Joe Biden United States incarceration rate controversial 1994 crime law that Joe Biden helped write, explained". Vox. June 20, 2019. "Ten Economic Facts about Crime and Incarceration in the United States | 19:15, 4 May 2020 Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. ( / ˌ r ɒ b ɪ ˈ n ɛ t ˈ b aɪ d ən / ; [1] born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 47th vice president of the United States from 2009 to 2017 and represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009. A member of the Democratic Party , Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 election . He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and in 2008 . Biden was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania , and New Castle County, Delaware . He studied at the University of Delaware before receiving his law degree from Syracuse University . [2] He became a lawyer in 1969 and was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970. He was elected...