US Election 2020 Results Highlights: Democrat Joe Biden said early Wednesday he believes he is “on track” to defeating US President Donald Trump, and called for Americans to have patience with vote-counting as several swing states remain up in the air.
US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden were locked in tight races in battleground states across the country as they concluded an epic campaign that will shape America’s response to the surging pandemic and foundational questions of economic fairness and racial justice.
The results are flowing in, with US media projecting wins for the Republican incumbent so far in 23 states including big prizes Florida and Texas, as well as Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio – all states he won in 2016. Biden has captured 18 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital. As with Trump, so far, all states claimed by Biden were won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Follow all the live updates here.
Here are the highlights of the election so far:
What’s Happened So Far: US President Donald Trump is leading Democratic rival Joe Biden in the vital battleground state of Florida and in several other competitive swing states that will help decide the election, including North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Fox News network projected Trump would win Florida, while CNN projected a win in Ohio. Biden was eyeing the so-called “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that sent Trump to the White House in 2016, but vote counting could stretch for hours or days there.
Trump held early leads in those three states, but much of that was built on Republican-heavy Election Day voting. The counting of mail-in ballots in all three states was expected to take hours or days. Fox News projected Biden would win Arizona, giving him a potential path to victory with the “blue wall” states.
Biden Statement: Projecting confidence, Biden, speaking in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, said he was “feeling good,” about the results, but urged patience as the votes continued to be counted in several key states across the country.
“We believe we are on track to win this election.” Biden told supporters in nationally broadcast remarks, adding: “It ain’t over until every vote is counted.” The 77-year-old former vice president also said he was “confident” about the state of Arizona, a battleground that Trump won in 2016 but which Biden was substantially leading in with about 77 percent of ballots counted.
Trump to Move US Supreme Court: US President Donald Trump said he will go to the Supreme Court to dispute the election count and proclaimed victory over Democratic challenger Joe Biden despite incomplete results from several battleground states that could determine the outcome of the White House race.
“Frankly, we did win,” Trump told supporters at the White House. The Republican, who according to initial results, is in a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Joe Biden, said he would go to court and “we want all voting to stop.” He appeared to mean stopping the counting of mail-in ballots which can be legally accepted by state election boards after Tuesday’s election, provided they were sent in time.
Trump Takes Florida: President Donald Trump was declared the winner in Florida after pulling off a remarkable turnaround from 2016 in the Miami area, wooing conservative Cuban American voters and other Latino groups in numbers sufficient to overcome Joe Biden’s middling gains with white Floridians.
It was a big moment for his reelection hopes, mainly because it would have been all but impossible for him to win back the White House without capturing this state’s 29 Electoral College votes again.
What Trump’s Florida Election Win Means: President Donald Trump is leading Democratic rival Joe Biden in the vital battleground state of Florida on Tuesday, while other competitive swing states that will help decide the election outcome, remained up in the air. The Biden campaign, CNN reports, argue that Florida is unique, not the beginning of a trend.
They are still confident about their standing in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin – and advisers are optimistic about what they are seeing in North Carolina. But for Biden world, a Trump Florida win ensures one thing: This race will be dramatically close and they do not foresee any type of landslide tonight.
Pennsylvania to be Crucial: By most forecasters’ estimates, there is no state more crucial to either candidates’ path than Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes. Donald Trump won it in 2016 as he barreled through the Democrats’ “Blue Wall,” taking Michigan and Wisconsin, too. But Joe Biden, who was born in Scranton, maintained a modest lead in most 2020 pre-election polling. The key for Biden is juicing turnout in Philadelphia, especially among Black and Latino votes, and its surrounding suburbs. For Trump, it’s a trickier proposition.
Twitter Flags Trump Tweet: Twitter on Wednesday flagged a tweet in which President Donald Trump accused Democrats of trying to steal the presidential election. “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election,” Trump wrote on Twitter moments after Biden told supporters he expected to win. Twitter quickly flagged and hid the Trump tweet, saying “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.” In his tweet Trump said nothing to back up his charge of theft.
Democrats Retain Control of House of Representatives: Democrats will keep their House majority, US media has projected, as the major U.S. parties jockeyed for control of the White House and Senate in the 2020 election. Democrats entered Election Day heavily favored to keep control of the chamber. The biggest question was whether they could expand their advantage. Democrats have a 232-197 majority in the current Congress. One representative is a Libertarian, while the House has five vacancies.
Record Voter Turnout: The 2020 US election is on pace to attract the highest voter turnout in more than a century, with close to 102 million early votes cast in person and by mail before the polls even opened on Election Day. The huge turnout appeared to be spurred by the momentous issues that have upended the lives of nearly every American, including the surging coronavirus outbreak and the struggling economy, the political passions of the Trump era, and the steps that many states took this year to make voting easier and safer during the pandemic.
Control of Senate at Stake: Republican Senator Cory Gardner was defeated on Tuesday in Colorado by former Governor John Hickenlooper, giving the Democrats their first victory of an election battle in which they are attempting to win control of the U.S. Senate.
However, that win was quickly offset by the loss of Democratic Senator Doug Jones in Alabama, while veteran Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn fended off Democratic challenges in South Carolina and Texas. Control of the Senate may not become clear for some time. Final results from at least five of the contests may not be available for days, and in some cases, months.
What Pre-Election Surveys Said: Pre-election polls showed Joe Biden was 10 percentage points ahead of Donald Trump in national polling average. The national polling average of Joe Biden is at 52 per cent, while Donald Trump looks way behind at 42 per cent. If the polls are right, Joe Biden could post the most decisive victory in a presidential election in 3 1/2 decades, surpassing Bill Clinton’s win in 1996.
How long will counting take? Although many winners may be evident quickly after polls close, the increase in postal voting because of the coronavirus pandemic is expected to push back the release of full results in many key states. The New York Times reported that only nine states expect to have at least 98 per cent of unofficial results reported by noon the day after the election. Officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two key battleground states, have said full official counts could take several days.
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