Politics

Updated October 06, 2009

Delaware GOP Congressman to Run for Biden's Former Senate Seat

by  

AP

In a brief, exclusive interview with The Associated Press before his news conference, Castle said he's running because he can do more for Delaware in the Senate than in the House.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Delaware Republican congressman Michael Castle is announcing that he's running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Democrat Joe Biden last year after Biden was elected vice president.

In a brief, exclusive interview with The Associated Press before his news conference, Castle said he's running because he can do more for Delaware in the Senate than in the House.

In his official remarks at the Wilmington train station, he also said he was aware of a lot of support in Delaware and in Washington for his candidacy and reached his decision a little over a week ago after talking with his wife.

That decision means he could face Biden's son, Delaware attorney general Beau Biden, who's weighing a bid for the Democratic nomination. Beau Biden has not announced his political plans.

The 70-year-old Castle is a former two-term governor who has served nine terms in Congress and has never lost a political race since being elected to the state House in 1966.

Castle says the U.S. needs "the strongest and most experience leadership we can find in this country today." He says he hopes he "can bring that to the U.S. Senate."

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