Joseph R. Biden III, the son of the vice president and former attorney general of Delaware, died at age 46, the family announced Saturday.
The younger Biden, known as Beau, had been battling brain cancer.
A Democrat like his father, Beau Biden worked as a prosecutor in Philadelphia for nearly a decade before winning election as Delaware’s attorney general in 2006. He also served a one-year deployment in Iraq in 2008 as a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard.
He served two terms as attorney general and as recently as February was reported to be considering a run for the Delaware governorship in 2016.
Beau Biden leaves behind a wife, Hallie, and two children, Natalie and Hunter.
The vice president issued a statement Saturday evening: “It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.”
“In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.”
It is the latest personal tragedy for the senior Biden. In December 1972, he lost his first wife, Neilia, and 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, in a car accident. Beau and his brother, Hunter, survived the crash. Biden remarried in 1977, to the second lady, Dr. Jill Biden.