Joseph Robinette Biden – whose public life has been contoured by its many life-changing and at times painful moments – will face Tuesday what is likely the final vote is his decades-long political career – the 2020 presidential election.   

The 77-year-old Biden arrives on Election Day as the frontrunner of essentially the entire General Election cycle, after effectively winning the Democratic Party nomination in the pivotal South Carolina primary. 

Biden won his first political race in 1970, a seat on the New Castle County Council, in his home state of Delaware. He was just out of Syracuse Law School and working for a firm near Wilmington. 

A few years later, at 29, he became the fifth-youngest person elected to the U.S. Senate and 36 years later took office as Barack Obama's vice president. 

Just weeks after Biden's election to the Senate, his first wife, Neilia, and baby daughter, Naomi, were killed after a tractor-trailer hit the family's station wagon. Biden was not in the car, but his two young sons, Hunter and Beau, were both injured in the crash.

Biden was sworn into his first Senate term from his son Beau's hospital room. His daily train rides from Wilmington to Capitol Hill and back to be a parent to his young family have become political lore and the foundation of his perennial determination and appeal as a champion of the working class.

Now, Biden's 2020 platform includes promises for a middle-class tax cut, more affordable health care for all Americans, and a protected environment, which he will achieve by moving forward with the development and utilization of renewable energies.

The 2020 presidential campaign, in the view of many, is the most unusual in a generation – with the coronavirus largely sidelining the confetti-filled party conventions, packed rallies and grassroots campaigning that have become such a major part of contests for the White House. 

Biden has spent the majority of this campaign at his headquarters Wilmington, just minutes away from his main residence in Greenville, Delaware. His rallies and fundraisers have largely been virtual, with the typical candidate barnstorming coming only in the final weeks of the race, and occurring in a very limited capacity.

His prolonged stay in Delaware and the gaffes that have peppered his career, but have occurred more frequently than ever this cycle, raised questions about whether Biden was up for the task. But, steady performances throughout his two debates against President Trump largely silenced such speculation.

Biden's first bid for president was in 1987. The effort ended abruptly after after it was discovered that he used parts of a speech originally delivered by then-British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.

His second attempt, in 2008, ended after the first state ballot, the Iowa Caucus, in which he finished fifth.

In 2020, Biden lost again in Iowa, then in New Hampshire, before winning South Carolina with the support of Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn and the African American vote, which for decades has largely backed Democratic candidates.

The win was Biden's first ever victory in a presidential nominating competition.

If elected, Biden would be the oldest president inaugurated – a distinction now held by 2020 rival President Trump. 

In 2016, Biden's presidential aspirations were dimmed by the untimely death of his son Beau; in addition to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the party's nomination to Barack Obama in 2008, and effectively cleared the field in 2016 to claim her spot in line.

Obama purportedly counseled Biden not to run in 2016, suggesting that Clinton's image and policies were a closer match to what the party was looking to elect at that moment. 

Outside of hope for higher office, Biden's political career has, until recently, been defined largely by his time as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A position that, in 1987, he used to coordinate the takedown of Reagan Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork. 

Biden retained that chairmanship through the Senate confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991, during which legal professor Anita Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her during their time as colleagues. 

One issue that has dominated the end of this election cycle is the question of race in America. As racial tensions boiled over this summer following the May 25 death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, Biden (and his running mate California Sen. Kamala Harris -- herself a black Indian woman) has been forced to reckon with his legislative record when it comes to black Americans. 

Biden was forced to recant his support for the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which since its passage has been criticized for leading to a disproportionate number of incarcerations for black Americans.  

He also faced an accusation early in the campaign of sexual assault from a former Senate aide, and, more recently, has faced questions about whether he was involved as vice president in son Hunter's lucrative, overseas business dealings.

In the final days of his campaign, Biden, who has maintained a narrowing lead in most swing states, has canvassed Pennsylvania, a state whose 20 Electoral College votes will play a crucial role on the path to 270 of either candidate.