Joseph R. Biden, Jr., was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. He was the second-youngest person elected to the Senate at the age of 29. By the time he officially retired from the Senate on January 15, 2009, Joe Biden had become one of the longest serving senators in U.S. History. In his statement acknowledging Ted Kaufman's appointment, Biden was confident in his former chief of staff and longtime political adviser's abilities to effectively and efficiently fill the role as the next senator from Delaware.
