First Ladies: ‘The Original Influencers’

Panel explores how history regards presidential spouses and the real power they wield.

The University of Virginia’s Miller Center presented the program “First Ladies: Their Enduring Impact on American Life” Friday featuring Teri Finneman, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to U.S. First Ladies, Heath Hardage Lee, author of The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady; and Michael LaRosa, former press secretary for former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. The discussion was moderated by Miller Center Professor Barbara Perry, co-chair of the Center’s Presidential Oral History Project and author of Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier. (Image: Screenshot University of Virginia Miller Center)

At the outset of a panel discussion at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center on Friday, it was historically understood that first ladies of the United States presidency indisputably wield power. But as the discussion weaved from the distant past to the present, questions about how their impact on the presidency should be examined le…