Beau Biden Takes Himself Out Of The Running For Father's Soon-To-Be Vacated Senate Seat

November 19, 2008 11:09 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden will not accept an appointment to the Senate seat to be vacated by his father, Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

"I have not sought and will not accept an appointment to the United States Senate; and look forward to returning to my work as attorney general of the state of Delaware," the 39-year-old Biden told the News Journal in an e-mail.

The vice president-elect's son, widely reported as the top contender for the Senate seat, is a captain of the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National Guard. He temporarily left his post as state attorney general on Oct. 3, the day after the vice presidential debate, for Fort Bliss in Texas to prepare for deployment in Iraq.

The appointment to the Senate seat falls on Delaware's governor. If the vice president-elect resigns before he is sworn in along with President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20, 2009, outgoing Gov. Ruth Ann Minner will be tasked to make the appointment. But if the vice president-elect steps down when he is inaugurated, the Governor-elect Jack Markell, who is also a Democrat, will be responsible for putting a replacement. The vice president-elect said before election day that he would wait until the moment he is sworn in, according to ABC.

The appointee will serve only two years until 2010, as state law requires that a special election be held until the next election. The vice president-elect won two races on Nov. 4, first as successor to Vice President Dick Cheney and another to a seventh term as Delaware senator.

Delaware Lt. Gov. John Carney has been reported as a contender for the post.