Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born on November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the eldest of four children of Joseph Robinette Biden Sr., a used car salesman who struggled financially, and Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden. The family moved to Claymont, Delaware when Joe was ten, and to Wilmington when he was thirteen, following employment opportunities. He attended Archmere Academy in Claymont on a partial scholarship, was an indifferent student but an excellent athlete and natural leader, and attended the University of Delaware, where he graduated in 1965 with degrees in history and political science. He attended Syracuse University College of Law, graduating 76th in a class of 85 — he was called before an academic committee for plagiarism in one course, a fact he disclosed in his presidential bid years later. He married Neilia Hunter in 1966, was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1969, and was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970.
Joe Biden was elected to the United States Senate from Delaware in 1972, at age 29 — the fifth youngest senator in US history, at an age that required him to wait until his 30th birthday (the constitutional minimum) to be sworn in. Weeks after his election, his wife Neilia and their infant daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident; his sons Beau and Hunter survived with serious injuries. Biden considered not taking his Senate seat but was persuaded by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield to serve for six months and then decide — and he ultimately served for 36 years, commuting daily by Amtrak from Wilmington to Washington rather than moving his family to the capital, because he wanted to be home for his sons each evening. This commitment to family — expressed through the daily commute, through his later devastation at Beau's death from brain cancer in 2015 — is the most consistent feature of his character across a 50-year public career.
Biden's Senate career was significant: he served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Judiciary Committee, wrote the Violence Against Women Act, and managed the Bork and Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings. His 1988 presidential campaign collapsed over the plagiarism revelation and was abandoned. He suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988, requiring surgery and months of recovery. He ran for president again in 2008 but withdrew early, before Iowa, and was subsequently selected as Barack Obama's running mate — a selection that reflected both Biden's foreign policy expertise and his genuine affinity for Obama's vision. He served as Vice President for eight years with genuine influence, particularly on foreign policy and the management of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election against incumbent Donald Trump by 81.2 million votes — the most votes for any presidential candidate in American history — and was inaugurated at age 78, becoming the oldest person inaugurated as president. His administration passed the American Rescue Plan ($1.9 trillion COVID relief), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ($1.2 trillion), the Inflation Reduction Act (the most significant climate legislation in US history), and the CHIPS Act (semiconductor manufacturing support). His revitalization of NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was widely credited as his most significant foreign policy achievement. He announced in July 2024 that he would not seek re-election, citing his age and the need to pass the torch — a decision that was simultaneously admired as selfless and criticized as too late. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic nominee.
