Joe Biden Is Running for President, After Months of Hesitation – The New York Times

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Mr. Biden deliberated for months over whether to embark on another run for the presidency, his third over four decades. His two previous campaigns fizzled: in 1988, after allegations of rhetorical plagiarism, and in 2008, when he found himself unable to compete with the star power of Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton.

He agonized over whether to oppose Mrs. Clinton for their party’s nomination in 2016, but ultimately decided against running after the death of his son, Beau, from cancer.

This time, Mr. Biden has described himself to associates as the candidate best equipped to defeat Mr. Trump, mainly by reclaiming historically Democratic areas of the Midwest, where many lower-income white voters have abandoned his party in a broad cultural and racial realignment. He is said to view the election as the equivalent of a national emergency, with no task more urgent than denying Mr. Trump a second term.

The Democratic base may or may not share Mr. Biden’s assessment of his own strength. Some Democrats’ reservations about Mr. Biden hardened in recent weeks as he offered a halting response to women who came forward to say they had been uncomfortable with his physical mannerisms in interactions stretching back decades.

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A white male centrist in his 70s, Mr. Biden also resembles few of the Democrats who electrified the party during last year’s midterm elections. And because he delayed so long in joining the race, Mr. Biden now finds himself up against an array of competitors who have already found their footing in different ways.

The field includes muscular fund-raisers like Mr. Sanders, Senator Kamala Harris of California and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas; intriguing underdogs, like Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., who have excited voters with their novelty; and policy-minded liberals like Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, who have helped frame the race as a contest of ideas.