Joe Biden has won the presidency with 290 projected electoral votes against incumbent Donald Trump. Biden will serve as the 46th President of the United States after his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.
The Associated Press called the race Saturday morning after a three-day wait for a final ballot count. Essential battleground states Nevada and Pennsylvania were awarded to Biden, providing him with 26 electoral votes he needed to overcome the threshold of 270. Donald Trump has earned 214 electoral votes as of Thursday afternoon.
This is the first time since 1992 that a candidate has defeated an incumbent. Additionally, Kamala Harris has become the first woman, and woman of color, to serve as Vice President. She is set to become the highest-ranking woman to ever serve in government.
Joe Biden surpassed Barack Obama’s 2008 record for votes, earning 74,857,880 votes, or 50.6%, and counting. Election experts estimate that due to record numbers of early and absentee votes cast, some counties and states could take more than a week to report final vote counts.
The delay in counting has led Trump to threaten legal action over suspected voter fraud. None of the lawsuits appear to be going anywhere in the legal system. On Saturday morning, Trump tweeted “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” falsely contradicting the official results announced earlier Saturday. Other tweets from Trump include calls to “STOP THE COUNT” and messages of distrust over the election results.
Biden claimed victory Saturday morning, tweeting a message of unity in an effort to unite a divided electorate.
“The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me,” he wrote on Twitter.
Biden began his political career at 29 years old in 1972 when he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Delaware. A year later, he was elected to the Senate, where he served from 1973 to 2009. After two attempts for the presidency in 1988 and 2008, he joined Obama’s ticket in 2008 and was subsequently elected Vice President. After serving two terms and leaving the White House in 2017, he has taught at the University of Pennsylvania.
His platform includes restoring environmental protections repealed by Trump, expanding access to healthcare and promoting international cooperation.
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