Born Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States. After a long and difficult journey, Joe Biden ultimately won the presidency. The historic day in which the President-elect and Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris, will be inaugurated is January 20, 2021. Biden and Harris have made it clear that they will hit the ground running, most importantly by tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, which currently continues to surge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. But what exactly do we know about Joe Biden?

     Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on November 20, 1942, Biden was welcomed into a working-class family and was instilled by his parents to work hard, to carry the strength to persevere, and to have the ability to rise up out of the tough situations life will throw at you. Throughout his childhood, Biden was continuously mocked by others for his stutter, but with the principles instilled into him, Biden overcame his speech impediment by memorizing and reciting long passages of poetry. Today, Biden isn’t ashamed of his stutter and, in fact, shares to Americans how he overcame it, including Brayden Harrington, 13, who appeared at the 2020 Democratic Convention sharing how Biden helped him work on his stutter and make sure he knew he wasn’t alone in dealing with it. 

     Biden and his family moved to Delaware where he continued school and moved on to graduate law school. After graduation, Biden moved to Wilmington, Delaware, and worked as an attorney and became active in local Delaware politics, eventually winning a Senate seat in 1972, becoming the 5th youngest U.S. senator ever elected. Also after graduation, Joe Biden met and fell in love at first sight with Neilia Hunter, a woman whom he married in 1966 and had three children with: Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III, Robert Hunter Biden, and Naomi Christina Biden. Unfortunately, shortly after being elected into the Senate, Neilia Hunter and all three children were involved in a deadly car accident a week before Christmas. The car accident ended in both Neilia and Naomi passing away and Beau and Hunter being severely injured. At hearing this horrific news, Joe Biden felt as if his life had been crushed. Biden admitted to feeling depressed and as if “God had played a horrible trick on” him. With the help of his family, Biden realized that he had to be strong for his sons and for the people of Delaware, the people in which he promised to represent in the Senate. He took the oath of office from the hospital room of his sons and, in order to be present in their lives, took the train from Wilmington to Washington D.C. and back everyday he worked, a ride that in total came out to nearly four hours a day of traveling. After years of focusing solely on his children and serving the people of Delaware, Joe Biden met Jill Tracy Jacobs, who after being proposed to five times, finally accepted marrying Joe Biden and became the stepmother to Beau and Hunter Biden. Joe and Jill also had a child of their own, Ashley Biden who was born in 1981. 

     While being a senator for 36 years, Joe Biden also conducted several endeavors to become elected president. In 1988, after his first attempt at the presidency which resulted in being unsuccessful, Biden was diagnosed with two malevolent brain aneurysms and went under surgery which led to complications, including blood clots in his lungs and resulting in another surgery. After seven months of recovery, Biden returned to the Senate. Aside from serving as a senator, Biden also served on the Foreign Relations and Senate Judiciary Committees. After his second failed attempt at the presidency in the 2008 election, Biden was chosen as Vice President under the Obama administration. After winning in 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama and Joe Biden publicly shared their “bromance,” which included several outings for ice cream (Joe Biden’s favorite), and was essential and comforting for Biden when he was faced with another loss. In May of 2015, Beau Biden passed away after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Again, Biden was faced with the loss of losing yet another child. But yet again, Biden had made a promise to serve the American people and acted in a resilient manner and kept on serving his country even while he and his family endured a loss no one can comprehend. 

     With the 2016 presidential election gaining enthusiasm and coming underway, Biden denied rumors of him running in the election— the election which resulted in President Donald J. Trump winning against Hillary Clinton. With his presidency coming to a close, President Barack Obama awarded Joe Biden with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on January 12, 2017. Then, on April 25, 2019, Former Vice President Biden officially announced his run for President after seeing President Trump’s controversial response to the racial terror that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. After being harshly criticized and questioned during the Democratic primaries, Biden ultimately defeated his Democratic opponents and chose as his running mate–one of his fiercest critics and former Democratic presidential candidate, California Senator Kamala Harris, a daughter of immigrants: her mother immigrating from India and her father from Jamaica, both coming to the U.S. to pursue their education. 

     After abnormal and striking debates and an unforgettable election, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected into the White House by the American people. Biden and Harris have let Americans know what their goals are to accomplish while in the White House: beat COVID-19, create millions of good-paying jobs, build on the Affordable Care Act, tackle climate change, eliminate racial tensions and injustice, and so many other objectives. The election of Biden and Harris is also historic due to Joe Biden being the second Catholic and oldest elected President and Kamala Harris being the first woman, Black, and South-Asian Vice President. These two future leaders of the United States also have received the most votes any set of candidates have ever received. But just because these two have received an enormous number of votes and more than the necessary 270 electoral votes doesn’t mean their job will be any easier. In a country of polarized politics, policies, and people, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will have to work hard and across the aisle— something Biden is known to be capable of accomplishing— in order to unite the nation during a crisis that they will inherit. 

    Ultimately, after decades of loss, triumphs, and experience, President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20th as the 46th President of the United States of America, accomplishing his lifelong goal of leading the country into unity, perseverance, and resilience.