From County Council to President, a timeline of Joe Biden's career ahead of DNC tribute
President Joe Biden is set to take his political swan song at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Monday.
The speech will serve as the likely capstone in a national political career that has lasted for over half a century.
The son of Scranton, Pennsylvania by way of Delaware had a career shaped as much by personal tragedy as policy but found himself at the center of consequential moments in American history multiple times.
Biden became a titan of the Senate before standing as the Vice President to the nation's first Black President and then assumed the role during one of the country's darkest moments.
Here is a timeline of President Joe Biden's political career.
Biden's legacy: No longer running, how Biden, a supple political master, met his hard stop
1970: Biden wins first election, county council seat
After practicing law in Delaware, Biden won his first political race in 1970, winning a spot on the New Castle County Council from the Fourth County Council District.
1972: Biden elected to U.S. Senate
Biden would ascend to the Senate seat he would hold for over three decades by defeating two-term Republican incumbent J. Caleb Boggs. Biden, who would reach the minimum age to serve in the Senate between the election and being sworn in, was considered a long shot to win the seat.
December 18, 1972: Biden's first wife and daughter die in car accident
Tragedy struck the young Biden family after Joe's electoral triumph. Nelia and Naomi Biden, Joe's wife and 1-year-old daughter, were killed in a car accident while Christmas shopping in 1972. The accident left sons Beau and Hunter severely injured.
Biden considered resigning from his recently won seat and contemplated suicide after the accident.
"I thought about what it would be like just to go to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and just jump off and end it all," Biden said in a CNN documentary. "But I didn’t ever get in the car and do it or wasn’t ever even close."
1987: Biden runs for president for first time
Biden declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination for the first time on June 9, 1987.
Biden was considered a leading contender at the outset but was hampered by confusing messaging and hamstrung by multiple accusations of plagiarism and exaggerating his personal history.
Biden withdrew his candidacy on September 23, 1987, before reaching any primary or caucus for the 1988 nomination.
1991: Anita Hill hearings and Clarence Thomas confirmations
Biden was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committe for two consequential Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
In 1988, Biden presided over the nomination of Robert Bork for which he earned praise by conducting the hearings in a fair and good-humored manner. Bork's nomination failed in front of the committee by a 5-9 vote and was defeated in the Senate 42–58. Biden voted against Bork both times.
Biden then oversaw the nomination hearing for Clarence Thomas in 1991. Thomas called Biden's questioning during the hearing, "a beanball straight at my head" due to its often-convoluted nature. After the hearings closed, Anita Hill made accusations of sexual impropriety in the workplace against Thomas, causing the hearings to be reopened.
Hill testified in front of the committee on October 11, 1991. Thomas' nomination failed to be recommended in the committee 7-7 after the allegations became public, but before Hill testified, and passed the full Senate 52-48. Biden voted against the nomination in the full Senate.
1994: The Crime Bill
In 1994, Biden helped usher in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, better known as the 1994 Crime Bill. The bill included an assault weapons ban, the Violence Against Women Act and expanded the use of the death penalty for federal crimes.
Biden would call portions of the bill that enforced disproportionate sentences for crimes involving crack cocaine a, "big mistake that was made," and in a 2019 campaign speech said that it "trapped an entire generation" of Black Americans.
2008: A presidential run turns into vice-presidential win
Biden entered the presidential arena for the second time on January 7, 2007. His presidential bid became notable for his quips as he said of Rudy Guliani, "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11," at a primary debate.
Biden's 2008 presidential bid made it to the Iowa Caucuses where he placed fifth. Biden withdrew from the race on January 3, 2008.
Biden was tapped by former rival Barack Obama to be his running mate on August 30, 2008. The pair won the White House and Biden was sworn in as Vice President on January 20, 2009.
May 30, 2015: Beau Biden dies
Joseph Robinette "Beau" Biden III, Biden's oldest child, died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015.
The death likely stopped Biden from making a bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
"I'd be lying if I said that I knew I was there," Biden said in a 2015 appearance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. "Nobody has a right, in my view, to seek that office unless they're willing to give it 110% of who they are."
2020: A presidential run, a pandemic and an insurrected transition
Biden entered his name for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election on April 25, 2019.
Biden fell behind to Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders early in the primaries but became the favorite after winning the South Carolina primary and endorsements from a number of candidates as they dropped out of the race after Super Tuesday.
The primary and general elections were turned on their head with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing Biden to primarily campaign via Zoom.
Biden defeated Trump by an Electoral College vote count of 306-232. Trump launched a slew of lawsuits in an attempt to reverse the results as well as a pressure campaign on Republican state officials. Trump and Republican operatives attempted a scheme to replace duly elected slates of electors.
On January 6, 2021, supporters of the defeated president stormed the capitol in an attempt to stop the counting of electoral votes and overthrow the elected government. The attempt failed and Biden was declared the winner of the Electoral College in the early morning hours of January 7.
2021: Biden enters White House
Biden was sworn into office on January 20, 2021.
As President, he oversaw the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, re-joined the Paris Climate accords and ushered in infrastructure and climate legislation.
Biden coordinated the U.S.'s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan that resulted in 13 U.S. servicemembers and at least 170 Afghan civilians dead. In 2022 Biden rallied NATO in defense of Ukraine as Russia launched an attack on the country.
The landmark moment of his presidency was launched from the Supreme Court as when it overturned Roe v. Wade. Abortion rights became a central issue in the 2022 election cycle as Democrats led by Biden used the issue to blunt a predicted "red wave."
2024: A president steps away from a second term
Biden began his campaign for a second term on April 25, 2023.
The campaign was dogged by questions about Biden's mental and physical capabilities, though he is only three years older than his opponent Donald Trump. The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal published a combined 76 articles on Biden's age while publishing a combined seven articles on Donald Trump's age from January 15 through June 17, a study conducted by Media Matters for America found.
Concern about Biden's fitness was amplified after the first presidential debate on June 27 where he appeared to have low energy and made multiple gaffes. Speculation about the President stepping away from the presumptive Democratic nomination swirled in the aftermath of the debate and the announcement that he had contracted COVID on July 17.
Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on July 21.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Timeline: Joe Biden's career from Senate titan to DNC swan song
