Political Trivia

The son of a Scranton, Pa., automobile dealer, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., was the underdog when, as a 29-year-old county councilman, he challenged Republican Sen. J. Caleb Boggs in a campaign run by his sister Valerie Biden Owens.Running on a dovish Vietnam platform and accusing the incumbent of being a do-nothing, he won by 3,162 votes. Five weeks later, Biden’s wife, Neilia, and their infant daughter, Amy, were killed and their two sons were seriously injured in an automobile accident. Biden at first said he would not take the job he had just won. Persuaded by Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, Biden was sworn in at the bedside of one of his sons. (Source: CQ Politics in America 2006)