2020 Election: Joe Biden Elected 46th President, Defeats Donald Trump NBC News projects former Vice President Joe Biden has been elected 46th President of the United States. His win comes after a contentious race against incumbent President Donald Trump.
America has chosen Joe Biden to be the 46th President of the United States.
NBC News projects that the former Vice President won the 2020 election with 273 electoral votes. He is joined in his celebration by Vice President Elect Kamala Harris, who will make history as the first female vice president, as well as the first Black and South Asian American vice president.
Early Wednesday Nov. 4, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters, “Joe Biden is on track to win this election and he will be the next president of the United States.”
Their prediction came true later after found himself pushing ahead in swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin. And on Saturday, Nov. 7, NBC News reported Biden had won Pennsylvania, giving him to the necessary 270 electoral votes—and the White House.
He defeats incumbent President Donald Trump, who previously said he was victorious if “you count the legal votes.”
After much deliberation, Biden joined the competitive presidential race on April 25, 2019, going up against numerous politicians, including 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the now-Vice President Harris and many other leaders.
At the time, Biden explained he felt compelled to throw his hat in the ring, saying in his announcement that this election was a “battle for the soul of this nation.”
But in the early days of the campaign, the 77-year-old trailed behind other popular politicians. In February, he came in fourth place in the Iowa caucus and, in New Hampshire’s, he found himself in fifth place.
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But the former Delaware senator emerged as a front-runner on Super Tuesday in March. Those primaries earned him a total of 458 delegates, causing Pete Buttigieg, Klobuchar and businessman Michael Bloomberg to drop out of the race. They would go on to endorse their colleague, as the Democratic party rallied behind Biden.
Not long after Sanders and Warren dropped out of the race, making Biden the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In the months that would follow, Biden took caution amid the coronavirus pandemic and switched to hosting virtual events. And his limited efforts were only bolstered by the announcement of his pick for Vice President.
On Tuesday, Aug. 11, the former Vice President finally revealed that he asked the California senator to be his running mate. He said in a statement, written in part, “Her record of accomplishment—fighting tooth and nail for what’s right—is why I’m choosing her. There is no door Kamala won’t knock on, no stone she’ll leave unturned, if it means making life better—for the people.”
On his virtual election tour, Biden was joined by several of his famous supporters, including Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. The former President and First Lady spoke to the nation about their decision to endorse their friend on multiple occasions, with the Becoming author telling viewers of the Democratic National Convention, “If you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.”
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With the nomination under his belt, Biden went face-to-face with Trump on the debate stage for the first time in September. The second of the three debates was cancelled because of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis in October and his refusal to virtually participate in the Oct. 15 debate.
The candidates went on to simultaneously hold their own Town Halls in Miami, with Biden’s garnering half a million more viewers, according to Variety. The two later came face-to-face for the final debate, moderated by Kristen Welker, on Oct. 22. For the first time ever, the candidate that wasn’t speaking for the allotted two minutes had their microphone muted.
Biden will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2020, although it’s unclear if there will be a physical inauguration held in his honor.