At the behest of his two sons, Vice President Joe Biden is reportedly considering making a bid for the White House in 2016, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
Biden's oldest son Beau, the former Delaware attorney general who died last month from brain cancer at the age of 46, heavily encouraged his dad to enter the 2016 presidential race.
"It's no secret that Beau wanted him to run," Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of South Carolina's Democratic Party, told the WSJ. "If he does what Beau wanted him to do, he'll run."
Biden's younger son, Hunter, 45, has also reiterated in the past two weeks that he wants his father to "jump in the race," according to James Smith, a Democratic state lawmaker in South Carolina. "He feels strongly about his dad running and serving."
Several sources close to Biden family told the WSJ that they expect him to decide whether he will run by August.
The 72-year-old vice president ran for the White house in both 1988 and 2008, and would enter as an underdog into a race currently dominated by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, followed by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is making steady ground.
The latest poll out of the key primary state of New Hampshire found that Clinton was statistically tied with Sanders when accounting for the 5.2 percentage point margin of error. Clinton took 43 percent of support, compared to 35 percent for Sanders. Biden clocked in at 8 percent, and less than 2 percent supported former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, according to the CNN/WMUR poll.
Close friends of Biden say the needs of his family in the wake of Beau's death are currently a priority and will heavily factor into whether he decides to run.
"It's all about his personal situation - 'Can I do this and not in any way deny my family what I can give them or do for them?' This is a decision about his family," Harpootlian told The News Journal out of Wilmington, Dela.
A Biden spokeswoman told the WSJ that speculation about a presidential bid is "inappropriate" at this time.
"The Biden family is going through a difficult time right now," Barkoff said. "Any speculation about the views of the vice president or his family about his political future is premature and inappropriate."
