Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden formally announced his candidacy Thursday for 2020 — instantly making him a front runner to win the Democratic presidential nomination and take on Donald Trump.
Biden, who at 76 will the second oldest candidate running (after Bernie Sanders at 77), brings with him decades of experience from the U.S. Senate, where he served as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and from his eight years as Barack Obama’s veep.
And while he is reportedly counting on reactivating Obama’s winning coalition, he will undoubtedly suffer some of the same setbacks that Obama’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, did in 2016 when running for president on Obama’s record.
On foreign policy, Biden 2020 is all but certain to be a rehash of Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign. While his favorability numbers with voters are much higher, he will be attacked in the Democratic primaries from the Sen. Bernie Sanders- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard left and in the general election by Trump’s more isolationist right.