Esteban Parra | The News Journal

Daniel Sato, The News Journal

Ashley Biden is leaving the Delaware Center for Justice at the end of this month, increasing speculation her father, former Vice President Joe Biden, is getting closer to entering the 2020 presidential campaign.

Joe Biden has been coy on whether he will run for president, but has said he and his family are in the final stages of deciding whether to mount a presidential run.

The former Delaware senator keeps an exceptionally tight inner circle of confidants, often with his younger sister, Valerie Biden Owens, taking the lead.

Suchat Pederson, The News Journal

Last month, Biden revealed in detail how his family has expressed their backing of a potential presidential run, but he must decide "whether or not I am comfortable taking the family through a very, very, very difficult campaign."

"The general election, running against President Trump. I don't think he's likely to stop at anything," Biden said to a capacity crowd of 700 at the University of Delaware in February.

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Adding to the hype was the Monday announcement that Cristobal Alex, head of the liberal Latino Victory Project, was stepping down and hinting about plans to join a presidential campaign, according to CBS. In that role, Alex helped recruit and raise money for Latino Democratic candidates.

Alex declined to comment, but CBS is reporting that his friends and associates have said Alex is joining Joe Biden's team in a senior role. In 2016, Alex oversaw a portfolio for Hillary Clinton's campaign that focused on targeting women, black, Latino and young voters; labor unions; and potential supporters in swing states. He's expected to take on a more senior role for Biden.

Dayna Smith/ImageSmith Media

Alex's joining a possible Biden campaign would help reflect a diversity of the Democratic Party, a move designed to blunt potential criticism that an older white man doesn't reflect or understand the evolving nature of his party, CBS said.

Ashley Biden's departure as executive director of the Delaware Center for Justice was announced Friday morning. She could not be reached for comment Friday, but she left a statement on the advocacy group's Facebook account.

"Working with DCJ has been one of the great honors of my life," she said. "Together we have changed the landscape of justice reform, violence intervention, and victim services for the State of Delaware. I leave DCJ in capable hands, with a passionate and committed staff, a talented board and the infrastructure to continue to support DCJ's vision. I am confident that the organization will continue to thrive and provide essential services to our community."

The Facebook post did not say what she will be doing next.

The Delaware Center for Justice's director of operations, Kirstin Cornnell, said Ashley Biden told those at the center that she was leaving to focus on her business Livelihood, a charitable clothing line.

Cornnell will serve as interim executive director once Ashley Biden leaves on March 29.

Ashley Biden joined the nonprofit in 2012 as associate executive director. During that time, she supervised direct-service programming and provided oversight to the agency's victim-offender mediation programming, services for victims of crime and interventions for at-risk youth and adults as they left the prison system.

She became the agency's executive director in 2014.