Biden wins 2020 presidential election

After a week of nail-biting anticipation, Joe Biden is the winner of the 2020 presidential election with 290 electoral votes currently accounted for according to the Associated Press.

With COVID-19 voting concerns and increasing social unrest these past months, the race between Biden and Donald Trump was hotly contested, especially as scores of people opted to vote early or through mail-in ballots.

Here in Minnesota, Biden won the ten electoral votes, with a lead of almost three million in popular votes. Tina Smith won reelection to the Senate with a slimmer ratio of a little over one million votes. Locally, Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig also won reelection in districts five and two respectively. Minnesota did not have any ballot measures this election cycle.

Across the country, Biden flipped several key states that Trump won in the 2016 election, including Wisconsin and Michigan in the Midwest. These two states were among some of the most closely contested states leading up to the election, and many waited anxiously for results to come in after November 3rd. 

A map of election results from The Associated Press

Meanwhile, election week continued well into Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning as ballots were counted in other key states like Pennsylvania and Georgia. Eventually, Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes were called for Biden on Saturday morning, ultimately clinching the election in his favor. Pennsylvania was another state that turned for Trump in 2016, but as mail-in ballots were counted after polls closed on November 3rd and continued to trend Democrat, it seemed likely Biden would flip the state back.

At the time of this writing, the battleground state of Georgia has yet to be called.

The election is a historic one for many reasons. A global pandemic made voting much more difficult as concerns about safety and long lines arose, yet voting records have been broken across the country. With voter turnout at almost 80%, Minnesota had one of the highest voter turnout rates of any state.

Experts speculate about the historic turnout and states Biden managed to flip blue. Millions of young people became eligible to vote in the last four years, and voter turnout among Black women was particularly high, with 90% casting their votes for Biden. Theoretically, more people were eligible to vote in this election than ever before.

Control of the Senate remains undecided due to several runoff elections in Georgia that will be determined officially in early January, while the Democrats retain control of the House for now.

Until he is sworn in this January, Biden will be referred to as the president-elect. His running mate, Kamala Harris, will be the first female, first Black, and first South Asian vice president-elect. It is also the highest position of power a woman has ever held in the United States. 

If you are interested in more statistics from the election, check out The Associated Press website.