Joe Biden candidacy 'going to excite a lot of Utah Democrats,' party leader says

SALT LAKE CITY — Former Vice President Joe Biden may have been mum about his presidential plans when he spoke at the University of Utah last December, but his entry into the race Thursday is sparking interest among the state's Democrats.

"Of all the 20 (announced Democratic presidential candidates), he's going to excite a lot of Utah Democrats," said Utah Democratic Party Chairwoman Daisy Thomas. "He has developed an audience here. He is known as Uncle Joe."

Biden, a U.S. senator representing Delaware for decades, served with former Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, and later encouraged now-Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to run for Hatch's seat.

The two-term vice president under President Barack Obama filled the U.'s Kingsbury Hall to capacity for a speech last year about what led him to a life in politics but stopped short of addressing speculation about a White House run.

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