Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1973, at age 31. He served Delaware as a senator until he became Vice President in 2009. His record as a senator has seen much scrutiny since he announced his candidacy for President. This is as it should be, but it seems like most of the attention has focused on the negative. Biden has a genuine progressive record as well, and it should be included in any complete retelling of his history.
I thought that a list of some liberal stances Biden has taken would be a good starting point. These are all successes, in the sense that all of them were contributions to at least one real change that was actually enacted.
1. Minimum Wage. Biden has been a consistent supporter of increases in the minimum wage, voting to increase or protect it in 1999, 2005, and 2007.
2. Unions. In unison with his minimum wage support, Biden has a reputation as a pro-union leader, which has been an important part of the regular-guy image he has cultivated during his campaigns for higher office. His cumulative voting record in the Senate was 85% pro-union as of 2008, when he began the vice-presidency. In that role, he was a strong supporter of extending unemployment benefits during the recession that he and Barack Obama spent much of their first term fighting. In 2015, Richard Trumka described him as “a friend, a brother, and a great champion of working men and women.”
3. The assault weapons ban. Biden may have been exaggerating when he said he was the only candidate to take on the N.R.A. and win, but no one can deny that he has taken them on. He is well-known for the key role he played in passing the crime bill in 1994. This has been controversial, since that law is now blamed for making mass incarceration worse, but it also contained the last assault weapons ban, which was law for 10 years afterward and is widely credited with reducing gun violence during that time period.
4. The Violence Against Women Act. Speaking of the crime bill, Biden often mentions his involvement in the passage of the Violence Against Women Act as part of that bill, and it has to be said that his involvement was genuine. The Supreme Court has since weakened the law, but Biden has talked on the campaign trail about strengthening it again.
5. Public transportation. One thing everyone seems to know about Biden is his long tradition of commuting back to his home and family in Wilmington daily from Washington via Amtrak train. This is part of a longstanding commitment to public transportation throughout the country, not just in his own northeast corridor, which in turn reflects an environmental commitment. During his campaign, among other statements, he has promised to rejoin the Paris climate treaty if he is elected (as have most of the other Democratic candidates, in fairness).
6. Same-sex marriage rights. Like most Democratic politicians (and most people) of his generation, Biden was opposed to same-sex marriage earlier in his life. Like most Democratic politicians now active, his views have evolved since then. He famously declared his support for marriage equality in 2012, in the midst of his reelection as Vice President and before his then-boss President Obama. This was considered a White House communications snafu at the time; it looks much better in hindsight.
Note: Biden’s Ontheissues.org page was a valuable source of information for this article. Other sources are included in the links within the article.
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