Hanging with Joe Biden in Delaware on Election Day
Vice President Joe Biden's name appeared nowhere on the ballot Tuesday, but that didn't stop "Captain America" from spending the afternoon pressing palms, hugging and high-fiving millennial voters at two universities close to his heart.
Wearing his signature aviators with his cool popped collar, the 73-year-old was treated like a rock star as students at the University of Delaware in Newark and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia — who heard about his appearance through the grapevine (i.e., Snapchat) — sprinted for a photo opp. Chanting "Joe, Joe Joe," they left shivering with excitement and mouthing the words, "Oh. My. God."
"The bad news is I'm not going away," Biden joked earlier in the day after voting at Alexis I. duPont High School in Wilmington. Biden last voted there during the 2012 presidential race, when he was joined by his wife, Jill, his son, then-Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, Beau's wife, Hallie, and their daughter, Natalie.
Back then, a reporter asked the vice president if it was the last time he'd be voting for himself.
"No, I don't think so," Biden replied, smiling.
This time around, only the Second Lady was by his side. Beau Biden died of brain cancer last year, inspiring his father to lead a moonshot effort to cure cancer.
Hugging poll workers and complimenting young girls on their snazzy boots, the vice president appeared jovial as he posed for selfies with some of the more than two dozen dazed voters, whom he thanked for performing their civic duty. He also saluted volunteers for helping the process run smoothly.
"What's your name? How are you? I haven't seen you in Mass lately," the Greenville resident said, working the crowd.
"That happened to me two elections ago," he told a man wearing a trench coat filling out a voter verification form. "They said, 'You sure you live here?'"
After spending less than a minute tucked in the voting booth, the vice president declared, "it's a beautiful day to vote."
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"It could be a very long night or it could be very short," he said, telling a reporter to keep an eye on Florida.
It's been a busy week for Biden, who has delivered emotional speeches while stumping for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. He spent Monday in St. Petersburg, Florida, at a Get out the Vote rally with singer Jimmy Buffett. Later, he appeared with vice presidential hopeful Tim Kaine at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
After voting Tuesday, Biden joined his two granddaughters, Finnegan and Maisy, for breakfast at BrewHaHa! on Main Street in Newark. Biden ordered a breakfast sandwich on a bagel and blueberry muffin for himself and gave a $5 tip to the cashier, who was sporting a nose ring and an "Ask me for a high-five but only if you voted" T-shirt. Biden, of course, obliged.
"You're going to eat here?" she squealed in return.
Word traveled fast that Uncle Joe was on campus, and the crowd swelled to more than 50 students swarming the vice president like he was the last keg at a frat party. Motorists, meanwhile, squeezed into one lane of traffic to accommodate all the Secret Service SUVs.
"It's holding up all of Main Street," quipped a young man wearing a T-shirt for Meredith Chapman, a Republican who is running for the District 8 Senate seat.
"It's obnoxious."
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Inside, Biden agreed to pictures only for those who had voted or "promised to vote." For more than 15 minutes, he politely asked the students one by one for their names and where they were from.
One server, 32-year-old Jess Morgan-Moss, had trouble remembering either in Biden's presence. She thanked him for being an early supporter of same-sex marriage, adding that she had married her partner less than two weeks ago.
"That was really due to him," she said after the encounter. "He was the one who kinda pushed that."
Asked which presidential candidate won her vote Tuesday, Morgan-Moss said: "I would like to still be married...so it's obvious."
Later, Biden and his granddaughters made a quick stop on UD's Green so Biden could point out his old dorm, before the motorcade traveled to the University of Pennsylvania to meet up with Biden's other granddaughter, Penn alumna Naomi, and his nephew Nick, who is currently studying at Penn.
Again, Biden was cornered by more than 60 students, staff and faculty near the Irvine Auditorium on Spruce Street. Several wore Clinton T-shirts and "I Voted" stickers in English and Spanish. One young man in a wheelchair brought a "Joe" sign, which Biden autographed.
A young woman asked to borrow Biden's sunglasses for a picture — "It would make my life" — and the vice president didn't hesitate. A Secret Service agent stood nearby, holding lattes and backpacks.
"Holy mackerel," Biden remarked to the crowd as if this chaos doesn't happen every time he tries to visit with family.
Except for one quiet moment. A young woman approached the vice president, whispered to him and the two shared a cathartic hug.
"He's just made some really effective and impassioned statements about sexual assault," said the Penn senior, who declined to give her name.
"That's all you could ask for in your government," she continued, "to have people speaking to the issues you care about."
By mid-afternoon, Biden was back on the road. He had to catch a plane to another undisclosed destination, so he didn't have time for interviews.
And tonight he will wait, like the rest of Americans, for the voters to deliver their verdict.
Contact Margie Fishman at 302-324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.