Biden formally clinches Democratic presidential nomination

Joe Biden is officially the Democratic nominee for president. America is now left to decide between the former Penn Presidential Professor of Practice and 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump.

The former Vice President formally clinched the nomination on June 5, after seven states, including Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia confirmed results from their primary elections on June 2. 

Biden surpassed the 1,991 delegates needed to earn the nomination late Friday night, after it took three days to determine the results in the various primaries due to mail-in voting, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. He now has over 2,000 delegates with eight states and three U.S. territories yet to hold primaries. 

"It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded — and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party," Biden said, according to The New York Times. 

This nomination is nothing but a formality in the race, as Biden became the presumptive nominee after his main competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ended his campaign in April and formally endorsed Biden soon after. 

In February, Biden finished fourth in the Iowa caucus that kicked off the 2020 nomination process. Biden finished fifth in the New Hampshire primary, but rebounded in the Nevada caucus, placing second, and solidified his comeback in South Carolina, beating Sanders by nearly 29 points. In the following Super Tuesday contests in March, he took 10 of the 14 states.

Biden is the most liberal nominee to have represented the Democratic Party in history, according to the Inquirer, as he works to appeal to contemporary progressives, like Sanders, and seeks to find common ground regarding issues on health care, the economy, and the environment. He also has a plan to forgive student loan debt in America and has committed to choosing a woman as a vice-presidential candidate.

Since 2017, Biden has been the “Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor” at the University, having visited Penn on at least five occasions, but does not teach regular classes. Biden also founded the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C, which was recently accused of allegedly accepting millions in undisclosed donations from China.

As a result of his presidential campaign, Biden is on an unpaid leave of absence from the Penn Biden Center, according to a statement from President Amy Gutmann in April of 2019.