5 things to know about Joe Biden

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Thursday, March 12, 2020

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., speaks to supporters at Mehlville High School Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008, in St. Louis. | (Photo: AP Images / Jeff Roberson)

2. Political background

Biden was first elected to represent the state of Delaware in the U.S. Senate at the age of 29 in 1972 and assumed the office from 1973 until 2009, when he began serving as vice president of the United States.

Before his time in the Senate, Biden served as a defense attorney in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1968 to 1970 before serving on the New Castle County Council.

He attended college at the University of Delaware and got his law degree at Syracuse University College of Law.

Biden first ran for president in the 1988 election.

In 1987, he admitted that he plagiarized in one of his papers during his first year of law school in 1965, according to The Washington Post. Although he said that the plagiarism wasn’t “intentional” nor "malevolent," Biden stressed at the time that what he did was “stupid.”

According to The Washington Post, Biden also plagiarized portions of speeches from President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock during his 1988 campaign.

In 2008, he again ran for the Democratic nomination. However, he failed to gain much support and dropped out of the race in early January 2008.