Former Vice President Joe Biden has announced he will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, instantly catapulting him to the top of an increasingly crowded Democratic field vying to challenge U.S. President Donald Trump.
The veteran Delaware senator and two-term vice president in the Obama administration has rivaled Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other Democratic presidential aspirants in recent polls, although it’s uncertain whether he will be able to match their fundraising prowess. His experience in the areas of foreign affairs, criminal justice and domestic policy is unmatched by other presidential candidates.
But the 76-year-old politician’s old-school style of glad-handing recently came back to haunt him, when at least seven women, including a one-time candidate for lieutenant governor in Nevada, accused him of inappropriate touching, hugs and kissing at public events. While Biden has defended his past behavior as consistent with his lifelong effort to make a “human connection” with women and men alike, he pledged in a recent video to be “mindful” of people’s boundaries going forward.
Biden, who was born in Scranton, Pa., and later moved to Delaware, has been in national politics almost his entire career. After Biden won his first Senate race in 1972, he spent the next 36 years in the chamber, commuting by train most days more than 100 kilometers from Wilmington to Washington. He then served as President Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years.
Biden has twice before run for president, seeking the nomination in 1988 and 2008, but failed to gain much support from voters either time.
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