Joe Biden made a triumphant and emotional return to the First State Friday.
"When I die, Delaware will be written on my heart," said the now former Vice President, choking up as he spoke at the Chase Center on Wilmington's Riverfront.
More than a thousand people greeted Biden and his wife Jill in Wilmington mere hours after he and President Barack Obama left office at a homecoming ceremony he called "appreciated" but "over the top."
The Blue Hen Marching Band played him on stage with people of all ages cheering for a man they’ve felt nearly related to for his more than four decades of public service.
Many in the crowd at the Chase Center were sporting buttons with a single word “Joe” on it, hearkening back to one of his previous U.S. Senate campaigns.
Biden thanked them and the entire state for their consistent and persistent support.
“The interesting thing to me is – and my colleagues in the Senate and in the White House find it unusual, most of them, that you’ve been with me in victory and you were with me in defeat," said Biden. "I really mean this – you’ve all stayed with me, not just the people in this room.”
Becky Christie drove from Fairfax, Virginia to see Biden’s homecoming.
“I’m just really sad to see the last administration end and I just want to come and give [Biden] every little bit of support I can while I still have the chance, which, unfortunately, ends today,” Christie said.
She adds she’s trying to stay positive amid President Donald Trump’s inauguration, muting the radio and keeping her TV off.
Biden’s message to Christie and many others like her was one of optimism – despite a country deeply divided along race, political lines and religious beliefs.
“No matter how you feel right now, there is hope, man. It’s been a lot worse a lot of other times. There is no reason why – none, none – we can’t make this country sing again,” he said.
Governor John Carney (D), Senators Tom Carper (D) and Chris Coons (D) and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) traveled with Biden on his Amtrak ride home from Washington D.C. They then joined other elected officials in welcoming him back to the First State at the rally in Wilmington.
Carper rallied the crowd with one last cry of, ‘Joebama,’ while Coons said he was more grateful than ever for Joe Biden’s heart and integrity, shortly before the pair hopped another train back to Washington, D.C. for floor votes.
Blunt Rochester, a self-described poet, counted the ways in which she and the others packed into the Chase Center loved Biden.
Last week, Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction – a rare honor that Biden said he didn’t deserve.
“You tell the millions of Americans who now have healthcare – you deserve it. The millions of people who can now have a job and maintain their jobs – you deserve it. The millions of people who can now marry – you deserve it,” Blunt Rochester said.
Mayor Mike Purzycki (D), a fellow UD alumnus who shared time at the school with Biden, remembered the former vice president always dressing sharp even when he was barely 20-years-old.
Purzycki noted it was nice to have Joe finally home where he truly belongs.
“Joe, like most Delawareans, I’m guessing you’re tired of hearing Joe Biden described as the ‘proud son of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Joe, you’re no more the son in Scranton than I am,” he said.
“You’re the son of a place where your heart is, you’re the son of a place that loves you.”
