Vice President Joe Biden ended months of speculation Wednesday, announcing he will not run for President in 2016.
Biden's announcement came in the White House Rose Garden with President Obama and Biden's wife Jill flanking the vice president.
He had been weighing whether or not to jump in the race in the wake of the death of his son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden last May.
"As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I've said all along what I've said time and again to others, that it may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president," said Biden. "I've concluded it has closed.”
He and his family have been grieving over the death of his son and former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden from brain cancer in May.
Often, the vice president became emotional when talking about his son in public – including during a surprise appearance at the Sussex County Democratic Party Jamboree in August – saying he wasn’t certain he had the “emotional fuel” to run.
Citing the deaths of his wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car crash that also injured Beau and his other son Hunter, Biden says there’s no strict timetable in recovering from personal tragedies. “…the process doesn’t respect or much care about things like filing deadlines or deadlines and primaries and caucuses.”
But he notes that he and his family have now turned a corner and that he could have devoted his energy to the race.
“Unfortunately, I believe we’re out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination,” Biden said.
The reaction from supporters has been bittersweet.
"To me, it should've been Joe," said Richard "Mouse" Smith, president of the NAACP Delaware Chapter. "Right now we're losing history. We feel that he was one of the best vice presidents to be under a situation that was a little different than most vice presidents."
“I think Joe made the right decision as it relates to him and his family. I think the better decision would’ve been made, if he had run, it would’ve been better for the nation," said Sam Lathem, president of the Delaware State AFL-CIO union and longtime Biden family friend.
Lathem says he thinks the First State’s elder statesman would’ve been able to unify a bitterly divided Congress if he had been elected to the nation’s highest office.
Congressman John Carney (D), a former Biden staffer and 2016 gubernatorial candidate, says he agrees.
“I think it would’ve been better for the process in terms of the focus that Joe would’ve brought to a particular series of issues that center around strengthening the middle class and opportunity for all Americans and talking about it in a way that people at their kitchen table can understand," Carney said.
Should he have run, he faced what would be a grueling sprint to catch up in a marathon, chasing after front runners like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who have been campaigning officially for months, raising more than $50 million combined in the most recent quarter and who both have established campaign campaign organizations in place in early voting states.
“But while I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent,” said Biden, noting he will advocate with the Obama administration on bolstering the middle class as a “matter of social stability” for America.
A large part of his lame duck session will also focus on calling for further funding of medical and scientific research to fully end cancer.
“I’m going to spend the next 15 months in this office pushing as hard as I can do accomplish this,” said Biden, invoking Beau’s years-long struggle with brain cancer.
“If I could be anything, I would’ve wanted to be the president that ended cancer because it’s possible.”
It's a move that doesn't surprise those close to him, including Lathem.
"He probably doesn't want to see another human being, another person go through what Beau went through as it relates to cancer, so there's no doubt in my mind he's going to do all he can to find a cure for all the different cancers there are and eradicate it as soon as possible," he said.
Sen. Chris Coons (D) says he understands the vice president's decision, but agrees with Lathem and Carney that Biden would've been a strong candidate with decades of domestic and foreign policy experience.
"I think he would've brought a lot. Not just a Delaware sense of how to get things done, but a real rooting in the values that make Delaware great," Coons said.
Gov. Jack Markell (D) noted Biden's gregariousness in and out of the state – something Markell says serves him well in life and on the campaign trail. "He connects to people on a personal level, has dedicated his life to supporting the middle class, and has provided tremendous leadership in promoting U.S. interests around the world - all of which would have made him a formidable candidate."
Having grown up with Biden, Smith says sitting in the Oval Office has been his goal as long as he's known him. "I'm very sad that he didn't fulfill his dream the same way that Beau wanted him to fulfill his dream," he said.
Biden had mounted two unsuccessful campaigns for president in 1988 and 2008, but maintained his long-held senate seat in Delaware since he was first elected in 1972.
