--- 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: 2026-08-19T07:47:10.492Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2079 og:image:height: 1169 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beau Biden's Dying Wish Was for His Dad to Run for President, Report Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. 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. ```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":"2026-08-19T07:47:10.492Z","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","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"}}]}] ```