where was joe biden a senator?
Delaware
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 Joseph Robinette " Joe " Biden , Jr . , a Democratic United States Senator from Delaware at the time , was a candidate for President of the United States in the 1988 United States presidential election . 

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 Biden was active on the party speaking circuit from 1985 on , and was considered one of the best orators among the potential presidential candidates for 1988 . The declared absence of Senator Ted Kennedy from the field , to whom Biden was sometimes compared , was also encouraging to a possible Biden candidacy . 

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 Before his visit , he called upon Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts , the highest ranking African American in U.S. government , to campaign with him on trips to Illinois and California . Referring to Brooke as " one of my top advisers , " he accompanied campaign stops in Chicago and San Francisco , a move critics described as an attempt to further gain favor within the African American community . 

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 At age of 45 , Biden became one of the official candidates for Democratic nomination , formally declaring his candidacy at the Wilmington train station on June 9 , 1987 . 

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 Biden ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 , and on the national ticket as eventual nominee Barack Obama 's running @-@ mate . 
