WASHINGTON — Joseph R. Biden Jr., seeking to shore up support among progressive voters, now backs making public colleges and universities tuition-free for many students, adopting a version of a plan Senator Bernie Sanders has championed, his campaign announced on Sunday.
The policy shift, which came hours before Mr. Biden was set to debate Mr. Sanders one on one, is Mr. Biden’s latest overture to the supporters of his current and former rivals as he moves closer to the Democratic nomination. On Friday night, he also announced that he supported a plan by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to overhaul the consumer bankruptcy system. The Biden campaign gave the Warren team a heads-up on the bankruptcy proposal move, but has not been in touch with the Sanders camp in regard to the education plan, a senior Biden official said.
Mr. Biden, the former vice president, supports making public colleges and universities tuition-free for students from families with incomes up to $125,000, his campaign said.
In taking that position, he is embracing a past proposal from Mr. Sanders, though one that is less expansive than what Mr. Sanders is currently advocating. Mr. Biden’s proposal is similar to one offered in the last presidential race by Hillary Clinton, who in the summer of 2016 proposed tuition-free college for many students after her primary battle with Mr. Sanders.
“Senator Sanders, Senator Warren and Vice President Biden share the goal of strengthening college as a reliable pathway to the middle class and ensuring that no American is unable to reach or to stay in the middle class because of insurmountable debt,” Mr. Biden’s campaign said in a news release, making the outreach to supporters of Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren explicit.
In the 2020 campaign, Mr. Sanders, of Vermont, has proposed making public colleges and universities tuition-free for all students, regardless of family income. Before dropping out of the race, Ms. Warren had also proposed making public colleges and universities tuition-free without an income limit. Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Biden proposed making two years of community college tuition-free.
In 2017, Mr. Sanders introduced legislation that included a proposal to get rid of tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities for students from families making up to $125,000. The Biden campaign said Mr. Biden was adopting that proposal.
Mr. Sanders responded to Mr. Biden’s proposal by arguing it did not go far enough.
“It’s great that Joe Biden is now supporting a position that was in the Democratic platform four years ago,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement. “Now we have to go much further. We need to make all public universities, colleges and trade schools tuition-free for everyone like our high schools are. We need to cancel all student debt. And we can fund it with a small tax on Wall Street speculation.”
Mr. Biden has already received the endorsements of many of his former 2020 presidential opponents, including Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar; former Mayors Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.; and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas. But Ms. Warren has so far stayed on the sidelines, while Mr. Sanders continues to campaign and some of his supporters remain strongly opposed to Mr. Biden.
The former vice president and his allies, in recent days, have sought to emphasize at every turn that those Democrats and their ideas would be welcome in the Biden campaign, an effort to move toward a unified Democratic front even as the primary continues.
Thomas Kaplan reported from Washington, and Katie Glueck from New York.