2020 DNC: Joe Biden Accepts Party’s Nomination For President

MILWAUKEE, WI — Joe Biden, who first ran for president more than 30 years ago and in 2008 successfully ran for vice president as Barack Obama’s running mate, accepted the 2020 Democratic nomination for president Thursday, the final night of the all-virtual Democratic National Convention.

"It is with great honor and humility that I accept this nomination for President of the United States of America," Biden said Thursday night.

Biden cast himself as the unity candidate, vowing to work for every American — not just those who supported him or those in his base or party — while emphasizing that the election would decide what the country will look like for a very long time. He implored Americans to choose the path of hope and light over shadow and suspicion.

Character, compassion, decency, science and democracy are all on the ballot in November, Biden said, calling it a life-changing election.

"I'm a proud Democrat, and I'll be proud to carry the banner of our party into this election," he said. "While I'll be a Democratic candidate, I'll be an American president. That's the job of a president, to represent all of us."

Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, who made history by becoming the first African-American and the first Asian-American woman to be chosen for the vice presidential nomination, accepted on Wednesday. Harris, a 55-year-old California senator, issued an urgent plea for voters of all colors to rally behind Biden and find a way to vote despite concerns about the pandemic and postal slowdowns.

The final night of the convention capped four days of speeches by the party’s top brass as they spoke to audiences from remote locations across the country, driving home the importance of voting to defeat President Donald Trump in November.

"In this dark moment, I believe we can make great progress once again, that we can find the light once more," Biden said, referring to one of his earliest lines in Thursday night's speech in which he quoted civil rights leader Ella Baker, who said, "Give people light, and they will find a way."

"Those are words for our time," he said.

Biden hit Trump hard on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic during his acceptance speech, saying that even after the virus had killed over 170,000 Americans and sickened more than five million, Trump still doesn't have a plan.

"We will never have our lives back until we deal with this virus. The tragedy we have today is it didn't have to be this bad," Biden said. Biden called for the development and deployment of rapid COVID-19 tests, a massive increase in U.S. production of personal protective equipment, and a mask mandate for the entire country.

"We'll take the muzzle off our experts so the public gets the information they deserve, honest unvarnished truth," Biden said.

He later added: "In short, we'll do what we should have done from the very beginning. I'll protect America, defend us from every attack seen and unseen — always without exception every time."

Biden, 77, entered the race as a favorite but stumbled out of the gate and at one time his candidacy was in doubt. Progressives within the Democratic Party keen on driving the momentum threw their weight behind their favored candidate: Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The Iowa caucus, the first nominating contest in the race, saw Biden take home just six pledged delegates while South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg captured 13 delegates and Sanders won 12. The Associated Press did not declare a winner in the race because of confusion over the voting. Biden also performed poorly in New Hampshire and Nevada.

South Carolina changed everything.

A boost from the last-minute endorsement of the influential South Carolina congressman Rep. Jim Clybrun helped solidify the support of the Black vote for Biden and he finished a strong first.

The party coalesced around Biden, who went on to win 10 out of 14 states on March 3, Super Tuesday, and the race was essentially over.

Sanders ultimately ended his presidential campaign in April. The race has changed by then with the coronavirus rapidly spreading across the country, shutting down entire cities and states, decimating local economies and taking the attention of Americans away from the 2020 presidential election.

Sanders said he would support Biden but would remain on the ballot in states that still had primary contests to collect delegates in order to be able to influence the party’s platform.

On the third night of the Democrats' four-day convention, the party focused on its commitment to progressive values on issues like gun violence and climate change, while highlighting speakers most likely to connect with women and all people of color, voters whose energy this fall could ultimately decide the outcome.

Democrats targeted Trump's policies and personality throughout, casting him as cruel in his treatment of immigrants, disinterested in the nation's climate crisis and over his head in virtually all of the nation's most pressing challenges.

Biden has long portrayed himself, successfully, as a politician fighting for working people.

"Together we can and will rebuild our economy. We'll not only build back, we'll build back better," Biden said Thursday night.

Biden said his call to action came after the events in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 when neo-Nazis marched in the streets and clashed with counter protesters. 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed by a man who rammed his car into a group protesting against white supremacy.

He referenced Trump's words after the events when he said there were "very fine people on both sides."

"It was a wake-up call for us as a country," Biden said. "And for me, a call to action. At that moment, I knew I’d have to run. My father taught us that silence was complicity. And I could not remain silent or complicit.

"At the time, I said we are in a battle for the soul of this nation," he said.

"And we are."

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania before his family moved to Delaware when he was 10. He first entered politics by serving on the New Castle City Council and was just 29 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, representing Delaware and he served from 1973 to 2009.

His first wife, Neilia, and his daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash after Biden’s election to the Senate. His two sons, Beau and Hunter, were also injured. Beau would later die of brain cancer.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this report.