More than 20 years ago, I worked for Joe Biden. We met in 1997, when he took a chance on a young, single father completing his graduate studies and asked me to come work in his Senate office, as a speechwriter and a liaison to the City of Wilmington.

What I didn't know then was that he would become one of the primary catalysts to my life in public service. His very example gave me the confidence and the conviction to serve.

More than 20 years later, I am proud to say that I still know he and his lovely wife Jill.

I know their children, the loves of their lives—Beau, Hunt, and Ashley. I know the depth of their family's loyalty to one another and I know their deep, unconditional love for each other. To know the Biden family is to be a part of it.

I know Joe Biden.

I know the son of a car salesman who knows the struggles of everyday Americans to his core—because he has lived them himself.

I know a man who stuttered as a boy but overcame it by reciting the lines of Irish poets to himself in the mirror—with resolve, one day at a time. Just like his dad taught him.

I know a man who knows deep, personal loss. Who has sent a son into a war zone. A man who says, "I give you my word as a Biden"—and means it.

I know a man who believes in an America that imagines what's possible for every one of us—regardless of what we look like, where we come from, or who we love. That treats everyone with decency and respect. Gives everyone a fair shot.

An America that takes responsibility for fixing our own problems and injustices—and doesn't blame them on the poor, the immigrant, the powerless, the "other."

That's the Joe Biden I know—and that's the America I want to live in.

Today, I'm proud that millions of Americans around the country are standing up for the man I know. Millions of Americans who are sick of the division. Of the hatred. Who know what this country is capable of.

I know Joe Biden and if you have ever dared to dream big dreams or confronted adversity head-on, or given more of yourself to a higher calling, then you know Joe Biden too.

Now, let's elect him the next President of the United States.

Thanks for listening.

-Tony Allen