Beau Biden Joseph Robinette " Beau " Biden III ( born February 3 , 1969 ) is an American attorney , Army JAG officer , and politician from Wilmington , Delaware . He serves as the Attorney General of Delaware and a major in the Delaware Army National Guard . He is a member of the Democratic Party and is also the older son of Joe Biden . Early life and family . Biden was born in Wilmington , Delaware , the eldest son of former U . S . Senator and current Vice President Joe Biden , and his first wife , Neilia Hunter . His mother and younger sister , Naomi Christina Biden , were killed in an automobile accident in 1972 , in which he and his brother Hunter were badly injured . He and his brother encouraged his father to remarry , and Jill Jacobs became Beau ' s stepmother in 1977 . His half - sister Ashley was born in 1981 . He is a graduate of Archmere Academy , his father ' s high school alma mater , as well as the University of Pennsylvania , where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity ; and Syracuse University College of Law , as is his father . From 1995 to 2004 , he worked at the United States Department of Justice in Philadelphia , first as Counsel to the Office of Policy Development and later as a Federal prosecutor in the U . S . Attorney ' s Office . In 2004 , he became a partner in the Wilmington law firm Bifferato , Gentilotti , Biden & Balick . He and his wife , Hallie , have two children : a daughter , Natalie , and a son , Hunter . At the 2008 Democratic National Convention , after Joe Biden was nominated for Vice President of the United States , Beau introduced his father . He recounted the auto accident that killed his mother and sister and the subsequent parenting commitment his father made to his sons , a speech at which many delegates wept . Military service . Biden joined the military in 2003 as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard and was recently promoted to the rank of Major in the Judge Advocate General ( JAG ) Corps as part of the 261st Signal Brigade in Smyrna , Delaware . Biden ' s unit was activated to deploy to Iraq on October 3 , 2008 , and sent to Fort Bliss , Texas , for pre - deployment training , the day after his father participated in the 2008 presidential campaign ' s only vice presidential debate . His father is on the record as saying , " I don ' t want him going . But I tell you what , I don ' t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years , and so how we leave makes a big difference . " Biden traveled to Washington , D . C . , from Iraq in January 2009 for the presidential inauguration and his father ' s swearing - in as Vice President , then returned to Iraq . Biden received a visit at Camp Victory from his father on July 4 , 2009 . Biden returned from Iraq in September 2009 , his yearlong deployment complete . Biden had announced that during his deployment he would continue to actively serve as Delaware ' s Attorney General by working in conjunction with his office ' s senior staff in Delaware , although a member of his unit related Biden saying he had turned over most of his attorney general work to his deputy so as to focus on his duties in Iraq . Political career . In his first bid at political office , Biden ran for Attorney General of Delaware in 2006 . Biden ' s opponent was a veteran state prosecutor and Assistant U . S . Attorney , Ferris Wharton . Major issues in the campaign included the candidates ' experience and proposed efforts to address sex offenders , Internet predators , senior abuse , and domestic abuse . Biden won the election by approximately five percentage points . After being elected , he appointed former Delaware Attorney General and International Judge Richard S . Gebelein as Chief Deputy Attorney General , and former assistant U . S . Attorney Richard G . Andrews was appointed as State Prosecutor . As Attorney General , Biden has supported and enforced stronger registration requirements for sex offenders . Joe Biden ' s election as Vice President in the 2008 presidential election left a vacancy in the U . S . Senate upon the time he would resign his seat . Beau was once believed to have been a frontrunner for the seat , but , while deployed in Iraq , stated that he would not seek or accept an appointment to the Senate . On November 24 , 2008 , Governor Ruth Ann Minner named Ted Kaufman to the seat , but Kaufman indicated he would not be a candidate in the 2010 special election . This fueled speculation Beau would run at that time . Biden ' s father stated after the announcement of Kaufman ' s appointment , " It is no secret that I believe my son , Attorney General , would make a great United States Senator just as I believe he has been a great attorney general . But Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life that any office he sought he would earn on his own . . . [ I ] f he chooses to run for the Senate in the future , he will have to run and win on his own . He wouldn ' t have it any other way . " In October 2009 , Biden stated that he was considering a run for the Senate and that he would make a final decision in January . On January 25 , Biden confirmed that he would forgo a Senate run so as to better focus on the prosecution of Earl Bradley , an infamous pedophilia suspect . On November 2 , 2010 , he was easily reelected to a second term as Delaware Attorney General , beating Independent Party of Delaware candidate Doug Campbell by a huge margin . He is the first person to have held an elected office while his father was in office as Vice - President . Health concerns . On May 11 , 2010 , Biden was admitted to Christiana Hospital in Newark , Delaware , for what doctors described as a " mild stroke " . In August 2013 , he was admitted to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at the Texas Medical Center in Houston , Texas . On August 14 , 2013 , Biden reported feeling weak and disoriented during a family vacation in Indiana . MD Anderson will be conducting tests , among them a biopsy .