Joe Biden's long political career to become 47th US president
- Joe Biden's attempt at becoming the US president finally became a reality after three attempts
- Dismissed as ‘Sleepy Joe’ by his main challenger, Donald Trump, the 77-year-old politician first ran for president in 1988
- Four years older than Trump, Biden will be the oldest president ever elected for the first time in the US
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The tense US election saw Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden winning the hearts of Americans as he clinched the number one position, trouncing President Donald Trump.
The Americans who cast their votes for the 77-year politician did so for varying reasons and the president-elect is very grateful for the opportunity to serve. After he was declared president-elect, he sent a thank you message to all those who picked him over Trump.
In a victory speech in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, November 7, Biden who will be the 46th president, said he was humbled by the trust America had placed in him.
Biden's boyhood state of Pennsylvania put him over the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win the presidential seat.
Source: Instagram
The president-elect had made a final trip to his childhood home in the city on election day. On one of the living room walls in the house where he grew up, he wrote: "From this House to the White House with the Grace of God," signing his name and the date,"11.3.2020."
However, the official results will only be released on December 14.
Trump, on the other hand, has shown no indication that he intends to concede defeat.
Biden's career over the years
It has not been an easy ride for the 77-year-old politician who buried his first wife and his first daughter, and his adult son Beau, who died in 2015. He later got married to another woman, Jill, in 1977.
His political career began as a New Castle County councilman in his home state of Delaware in 1970. In 1972, he became the fifth-youngest senator in US history and served as a Delaware senator for 36 years.
The politician who has been in politics longer than any presidential nominee ever, has tried to become president for three decades and that dream is now finally a reality.
He first declared his intention to be president in 1987. Doctors discovered he had two life-threatening brain aneurysms shortly after he dropped out in 1988. He tried again in 2008 but was not able to gain enough support and dropped out. Ex-president Barack Obama later offered him the position of vice president. He served two terms as vice president to Obama between 2008 and 2016.
Source: UGC
Biden opted against challenging Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic contest so soon after the death of his son Beau.
While in the Senate, Biden was the primary sponsor of at least 42 bills that were enacted into law.
In 1996, Biden was one of 32 Senate Democrats to vote for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. However in 2012, as vice president, he stepped out in favour of same-s*x marriage.
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