On October 21, 2015, with his wife, Jill Biden, and President Barack Obama by his side, Vice President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the presidential race. The main cause?  An overwhelming amount of family grief over the loss of 46 year old son Beau Biden, who died back in June of this year after an ongoing battle with brain cancer.  

Biden’s drop-out was not a big shock to most. Throughout the summer, and  up until his announcement, his candidacy was always on shaky ground. First, after the passing of Biden’s son, Beau, he was not sure that he would be emotionally stable enough to take on a presidential campaign.  However, before his death, Beau gave his father words of encouragement and allegedly wished his father to run for president, despite his deadly conditions.

In the month of August, Joe Biden took running for office much more seriously. While discussing his possible campaign on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Biden still could not fully commit to the race, no matter how many times prospects were discussed with Biden’s aides and allies. At the end of September, Biden had still not made his candidacy official and according to The Wall Street Journal, was going to miss his summer deadline. His advisors had to explore the options of Biden joining the race close to the first Democratic Party debate on October 13.

His wife, Jill Biden, showed the utmost support when her husband decided not to run for the 2016 Democratic ticket nominee.  However, CNN said that she was still disappointed.  Mrs. Biden shared her disappointment by stating,

“I think I was disappointed. You know, like I said in the beginning. I mean, I thought Joe would be a great president,” she said. “I’d seen his — in the 40 years we’ve been together, I’ve seen the strength of his character, his optimism, you know, his hope. … So I believed he would have been the best president.”  Republican candidate Donald Trump took to twitter shortly after Biden’s release in the Rose Garden to announce his gratitude for the Vice President’s dropping out.  In a short video clip he conveyed, “I wanted to run against Hillary anyway, so I’m really happy.”  

Meanwhile, things are looking even better for front running democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.  With her substantial amount of support from voters, this Secretary of State seems like a shoe in for the Democratic nominee ticket.  According to Real Clear Politics, Clinton is currently leading the polls at 42.8%, with the closest candidate, Bernie Sanders, at a much lower 25.4%.
So despite the official drop out of Vice President Joe Biden, the race and the fight for the presidential title continues!