Beau Biden

Beau Biden (born February 3, 1969, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.—died May 30, 2015, Bethesda, Maryland) was an American lawyer and state attorney general of Delaware (2007–15) and the eldest son of Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States (2021–25). Beau Biden was an accomplished and popular politician in Delaware, where he was preparing to run for the nomination as the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor before his death at age 46 after a long battle with brain cancer. Biden served in the Delaware National Guard and was deployed in Iraq in October 2008, during the second phase of the Iraq War (2003–11). As Delaware’s attorney general, Biden pursued stronger protections against and punishments for the exploitation and abuse of children and helped to secure major financial assistance for Delaware homeowners from banks responsible for the financial crisis of 2007–08 (also called the subprime mortgage crisis). Biden was remembered by many as a rising star in the state’s Democratic Party, with his father saying in the lead-up to the 2020 election, “Beau should be the one running for president, not me.”

Biden was born to Joseph and Neilia Biden. His life was marked by tragedy from an early age. In December 1972, when he was three years old—and just a month after his father’s first election to the U.S. Senate—Biden, along with his younger brother, Hunter Biden, survived a car crash that took the lives of their mother and infant sister. Both boys were severely injured, and their father took his first oath of office in the hospital where his sons were being treated. One of Biden’s first moments in the national spotlight came in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention, where he brought many to tears by recounting the story in a speech introducing his father, who became Barack Obama’s running mate in the U.S. presidential election of 2008.

In 1987 Biden graduated from Archmere Academy, a private Roman Catholic school in Claymont, Delaware. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Pennsylvania (1991) and a Juris Doctor degree from the Syracuse University College of Law (1994). From 1995 to 2004 Biden worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in Philadelphia, first as a counsel in the Office of Policy Development (1995–97) and then as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Following the 1998–99 Kosovo conflict between ethnic Albanians and Serbians, Biden worked with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to train judges and prosecutors in Kosovo as the country strove to build independent democratic institutions upon its secession from Yugoslavia. Biden joined the Delaware National Guard as a first lieutenant in 2003. In 2006 Biden was elected attorney general of Delaware, an office he held until his death. Biden attained the rank of captain before his year-long deployment to Iraq in 2008, during which he delegated many of his responsibilities as attorney general. Biden was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq, and in 2011 he was promoted to the rank of major.

As Delaware’s attorney general, Biden aggressively prosecuted perpetrators of child abuse, heading several high-profile cases and insisting on harsher punishments for sexual predators and distributors of child sexual abuse material. Biden doggedly pursued charges against Earl Bradley, a pediatrician and serial abuser, and established Delaware’s Child Predator Task Force. Biden also established the Mortgage Fraud Task Force in the wake of the 2007–08 mortgage crisis, helping homeowners protect their properties against foreclosure. Biden secured large settlements from major financial institutions—including Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.—for misleading homeowners. Under Biden’s tenure, Delaware was regarded as one of the states most effectively pursuing rectification for the mortgage crisis, with impact across the United States.

In 2010 Biden was hospitalized following a mild stroke, and in 2013 doctors removed a lesion from his brain, which they identified as glioblastoma, a rare form of aggressive brain tumor. The following year Biden announced that he would not run for reelection as attorney general so that he could run for governor of Delaware in 2016. In the spring of 2015, however, Biden’s brain cancer returned, leading to his death on May 30. He was survived by his wife, Hallie Biden; his children, Natalie and Hunter Biden; his father and stepmother, Joe and Jill Biden; and his brother and sister, Hunter and Ashley Biden.

Biden is remembered through the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children, which continues his work as attorney general, and he was posthumously awarded additional military honors, including the Delaware Conspicuous Service Cross and the Legion of Merit. Biden’s memory is frequently invoked by his father, who refers to Beau Biden as one of his greatest supporters and motivating agents, both in life and in death.