President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will seek a second term at age 80 is just the latest chapter in a long, long political career that began in 1970 — and the numbers will break the longevity record once again as he wins.
It took him from the New Castle County Council to the U.S. Senate, through two failed presidential campaigns, a 36-year Senate career, two White House terms as Vice President, and a historic victory over Donald Trump during the pandemic. campaign 2020.
It’s been more than five years since then-President Barack Obama saluted Biden as a “lion of American history” as he presented him with the Medal of Freedom in what should have been the capstone of a long career in public service.
Now Biden, 80, is gearing up for what will be his fourth White House run — in a campaign that will marry a ‘rose garden’ strategy seen this month with trips to battlefield states that helped him hand over the White House .
President Joe Biden, 80, was first elected to public office in 1970. He has finally decided to announce he is seeking a second term
Elected to government at age 27, sworn into the Senate amid tragedy
Biden got his start in politics when he was elected to Delaware’s New Castle County Commission at age 27 — a local-level service he still refers to when meeting with county and city officials.
He served there for two years before being elected to the Senate at age 29 (he was sworn in at age 30, the Constitution minimum).
He thought incumbent rival GOP Senator Cale Boggs, then 63, might be old for the job.
“Cale doesn’t want to run, he’s lost that old twinkle in his eye he used to have”
In a story that Biden still regularly tells at events, his wife Neilia and infant daughter Charlotte in a car accident in 1972, just weeks after the election.
Biden says he considered resigning but was instead sworn into the Senate at Wilmington Hospital where Beau and Hunter Biden were treated after the accident.
Biden was sworn into the Senate in 1973 at Wilmington Hospital where Beau and Hunter Biden were treated after the accident that killed their mother Neilia and sister Charlotte.
Biden continued to travel to Wilmington weekly to raise his sons while serving in the Senate, with help from sister Valerie and other family members.
(He still leaves town many weekends to go home, even as president).
Decades in the Senate
It was on a long Senate career that spanned more than three decades. He was friends with iconic figures in the Senate, including Ted Kennedy and John McCain.
(He has criticized the campaign trail for mentioning his friendship with segregationists, including John Stennis and James O. Eastland of Mississippi.
Biden would eventually wield the gavel during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the confirmation of Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, in just one battle in the decades-long judicial wars over the Supreme Court.
As it turns out, the hearings were just days after Biden was caught up in a plagiarism scandal that effectively ended his 1988 presidential campaign.
(Biden nominated for president as Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose own Supreme Court nomination was blocked by Republicans under Obama).
He also chaired the confirmation of Clarence Thomas in 1991. His committee called Anita Hill to testify about allegations of sexual assault, but did not conduct its own full investigation into the matter.
He helped push through the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 during the Clinton administration — a law whose crackdown on crime became an issue in the 2000 primary. Now Biden regularly calls for his expired ban to be reinstated on assault weapons.
He also chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a role that exposed him to global issues and helped him build relationships with world leaders.
He voted against approving Operation Desert Storm in 1991, then voted for the resolution approving the second war in Iraq, which came back to him in the 2008 Democratic primary, and voted against an influx of US troops in 2007.
Biden presided over the Senate Robert Bork confirmation hearings. He was friends with Senator Ted Kennedy
Runs for the White House
Biden’s first runs for the White House were marked by a series of stumbles. He famously borrowed from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock without crediting the MP, sparking a plagiarism scandal that helped his campaign.
He also took passages from the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who this month called Biden a political hero.
During a confrontation with a New Hampshire voter who was caught on camera, he told a New Hampshire voter, “I probably have a much higher IQ than you, I suspect.’
When he tried to run again in 2008, he immediately put his foot in his mouth when he called then-Senate colleague Barack Obama “the first mainstream African-American to be articulate and bright and clean and a nice man.”
Biden’s 1998 presidential campaign had a series of stumbles (now first lady Jill Biden is over)
Biden campaigned with family in all of his efforts
Two terms in the White House
Obama tagged him anyway, even though his own presidential campaign flared up after he got less than 1 percent in Iowa.
He attacked GOP Representative Paul Ryan during the vice presidential debate and then made himself an influential figure in the Biden White House.
He helped advise Biden on the 2009 Recovery Act amid the financial crisis, and helped draft support in the Senate, as he did for other major Obama legislation.
The two men regularly had lunch at the White House and sometimes went outside the complex for burgers. Biden relied on his long-standing dealings in the Senate to help navigate budget battles, staying tough on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and others.
But he decided not to run for president himself at the end of Obama’s second term following the death of his son Beau in 2016.
That paved the way for then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to grab the Democratic nomination, ultimately losing it to Donald Trump.
Broke the age record in 2021
Biden already broke the record when he became the oldest US president when he took office on Inauguration Day 2021 at age 78 – beating Ronald Reagan, who left office at age 77.
Now he hopes to improve his stats while becoming the oldest re-elected president (a title Reagan also held).
Biden and his team have made sure he showed flashes of strength — he suffered a few slips early in his tenure as he ran up the stairs to board Air Force One.
During his first two years in office, he maintained an active travel schedule, although he largely avoided formal press conferences and maintained a relatively light schedule when embarking on trips to Ireland and Mexico.
Despite his advanced age, Biden is not the oldest major candidate to seek the presidency.
Born in 1907, former Minnesota governor Harold Stassen sought the presidency in 1992 – it was his tenth bid for the office. He would have turned 85 on Election Day.
More recently, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 81, sought the Democratic nomination in 2020 and 2016. He said last summer that he would support Biden if he runs.