1972 United States Senate election in Delaware

Longtime Delaware political figure and incumbent Republican Senator J. Caleb Boggs was considering retirement, which would likely have left U.S. Representative Pete du Pont and Wilmington Mayor Harry G. Haskell Jr. in a divisive Senate primary fight. To avoid a potential primary, U.S. President Richard Nixon helped convince Boggs to run again with full party support.

Aside from Biden, a New Castle County Councilman, no Democrats wanted to challenge Boggs.[1] Biden's campaign had virtually no money and was given no chance of winning.[2] The campaign was managed by Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens (who would go on to manage his future campaigns), was staffed by other members of the Biden family, and relied upon handed-out newsprint position papers.[3] Biden did receive some assistance from the AFL-CIO and from Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell.[1] Biden's campaign focused on withdrawal from Vietnam, the environment, civil rights, mass transit, more equitable taxation, health care, the public's dissatisfaction with politics-as-usual, and "change".[1][3]

During the summer, Biden trailed Boggs by almost 30 percentage points;[1] however, Biden's energy level, attractive young family, and ability to connect with voters' emotions gave him an advantage over the ready-to-retire Boggs.[4] One notable prop used by the Biden campaign was a brochure printed in newspaper format that contrasted the world view of the two candidates, e.g., (full page) "To Cale Boggs an unfair tax was the 1948 poll tax"; (opposite page) "To Joe Biden an unfair tax is the 1972 income tax."[5] On November 7, 1972, Biden upset Boggs by a margin of 3,162 votes.[3]

In 2004, admitted Mafia hitman and former Teamsters Local 326 President Frank Sheeran alleged in his memoir that in the week prior to Election Day an unidentified representative of the Biden campaign (described as the campaign's legal counsel) approached him about preventing the distribution of the Wilmington News Journal because Sen. Boggs was running an advertisement unflattering to Biden. In exchange for undisclosed considerations and because Sheeran felt "Biden was better for labor anyway," the Teamsters Union allegedly organized a strike preventing the newspapers from being delivered and sabotaged a shipment of newspaper printing materials and preventing the Wilmington News Journal from being distributed in the week prior to Election day. Sheeran's accusation is unclear as to whether Biden himself was aware of the plot, but after the election Sheeran said he "could always reach out to [Biden] and he would listen."[6][7]

Results of the 1972 U.S. Senate election in Delaware

The credibility of Sheeran's account has been called into serious question. It conflicts directly with articles in the Wilmington News-Journal on the strike, published on November 6 and November 22, 1972. While there was a newspaper strike in Wilmington in November 1972, it was not a Teamster strike; it was an American Newspaper Guild Local #10 strike. The paper was not printed on the days in question because the Printers Union briefly joined the strike, not because of a picket line "no one would mess with." The paper's deliveries were not shut down for a week, but for two days. The picket line did not come down on the day after the election; rather, the Guild remained on strike until Nov. 22.

At the time of the 1972 election, Biden was a little less than 30 years old. He turned 30—the minimum age for a U.S. senator—on November 20, 1972, in time for the Senate term beginning January 3, 1973. At the commencement of his Senate term, Biden was the sixth-youngest U.S. Senator in history.[8]

• 1972 United States Senate elections