Joe Biden Accepts Democratic Presidential Nomination

Joe Biden officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president on the final night of the party’s virtual convention on Friday. As he accepted the honour, Biden promised to work hard for everyone, including people who didn’t vote for him. 

“While I’ll be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president,” Biden said in his remarks. “I’ll work hard for those who didn’t support me, as hard for them as I did for those who did vote for me.”

The former US vice president said that President Donald Trump  has “cloaked America in darkness for much too long.”

“Too much anger,” he said. “Too much fear. Too much division.”

“If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst,” Biden continued. “I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It’s time for us — for we the people — to come together.”

Biden’s remarks culminated four days of impassioned and emotional pleas from prominent Democrats and politicians, many warning that four more years of Trump ’s administration loom as an existential threat to U.S. democracy.

Much of Biden’s message adhered to the theme of the convention’s slogan that urged Americans to create a “more perfect union.”

Earlier this month, Biden tapped Sen. Kamala Harris  of California to be his running mate. Since then, the pair have focused fire on Trump and his administration while also fleshing out their own biographies for voters.

While Biden’s speech was the centerpiece of the convention, he made appearances several times during the virtual event, including Tuesday night after his wife, Jill Biden, gave a speech  touting her 77-yeat-old husband’s commitment to public service, even as he much personal grief in his life.

The former vice president in Barack Obama ’s administration also briefly appeared on stage with Harris after she gave her acceptance speech Wednesday night in Delaware, Biden’s home state which he represented in the Senate for 36 years.

Biden’s presidential bid got off to a rocky start when he ran poorly in the opening nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. But he turned his campaign around with an impressive win in the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29. He then dominated the rest of the primary campaign, which took an unexpected turn in late March when the coronavirus pandemic forced him and the other remaining candidates to cease large rallies and in-person politicking.

As the Nov. 3 election day nears, Biden’s campaign is focusing not only on battleground states, but on some Republican-leaning states where polls have shown him competitive against Trump. In early August, his team announced plans to spend $280 million in TV ads across Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Colorado, Virginia, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.