Who married Joe Biden?

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2009 to 2017 as the 47th vice president of the United States and from 1973 to 2009 as a U.S. Senator from Delaware.

Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965 and the Syracuse University College of Law in 1968. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and the U.S. Senate in 1972. As a senator, Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and Foreign Relations Committee. He drafted and led passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act. Biden also oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991 but voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution in 2002. Biden ran unsuccessfully for the 1988 and 2008 Democratic presidential nominations. In 2008, Barack Obama chose Biden as his running mate, and Biden was a close counselor to Obama as vice president. In the 2020 presidential election, Biden selected Kamala Harris as his running mate, and they defeated Republican incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

As president, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession. He signed bipartisan bills on infrastructure and manufacturing. Biden proposed the Build Back Better Act, aspects of which were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act that he signed into law in 2022. He appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. In his foreign policy, the U.S. reentered the Paris Agreement. Biden oversaw the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops that ended the war in Afghanistan, leading to the Taliban seizing control. He responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing aid to Ukraine. During the Gaza war, Biden condemned the actions of Hamas as terrorism, strongly supported Israel, and sent limited humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A temporary ceasefire proposal he backed was adopted shortly before his presidency ended.

Concerns about Biden's age and health persisted throughout his term. He became the first president to turn 80 years old while in office. He began his presidency with majority support, but saw his approval ratings decline significantly throughout his presidency, in part due to public frustration over inflation, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 but dropped to 2.9% by the end of his presidency. Biden initially ran for reelection and, after the Democratic primaries, became the party's presumptive nominee in the 2024 presidential election. After his poor performance in the first presidential debate, renewed scrutiny from across the political spectrum about his cognitive ability led him to withdraw his candidacy. In 2022 and 2024, Biden's administration was ranked favorably by historians and scholars, diverging from unfavorable public assessments of his tenure. The only president from the Silent Generation, Biden is the oldest living former U.S. president.

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (née Jacobs; born June 3, 1951) is an American educator who served as the first lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025 as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her husband was vice president. From 2009 to 2024 she was a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College. She was the first wife of a president to hold a salaried job during the majority of her husband's tenure and the first to carry on with her professional career outside the White House while being a first lady.

Born in Hammonton, New Jersey, Jacobs grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. In 1977, she married Joe Biden, a widower, and became the stepmother of Beau and Hunter. Biden and her husband also have a daughter, Ashley Biden, born in 1981. Biden has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Delaware and master's degrees in education and English from West Chester University and Villanova University. She returned to the University of Delaware and received a doctoral degree in education. She taught English and reading in high schools for thirteen years and instructed adolescents with emotional disabilities at a psychiatric hospital. Following this, she was an English and writing instructor for fifteen years at Delaware Technical & Community College.

Biden is the founder of the Biden Breast Health Initiative non-profit organization, co-founder of the Book Buddies program, co-founder of the Biden Foundation, is active in Delaware Boots on the Ground, and with Michelle Obama is co-founder of Joining Forces. She has published a memoir and two children's books.