a senator and his work in the Obama administration to promote women’s equality.
Ledbetter, 81, said she supported Biden running for president before he became a candidate, telling him in 2018 when he campaigned for Doug Jones for Senate in Alabama that she would back him if he ever ran.
“He has so much experience, and that means a lot, because the president, that’s not a learning job,” Ledbetter said. “The country has seen that these last three years now. We need someone that knows how Congress and the presidency works.”
Two of the most prominent outside Democratic groups are forming a partnership to pool resources and research to help elect former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. this fall, an attempt at consolidating fund-raising in an increasingly competitive marketplace for third-party organizations.
Unite the Country, the super PAC formed late last year to support Mr. Biden, and the progressive group American Bridge are teaming up to coordinate their efforts in hopes of raising about $175 million together to defeat President Trump in November, leaders from the two groups said Monday.
“It made more sense to raise money together than raise money competing against one another,” said Steve Schale, who helps run Unite the Country.
The partnership will be co-chaired by Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor and a late entrant into this year’s presidential race, and former Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan.
“We don’t want redundancy,” said Bradley Beychok, the president of American Bridge, which also counts the longtime Democratic strategists James Carville and Jim Messina as advisers.
While the groups are not merging, and will continue to do some work separately, they are going to coordinate their polling and opposition research while also planning their advertising buys together. The two groups combined have raised over $70 million so far this campaign.
The alliance comes as Mr. Biden has gained a nearly insurmountable lead in the Democratic primary race and the coronavirus outbreak has effectively frozen the campaign. But what has not been put on hold is the jockeying among third-party groups to position themselves with donors as the go-to organization helping to elect the former vice president and defeat Mr. Trump.
A constellation of various Democratic groups have been quietly vying for the favor — and the checks — of major Democratic contributors for months.
The biggest Democratic super PAC from the 2016 cycle, Priorities USA, has operated continuously since then, and announced a $150 million ad budget leading up to the Democratic National Convention.
Just on Friday, the group announced an additional $17 million digital ad buy.