Who is Biden? Youngest Political Entrant... Approaching Oldest President

6-Term Senator... Life as a Minority Supporting People of Color
Advocating Centrist Pragmatism

▲Joe Biden [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] "Joe Biden, who entered the Senate at the age of 30 and has prayed for this position for half a century. Welcome. May your dream come true." - The New York Times (NYT)

Right after this presidential election, the NYT introduced the life story of Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, with this phrase. It reflects Biden's aspiration for the presidency.

Biden, who entered politics as the youngest and is now on the verge of becoming the oldest president, has been active as a mainstream figure in Washington, serving six terms as a senator. However, he is regarded as a politician who has represented the lives of non-mainstream groups such as the working class. He gained public sympathy through his painful family history and built his political base with the support of people of color.

▲Joe Biden (second from right) in his childhood. His mother, Catherine Biden (second from left), and his siblings. He was born as the eldest son among four siblings.

Born in 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as the eldest son among three sons and one daughter to Joseph Biden Sr. and Catherine Biden. His great-grandfather served as a Pennsylvania state senator, and the family was affluent, but by the time Biden was born, their fortunes had declined. His father worked in fireplace cleaning and used car brokerage. When the recession hit in the 1950s, the family moved to Delaware. It was from this background that he began to consider Pennsylvania and Delaware as his political hometowns and blue-collar workers as part of his identity.

He majored in history and political science at the University of Delaware and studied law at Syracuse University College of Law. Afterwards, he worked as a lawyer. While attending law school, he married his first love, Neilia Hunter, and they had two sons and one daughter.

▲Biden ran for the Democratic Party's federal Senate election at the age of 30 and was elected as the youngest senator. This became the first opportunity for him to gain nationwide recognition in the United States.

At age 30 in 1972, he ran for the U.S. Senate from Delaware and defeated a prominent Republican incumbent, winning the election. This made him the youngest senator and brought the name Joe Biden to national attention. However, six weeks after the election, he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. A famous story recounts him taking the Senate oath while crying in the hospital room where his eldest son Beau and younger son Hunter were hospitalized. Since then, Biden does not work on December 18 every year to honor the memory of his first wife and daughter who died in the accident.

His painful family story does not end there. His eldest son, Beau Biden, who resembled him closely, died of a brain tumor in 2015 at the age of 45. Beau Biden, who served as Delaware's Attorney General, was a child Biden cherished deeply and considered his political successor. Biden has stated that Beau's death gave him the strength to challenge the presidential election again. Currently, Hunter Biden is the only surviving child from his first marriage.

Though tragic, his family history helped solidify his political standing. When Beau was battling a brain tumor, Biden was serving as Vice President, yet the poor state of the U.S. healthcare system caused financial difficulties for the family. This experience led Biden to promise policy support to Americans grieving from COVID-19, saying, "I understand better than anyone the pain of losing loved ones or facing medical bills due to COVID." Because of this, Biden is often described as a "compassionate family man."

His 36-year career as a U.S. Senator from Delaware is characterized by centrist pragmatism. He has worked across party lines, collaborating with like-minded Republican lawmakers, following a pragmatic approach. He is also known for acting based on practical considerations rather than ideology; for example, he opposed the Gulf War in the 1990s but supported President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.