By Maler Suresh
The 2020 Presidential election has certainly been one for the history books. With a raging pandemic and a highly divided nation to set the stage, the path to 270 has been convoluted and drawn out to no end. Although Joe Biden has been decisively declared Presidential-elect, with his running mate Kamala Harris as Vice-Presidential elect, many Americans still feel uncertain about the results as President Donald Trump has not yet conceded. The Trump campaign has mounted 22 legal challenges arguing that states have violated election laws. Of these, 18 have either been lost or withdrawn, and 4 are still pending. 11 lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania, which was among one of the last states to count their votes, but one that ultimately flipped blue and won Joe Biden the election. For those watching the election at home, Pennsylvania seemed like a prime example of the odd polarization we were seeing in individual states. At the end of election night, it was red, but by the time the week had ended, it was blue. This can be explained by the fact that the majority of mail in/early votes were for Joe Biden while the majority of in-person votes on Election Day were for President Trump. President Trump had sown significant doubt within his base about the validity of voting by mail, while Biden encouraged them, leaving states to look either extremely blue or extremely red based on which type of vote was counted first.
The first big win for President Trump was the tossup state of Florida. Trump turned places like Miami-Dade and Osceola County, where Vice President Biden was predicted to carry the vote, red. Florida was mainly evidence of Joe Biden’s underperformance with Latino voters, who were generally turned away from the Vice President due to President Trump’s claims about him being part of the “radical left.” This election, Texas was also a tossup. However, even though he had managed to turn Collin, Denton, and Ellis County blue, Vice President Biden eventually lost Texas to President Trump.
One of the big surprises of the election was Arizona, a state that Biden managed to flip blue for the first time since 1996. Biden’s win was due in large part to his performance in Maricopa County, which comprises 60 percent of the state’s voters and is home to Phoenix. Trump narrowly won in Maricopa County in 2016, and his loss this election was part of what cost him the state, even as some counties started leaning right. Biden was also able to flip Pennsylvania due to suburban areas such as Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks county, which experienced a surge in largely Democratic voter turnout.
President Trump won all of the “tossup” states (Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Ohio) except one, Georgia. Usually, Republicans have to depend on rather large margins from white voters to contend with the largely Democratic, black vote in cities like Atlanta. However, Biden won more of the vote in predominantly white suburbs, decreasing that margin. Biden was also aided by high voter turnout, especially among African Americans, who evened out the margin even further. Combining all this, Biden won narrowly, and an automatic recount was ordered in the state. President Trump has lost two lawsuits in Georgia, and the recount has certified Joe Biden as the winner.
Other key battleground states included Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nevada. Wisconsin and Michigan in the Midwest were states that had previously paved the way for Trump’s victory in 2016. However, Biden was able to improve on Hillary Clinton’s results from the 2016 election, while Republican margins narrowed in many counties, allowing Biden to bridge the gap. Many of these Democratic votes came from places like Wayne County in Michigan, where Detroit sits, and Milwaukee and Dane county in Wisconsin, where cities such as Milwaukee and Madison are located respectively. Although President Trump focused his energy into Nevada, hoping to flip it red, the solid Democratic vote in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, was ultimately what gave Joe Biden the edge. The Trump campaign paid $3 million for a recount in Wisconsin, which went underway on November 19 and must be completed by December 1st.
Despite the lawsuits and general lack of closure around this election, it is indeed over. President Trump won the states he was supposed to win, as well as many of the tossups. However, it wasn’t enough to close in on Vice President Biden’s comfortable lead after flipping states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia for the Democrats. On January 20, 2021, the oldest President and the first woman of color to be Vice President will be sworn in as the new leaders of the Free World.
