--- title: Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for Dad to Run for President: Report description: Joe Biden is reportedly considering running in 2016 canonical: https://time.com/3981228/beau-biden-joe-biden-president/ author: Eliza Gray article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-01T19:08:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:48:39.892Z article:section: Politics og:title: Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for His Dad to Run for President: Report og:description: Joe Biden is reportedly considering running in 2016 og:url: https://time.com/3981228/beau-biden-joe-biden-president/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dc801b1a809ba79/69885d73cd1bba6f076fc8d4/beau-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Beau Biden, Joe Biden og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for His Dad to Run for President: Report twitter:description: Joe Biden is reportedly considering running in 2016 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dc801b1a809ba79/69885d73cd1bba6f076fc8d4/beau-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for His Dad to Run for President, Report Says by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Aug 1, 2015 7:08 PM UTC  At the time of the photo, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, embraces his son Beau on stage at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 27, 2008. At the time of the photo, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, embraces his son Beau on stage at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 27, 2008.Charles Dharapak—AP by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Aug 1, 2015 7:08 PM UTC Vice President Joe Biden’s late son Beau told his father to run for president before he died, according to a report. New York _Times_ columnist Maureen Dowd, in her [weekend column](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-joe-biden-in-2016-what-would-beau-do.html?%5Fr=0) entitled “Joe Biden in 2016: What Would Beau Do?,” describes, in great detail, a conversation that Beau had with his father before dying, urging his father to run for president rather than letting the office fall to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Joseph “Beau” Biden III died of brain cancer at the end of May. Dowd’s source for the anecdote is not clear from the column. Vice President Biden has been holding meetings at his Washington home to discuss the possibility of a run, according to Dowd. Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for Dad to Run for President: Report ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3981228/beau-biden-joe-biden-president/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3981228/beau-biden-joe-biden-president/"},"headline":"Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for His Dad to Run for President, Report Says","datePublished":"2015-08-01T19:08:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:48:39.892Z","description":"Joe Biden is reportedly considering running in 2016","url":"https://time.com/3981228/beau-biden-joe-biden-president/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Joe Biden","2016 Campaign"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dc801b1a809ba79/69885d73cd1bba6f076fc8d4/beau-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Gray","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dc801b1a809ba79/69885d73cd1bba6f076fc8d4/beau-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beau Biden, Joe Biden","caption":"Beau Biden, Joe Biden","creditText":"Charles Dharapak—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3981228/beau-biden-joe-biden-president/","name":"Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for His Dad to Run for President, Report Says"}}]}] ```