Photos of the Life and Career of Joe Biden, the 46th President-Elect of the United States

On the morning of Saturday, November 7, 2020, it became official: Joe Biden was elected the 46th President of the United States. His running mate, Kamala Harris, will become the first woman, and first person of color to serve as the Vice President. The 2020 election lasted nearly five whole days, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on voting procedures. The race began to shift as mail-in ballots in key battleground states started rolling in, a majority in favor of Biden. It's what ultimately allowed Biden to come from behind in Pennsylvania, the commonwealth where he was born, and flip the commonwealth, which Donald Trump won in the 2016 election over Hillary Clinton.

Biden's political career began in 1973 when he was elected to the Delaware Senate, becoming the fifth-youngest elected Senator in American history. He served in the Senate until 2009, when he was inaugurated as the Vice President under President Barack Obama. Biden sat out the 2016 election, but returned in 2020 to a crowded democratic field to take on Donald Trump. He ultimately won the party's nation, and the rest is history. Here, we look back on the life and career of president-elect Biden, from his early days in the Senate through his Vice Presidency and beyond.