Joe Biden's presidential decision hinges on family

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden has a top concern as he considers whether to run for president: family.

The two-time presidential candidate believes he would offer something unique to the country as president, said supporter Dick Harpootlian, a former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman. But he said Biden is weighing the needs of his family following the May 30 death of his 46-year-old son Beau, Delaware's former attorney general.

"He is thinking about [a presidential run]," said Harpootlian, who spoke with Biden on May 19 and had more recent talks with people close to the vice president. "It's all about his personal situation – 'Can I do this and not in any way deny my family what I can give them or do for them?' This is a decision about his family."

Biden's supporters say it would be understandable if he decides to sit out the 2016 presidential campaign. Beau Biden's death from brain cancer was yet another tragic loss for the 72-year-old vice president. His first wife Neilia and 13-month-old daughter Naomi were killed in a December 1972 car accident that also injured Beau Biden and his brother, Hunter.

But the vice president has a history of working through overwhelming grief.

"No one would blame him if he said, 'You know, look, it's just too much,'" Harpootlian said. But he added, "He's a tough guy and he fights his way through tough times."

Biden served 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware after senators persuaded him in January 1973 to take his first oath of office -- which he did next to his son's hospital bed.

Biden has spent time in Delaware in recent weeks, but four days after his son's funeral he returned to the White House for lunch with President Barack Obama and an afternoon meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to discuss that country's reform agenda.

"One thing about the vice president that we all know: He's very resilient," said William Pierce, executive director of the Draft Biden 2016 super PAC.

Biden is expected to announce in August whether he will run for president. Draft Biden, launched by former staffers and campaign veterans, is hiring staff in Iowa and New Hampshire and raising funds for independent expenditures in support of a possible Biden candidacy. The group so far has nearly 100,000 signatures on a petition urging Biden to run and is planning a rally in Wilmington in late July.

"We're taking it to his backyard… just to show him that his community is behind him as well," Pierce said.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a sizable lead in polls that include Biden. In a Monmouth University Poll released June 16, Clinton was supported by 57 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters nationwide, compared to 12 percent for Biden and 12 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent running for the Democratic nomination. Biden would be fighting for Clinton supporters, who are ideologically similar, said Patrick Murray, director of the polling institute.

But he said it would be a mistake to evaluate Biden's potential based on early "horse race" polls. The June 16 survey also showed that 62 percent of Democrats view Biden favorably, compared to 78 percent for Clinton.

"It suggests that there are people out there who would support him," Murray said. "The question is whether there are enough to overcome Hillary's initial advantage."

Biden has said he wouldn't be influenced by Clinton's decision to run.

"The only reason to run for the president of the United States is if you truly believe you're in a better position to do what you think is most needed in the country," Biden said in February on The View.

His supporters say there's still room for another Democratic candidate.

"I don't think Hillary is really the presumptive candidate everybody thinks she is," said Iowa Rep. Bruce Hunter, a Biden supporter who represents south and central Des Moines.

Harpootlian said Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, knows foreign policy and the legislative process, and has personal skills Clinton lacks.

"Joe Biden is a person that can speak to crowds and to people individually and emote and inspire them and bring them to tears or bring them to their feet cheering," Harpootlian said. "That ain't (Clinton's) skill."

Beau Biden clearly wanted his father to run for president, said Harpootlian, who last saw the younger Biden at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Harpootlian said he spoke with Joe Biden in May about presidential campaign logistics, including how much it would cost for a vice president to visit battleground states, and South Carolina's political landscape.

Biden would openly express pride in the Obama administration's accomplishments if he runs for president, Harpootlian said. But he said Biden realizes some Americans have missed out on the economic recovery because of a financial system that favors the wealthy.

"I think he'd spend the next eight years trying to correct that," he said.

Contact Nicole Gaudiano at ngaudiano@gannett.com. Follow @ngaudiano.