While so much of the world knows Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States, many in Delaware have always known the state’s longtime political leader as just Joe.
It’s what makes Biden’s looming departure from the White House feel so momentous − it will mark the first time in over half a century that Biden hasn’t been in politics.
Take a journey through Biden’s time in office, how he got here and what you can expect as Delaware’s president gets ready to return to the place he calls home.
Joe Biden is ending more than five decades of political service with history-making bookends – he was the youngest ever elected to the U.S. Senate in modern times and is now the oldest to leave the country’s highest office.
It’s been a career fueled by ambition, resiliency, and idealism and highlighted by tragedy, disappointments and triumph. And while he is not leaving the office of the presidency the way he envisioned, Delaware − Biden’s home for more than 70 years − has always been his touchstone.
As vice president and president, he brought the world to his home state.
READ THE FULL STORY:From everyman to family man: The essence of Delaware’s Joe Biden, our 46th US president
Take a closer look at the moments and decisions that defined Biden’s career and political tenure.
Where in the world could Biden’s presidential library end up?
For many, the short answer (and hope) is Delaware − even the president says so.
Ideas continue to range. Existing structures meet sprawling institutions, from Wilmington’s Daniel L. Herrmann Courthouse, to Winterthur, Hagley or even the Gibraltar mansion. And down in Dover, one couldn’t forget the state’s only HBCU: Delaware State University.
Read the full story here and then hear from Biden himself about where he’s thinking his library may go.
ONGOING CONVERSATION:University of Delaware, Wilmington both welcome possibility of Biden presidential library
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” Joe Biden said.
Joe Biden previously said he would not pardon his son, who was the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.
President Joe Biden, both reflective and defensive as he discussed his legacy, told USA TODAY he believes he could have won his reelection bid − but isn’t sure he would have had the vigor to complete four more years in the Oval Office.
“So far, so good,” he said. “But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”
Read the full exit interview Biden granted USA TODAY and hear about where he stands on about policy, politics and family as he prepares to leave office.
In the weeks before his expected announcement of a presidential run, Joe Biden began taking heat for a stance he’s held since the 1970s against busing children to achieve racially balanced public schools.
A freshman Delaware senator when Wilmington’s school desegregation plan was being fought out in federal court, he vocally opposed busing as an integration method.
This story, which was originally published in April 2019, was updated after Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Democratic primaries. It provides a look at an issue − and Biden’s stance − that again became a lightning rod during his presidential campaign.
The headmaster required it of every student. They were to stand in front of hundreds of their classmates and speak on a topic for several minutes — a lifetime for many.
These assemblies were held every week at Archmere Academy, a school with rigorous academics and strict priests. Decades later, some alumni say they still have nightmares about those speeches.
During the 1957-1958 school year, the headmaster allowed only one boy to not make the speech.
His name was Joe Biden, and he had a terrible stutter.
READ THE FULL STORY:How Joe Biden went from ‘Stutterhead’ to senior class president
