Beau Biden Making 2016 Bid for Delaware Governor

Vice President Joe Biden's eldest son, Beau Biden, said today that he has decided not to seek re-election as Delaware attorney general this year and instead plans to run for governor in 2016. "Over the past few months, as I've been planning to run for re-election, I have also been giving a great deal of thought to running for governor in 2016," Biden said in an email to supporters this morning. "What started as a thought—a very persistent thought—has now become a course of action that I wish to pursue."

Biden, 45, had said previously that he would seek a third term as attorney general, but told supporters in the email he didn't want to divide his focus between that job and a gubernatorial campaign. The announcement caught Delaware's political establishment off guard, as Biden was seen as a virtual shoo-in for re-election. Biden, who underwent surgery at a Texas cancer center last year and suffered a mild stroke in 2010, has refused to discuss his health scares, but the Texas center's head of neuro-oncology gave him "a clean bill of health" in November. (More Beau Biden stories.)