[News] Joe Biden, from centrist Democratic Party candidate to president-elect

[WilkerCSBD]

The victory in the US presidential election of Joe Biden, at almost 78 years old, is the last stage of a long career that began 48 years ago, when he was elected senator. A seasoned candidate, he was also vice president under Barack Obama.

Born on November 20, 1942 in Scranton (Pennsylvania), in the heart of the industrial belt, he is the son of car salesman Joseph R. Biden and housewife Catherine Eugenia Finnegan, from whom he has inherited his Irish origin and his profession. catholic. The president-elect often remembers these humble origins.

He studied in the state of Delaware, where he graduated in History and Political Science in 1965. Three years later he graduated from Syracuse Law School in New York. A lawyer beginning in 1969, and later a member of the New Castle County Council, he rose to the Senate in 1972.

When he was a student he married Neilia Hunter, with whom he had three children: Beau, Hunter and Amy. A traffic accident, where his wife and his daughter died, marked his private life. He has also experienced the death of another of his sons, Beau, who became attorney general in Delaware. He passed away in 2015 from a brain tumor.

He remarried in 1977, already a senator, to the English teacher Jill Tracy Jacobs, with whom he has a daughter, Ashley. Tracy usually accompanies the candidate in his campaign events, such as in the electoral debate. Precisely, the hug between the two at the end of the debate stood out as opposed to a colder greeting from Melania Trump to her husband.

Joe Biden and Jill Tracy Jacobs, after the election debate.

Joe Biden and his wife Jill Tracy Jacobs, after the election debate. Photo: EFE

The first time that Biden acceded to the Senate was in 1972, on the part of the Democratic Party. He ran against J. Caleb Boggs, a veteran Republican senator. In an election framed in the legislature of the overwhelming victory of Republican President Richard Nixon, the entrance of Biden surprised locals and strangers. He was reelected another six times, until he ran for vice president with Obama.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "in any other country it would be unthinkable for Biden and I to be in the same party"
He has been a permanent figure among the Democrats for more than four decades. In fact, charisma is another of his strong points. But before 2020 he had already tried to be president. The first time, in 1998, he was frustrated by a hospitalization, after which he withdrew from the presidential race, although he had also been accused of plagiarism in an electoral speech.

The second time was in 2008, in the presidential elections that Obama beat. Biden wielded his experience in international politics against a less skilled rival. Finally, he was included as second in the candidacy of Obama, of whom after the two terms of him he claims to be a "friend."

In his 36 years as a senator he dealt primarily with international issues and justice. In the early 1990s, during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, his father, he was against the Gulf War, but he did support NATO intervention in Yugoslavia. As a senator, he was a supporter of the war in Iraq, with George W. Bush Jr., but later was against increasing the troops.

Negotiating Vice President

During the eight years of vice presidency, Biden was in charge of approaching positions with Republican legislators when passing some laws, such as the one that ended up raising the debt ceiling in 2011, despite initial stiff opposition.

In 2012, he stated that he was "absolutely comfortable" with gay marriage, forcing Obama to accelerate his explicit support for those unions and contributing to their final legalization by the Supreme Court in 2015. It is one of the achievements of the that Democrats are proudest.

In international politics, during the Obama years he supported the military invasion of Libya and actively participated in the change of strategy in Iraq.

Biden did not appear in the presidential elections of 2016, the year of Trump's victory, but decided to run as a candidate for the 2020 elections, with Bernie Sanders being his greatest rival. "The fundamental values of this nation ... our position in the world ... our democracy ... everything that America has done is at stake. That is why today I announce my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States," he announced On twitter.

No revolution among the democrats

The presidential candidate represents centrism within his party. In the final stretch of the presidential elections, Biden received the support of the other candidates who withdrew - and even that of a Republican like Colin Powell - against Sanders, who represented the most left wing of the Democratic Party. Sanders held out until March, when he finally totally cleared the way for Biden.