ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Joe Biden has been part of Delaware politics for more than five decades. He started out as a county councilman when he was 28 years old. He's currently the oldest president in U.S. history, and his announcement that he won't run for reelection likely marks the close of one of the country's longest political careers. Rachel Sawicki with Delaware Public Media reports on how The First State is reacting to the news.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: So I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
RACHEL SAWICKI, BYLINE: President Joe Biden's decision to step away from his reelection campaign ends a long run in elected office that had humble beginnings.
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BIDEN: Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pa., and Claymont, Del., one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as president of the United States. But here I am.
SAWICKI: Back home in Delaware, 29-year-old Jack Bradley from Wilmington says he was holding out hope Biden would stay in the race, and he's disappointed in how the campaign ended.
JACK BRADLEY: Especially because this year, specifically, he has had a lot of really strong moments and, you know, thinking all the way back to the State of the Union, which seems like years ago now.
SAWICKI: Wilmington resident Eileen Crawfort says she thinks Biden made the right decision, and she'll still vote for the Democratic candidate.
EILEEN CRAWFORT: At his age, yes, I think he's done his job well, and he can do the next five months really well, finish it out and pass the torch.
SAWICKI: Jack Cunningham was born and raised in northern Delaware and served as Newcastle County chief of police. He says he's voted for Biden in every election since he's been old enough to cast a ballot.
JACK CUNNINGHAM: Anybody who lives in the state of Delaware, even if they just went and voted for him, has some sense of pride in that.
SAWICKI: Cunningham remembers how Biden showed up when he received an award as a patrolman. He says the president always showed support for those close to home, and he put The First State on the national stage.
CUNNINGHAM: I don't know if Delaware has affected Joe Biden as much as Joe Biden has affected Delaware. Before Joe Biden was vice president, president, I don't think half the people in the United States could show you where Delaware was on the map.
SAWICKI: Delaware's senior democratic senator, Tom Carper, says he first heard about Biden while he was serving in Vietnam, when the young, unknown, local councilman defeated a two-term incumbent.
TOM CARPER: I read about an election in Delaware where a 29-year-old whippersnapper of a politician knocked off a icon in order to become a United States senator - too young to serve. And I thought, boy, that is amazing. This guy must really be something.
SAWICKI: He credits Biden with creating the Delaware way - a political culture that relied on personal relationships instead of partisanship and that some criticize for creating a club-like atmosphere.
CARPER: We work across the aisle. We work together. We share credit. That's the Delaware way. And he has taken that - and I hope I have as well - to a new level here in our nation's capital.
SAWICKI: Author Dan Shortridge has lived in Delaware for most of his life and says he can't remember a time without Joe Biden around.
DAN SHORTRIDGE: He was always Joe. He was always there. I don't remember a time without him. Born in 1979, you know, he was just always there. He was always a popular speaker.
SAWICKI: For Jack Cunningham, Biden's exit is an opportunity to reflect on his storied political career. He says not seeing Biden on the ballot this election day will mark the end of an era for the state.
CUNNINGHAM: I don't know if his parents told him this, but mine did - leave things better than you found them. And he did.
SAWICKI: For NPR News, I'm Rachel Sawicki in Newark, Del. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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