WASHINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will officially launch his 2020 presidential race on Thursday, multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday, quoting sources close to his campaign.

Biden, aged 76, will announce his candidacy with a video to be released on Thursday morning, according to a report by The Hill.

He will then travel to Pittsburgh for a more formal event on Monday, said the report.

A new poll from Monmouth University released Tuesday found Biden leading Democratic candidates and winning 27 percent support nationally, higher than the 20 percent won by Senator Bernie Sanders, the powerful rival of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 primaries.

More than a dozen of Democratic presidential hopefuls have launched their campaign, including notable names such as Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, as well as former House member Beto O'Rourke and rising star Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend in the state of Indiana.

Biden, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, became an attorney in 1969 and was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 as the sixth-youngest senator in the U.S. history. He served as the 47th U.S. Vice President from 2009 to 2017.