WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday formally announced his entry into the race for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination for the 2020 election.

“We are in the battle for the soul of this nation,” Biden said in a stark video released online, calling on voters to deny Republican U.S. President Donald Trump a second term in office. </s> Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce he's running for president next week.

That's according to three people with knowledge of Biden's plans.

Biden will enter the race as a Democratic front-runner, although the 76-year-old faces questions about his age and whether his more moderate record fits with a party that has become more liberal.

The announcement is expected as early as Wednesday and would cap months of deliberation over his political future.

The people with knowledge of Biden's plans insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

RELATED: Who is running for president in 2020 so far? </s> Joe Biden is poised to make his long-awaited announcement to jump into the 2020 presidential campaign next week, people close to the former vice president say.

The format and date of the announcement are still in flux, but Biden’s team has been quietly laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign for months.

While his deadline has slid back several times this year, people close to the Delaware Democrat say they expect him to join the Democratic primary fight next week.

Greg Schultz, a top political adviser who is preparing to oversee Biden’s campaign, told Democrats on Capitol Hill earlier this week that “everything is going ahead as scheduled.”

His entry into the race will answer one of the biggest remaining questions of the makeup of the crowded and historically diverse Democratic primary field. This would mark his third run for the White House.

Earlier this month, Biden said he planned to announce his decision “relatively soon.”

“I’ve been told by the lawyer that I’ve got to be careful what I say so that I don’t start the clock ticking and change my status,” Biden told reporters. “… Even if I knew for certain that I was going to run for president back in Thanksgiving, my intention from the beginning, if I were to run, would be to be the last person to announce … Give everybody else their day and then I get a shot and then we’re off to the races.” </s> WASHINGTON (AP) -- Joe Biden has formally entered the 2020 race for president.

The vice president under President Barack Obama made the announcement in a video released Thursday morning.

The move marks what will likely be the 76-year-old's final opportunity to seek a job he has eyed for more than a generation. He struggled in two previous campaigns.

One of the most recognizable names in U.S. politics, Biden leads most early Democratic primary polls. But as an older white man who spent a half-century in Washington, it's unclear if he will be embraced by today's increasingly liberal Democratic Party.

Biden faces myriad questions about his past, including recent claims he touched women in an overly familiar manner without their consent. Biden has pledged to be "much more mindful" of respecting personal space. </s> Former Vice President Joe Biden will reportedly throw his hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Biden is expected to make the announcement next week during a speech in Charlottesville, Virginia. Biden was President Barack Obama’s VP for eight years.

He chose not to run for the White House in 2016 after the death of his son Beau from brain cancer.

Biden has strong name recognition, but his team has reportedly been lagging in the logistics of fundraising in the digital age.

Recently Biden has made headlines after several women claimed he touched them inappropriately.

Democrats, as well as GOP Sen. of Florida Marco Rubio, defended the former Vice President who has since apologized. </s> Former Vice President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he’s entering the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, after months of speculation on whether he would run.

“The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America – America – is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States,” Biden said in a video posted just after 6 a. m.

Biden served 36 years in the Senate before becoming President Barack Obama’s vice president, in 2009. This is his third bid at the presidency.

Biden is currently leading the Democratic field which is crowded with several appealing candidates like Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke, all of which have been polling strongly, but Biden seems to be the most established of the candidates at this early stage of the race.

To many pundits, Biden’s advantage is that he is seen as a continuation of Barack Obama and that could mean that he could capture many of the Midwestern votes that Hillary Clinton failed to capture in 2016. </s> • Former Vice President Joe Biden is slated to announce a 2020 campaign for president next week.
• Biden has been huddling with advisers and courting support on and off for months.
• Multiple reports over the past several months have hinted that Biden would be jumping into the race, only to be delayed.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is reportedly gearing up to enter the large field of Democratic presidential candidates next week.

While Biden is ready to jump into the field and his advisers have been courting support among powerful groups, reports that the longtime Delaware senator is running for president have been sporadic during the first several months of 2019.

Read more: Top Joe Biden aide huddles with key Democrats on Capitol Hill in advance of expected presidential run

Rumors of an impending Biden announcement have been nonstop since the start of the year. On January 6, the New York Times reported Biden would “most likely make a decision within the next two weeks.” Axios reported Biden was eyeing a January 15 announcement date, telling top Democrats he was inching closer to a presidential bid.

When February rolled around, The Hill reported Biden was “95 percent there” and ready to take the plunge.

Later in the month, Biden himself teased a run, telling students at the University of Delaware his family was on board with a campaign.

“The first hurdle for me was deciding whether or not I am comfortable taking the family through what would be a very, very difficult campaign,” Biden said. “No matter who runs. It’s a very difficult campaign. The primary will be very difficult. And the general election, running against President Trump, I don’t think that he’s likely to stop at anything, whomever he runs against.”

“I am certain about where the family is,” Biden added. “But the second piece is that I don’t want this to be a fool’s errand and I want to make sure that if we do this, and we’re very close to getting to a decision, that I am fully prepared to do it.”

In March, the Wall Street Journal reported Biden told high dollar donors he was running in an effort to court support for an announcement.

Read more: If Joe Biden’s long-rumored presidential run crashes and burns, here’s who his supporters would flock to

Now, well into April, Biden has yet to announce and more reports are surfacing of his imminent campaign. Earlier this week, INSIDER reported that Biden’s top aide at his American Possibilities PAC met with more than a dozen Democratic chiefs of staff, courting support and conducting a focus group-like session to gauge key issues in various districts across the country.

It is not correct to say that all of the reporting on Biden running is false. He has indeed made deliberate attempts to gin up support and build a team. But Biden’s been “inching closer” and “almost there” and “ready to jump in” now several times over the past few months, suggesting the possibility of indecisiveness.

And Biden did experience a spell of bad public relations in late March, in which several women accused him of inappropriately touching them and invading their personal space. The accusations prompted Biden to address the issue, pledging to change his conduct in public, but could have also spooked him and delayed a presidential run.

The many delays should be taken with a grain of salt though. While Biden is late compared to the many other Democratic candidates, the race does not heat up this early in the context of history. By this time in 2015, only three Republican candidates had announced their presidential runs, with more than a dozen to follow. </s> WASHINGTON - Joe Biden will announce next week he is running for president, likely grabbing pole position in a crowded Democratic field eager to take on President Donald Trump in 2020, US media reported on Friday.

Biden, the veteran politico who has sought the White House twice before and served as Barack Obama's vice president, will make it official with a video to be released on Wednesday, according to several outlets.

NBC News and other American media reported that the longtime Delaware senator's decision was all but a formality - after he sat out 2016 as he mourned the death of his son Beau from cancer.

Biden (76) will join the race as its predominant centrist at a time in which many in the Democratic Party's progressive wing, including rivals for the nomination, have embraced liberal policies like universal healthcare.

Several strategists see Biden as the down-to-earth Democrat with star power who connects with working-class voters like those who abandoned Hillary Clinton for Trump in 2016.

In a Real Clear Politics poll released on Tuesday, Biden led with 31% support among people asked about who they like in the Democratic primary elections, followed by self-declared democratic socialist Bernie Sanders at 23.

Some way behind, Kamala Harris of California, young Texas upstart Beto O'Rourke and rising star Pete Buttigieg were battling it out for third place - with nine, eight and seven percent respectively.

Biden has been leading in other polls too in recent days. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce he's running for president next week.

That's according to three people with knowledge of Biden's plans.

Biden will enter the race as a Democratic front-runner, although the 76-year-old faces questions about his age and whether his more moderate record fits with a party that has become more liberal.

The announcement is expected as early as Wednesday and would cap months of deliberation over his political future.

The people with knowledge of Biden's plans insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

"Biden’s campaign will, at its core, argue that the response to Donald Trump requires an experienced, calm hand to help America take a deep breath and figure out a way to get back on track," Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote for the Atlantic. "First, however, the man who would become the oldest president in American history needs to get through a primary."

More: How old is Joe Biden compared to 2020 presidential election candidates? We break it down.

More: Biden won Delaware's heart in the 1970s, but does his appeal resonate nationally today?
Former Senator and Vice President Joe Biden announces he is running for the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.