At least one Biden has announced he’ll run for higher office in 2016 … just not the one you think.
Vice President Joe Biden’s son Beau Biden announced Thursday that he will not seek a third term as attorney general of Delaware. Instead, he plans to run for governor.
“Over the past few months, as I’ve been planning to run for reelection, I have also been giving a great deal of thought to running for governor in 2016. What started as a thought – a very persistent thought – has now become a course of action that I wish to pursue,” Biden said in an email to supporters.
He added, “After careful consideration, I have concluded that it is not right to ask for your support in 2014, knowing that my focus would be divided between doing my job as attorney general while at the same time running as a candidate for governor.”
Delaware voters first elected Biden, a former federal prosecutor, to the state attorney general’s office in 2006. In his statement, Biden vowed to remain focused on his current position before switching gears to a gubernatorial campaign.
“The Office of Attorney General is a four-year commitment. Its responsibilities are too significant, and the voters’ trust too important not to give it my complete and undivided attention,” he said. “It should not be, nor can it become, a two-year staging ground for another elected office.”
Term limits prevent current Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat, from seeking more time in office.
Campaign spokeswoman Molly Magarik confirmed via the Associated Press that Biden had been planning to run for attorney general but also had the governor position in mind. She said Biden came to the decision to run for governor after conversations with his family.
The 45-year-old has faced some health scares in recent years, but a neuro-oncologist in Texas issued Biden a “clean bill of health” in November.
In August, Biden underwent a procedure to remove a small lesion from his brain at a Texas hospital after feeling disoriented while vacationing with his family. He also had to take some time away from office in 2010 after suffering from a mild stroke.
Biden’s mother, his father’s first wife Neilia Hunter, was killed in a car accident in the 1970s.
Vice President Biden, previously a long-time senator of Delaware, has yet to announce whether he’ll make another run for the White House in 2016.
Sarah Muller