February 27, 2019
Speculation about whether former Vice President Joe Biden will run for president again has lingered for years, and though the former senator from Delaware still has yet to announce, he said in a recent interview that his family is urging him to campaign.
In an interview with historian Jon Meacham at the University of Delaware on Tuesday, Biden said "there is a consensus that they want me to run," referring to his wife Jill, son Hunter, daughter Ashley, and grandchildren, NPR reported. The death of his eldest son, Beau, in 2015 is one reason commonly cited for why Biden did not start a 2016 campaign to succeed President Barack Obama.
"We do everything by family meetings, because no man or woman has a right to run for public office without it being a family decision."
Biden, 76, would join a large field of Democratic candidates who have already announced their campaigns, including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and several others.
Biden saud that, whoever runs and secures the nomination, the journey to face President Donald Trump in 2020 will be nonetheless difficult.
"The primary will be very difficult. And the general election, running against President Trump, I don't think that he's likely to stop at anything, whomever he runs against," Biden said.
If Biden does choose to run, he told Meacham, he wants to avoid campaign funding using a super PAC and "fund this campaign on my own conditions." Other candidates, including Booker, have made similar statements about campaign funding.
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