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 primary fight. To avoid that, U.S. President Richard Nixon helped convince Boggs to run again with full party support.

No other Democrat wanted to run against Boggs besides Biden, a New Castle County Councilman.[1] Biden's campaign had virtually no money and was given no chance of winning.[2] It was managed by his sister Valerie Biden Owens (who would go on to manage his future campaigns as well) and staffed by other members of his family, and relied upon handed-out newsprint position papers.[3] Biden did receive some assistance from the AFL-CIO and Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell.[1] Biden's campaign issues 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 by almost 30 percentage points,[1] but his energy level, his attractive young family, and his ability to connect with voters' emotions gave the surging Biden an advantage over the ready-to-retire Boggs.[4] Biden won the November 7, 1972 election in an upset 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."[5][6]

Whether Sheeran's account can be deemed credible 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 only two days. The picket line did not come down on the day after the election, but the Guild remained on strike until Nov. 22, The picket line denoted an economic strike at a primary employer, and would not have been an "informational picket line."

At the time of the election Biden was a little less than 30 years old; age 30 is a constitutional requirement for the U.S. Senate, and he reached that on November 20, in time for the Senate term beginning January 3. After his election he became the sixth-youngest Senator in history.[7]

• 1972 United States Senate elections