Joe Biden

Former Vice President and Senator Joe Biden has focused on his reputation as a leader and respected statesman during his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Early life

Biden was born Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., in Pennsylvania. Biden attended the University of Delaware and studied history and political science. He later got a law degree from Syracuse University and practiced law at a firm in Wilmington, Delaware.

He married Neila Hunter and they had three children together. In 1972, Biden’s wife and daughter were killed in a tragic car wreck, leaving his sons severely injured. Biden later remarried Jill Jacobs and they had a daughter together.

Political experience

Biden was sworn into the United Senate by the hospital bedside of his son, following the wreck. At age 29, Biden was one of the youngest people to be elected to the United States Senate.

According to biography.com, Biden became Delaware’s longest-serving senator.

He was a chairman, and then ranking member, of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. As a senator, Biden sponsored the Violence Against Women Act.

Then, after a failed bid for the presidential nomination in 2008, Biden joined the Democratic ticket with Barack Obama. Biden served two terms as the 47th vice president of the United States.

In 2015, Biden lost his son Beau Biden to brain cancer. His son’s fight with cancer inspired his mission on “ending cancer as we know it,’ which was changed to “the cancer moonshot.” In 2017, President Obama awarded Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Current campaign

Biden is currently fifth in race for the democratic nomination with six delegates. Learn more about him at JoeBiden.com.