The 2020 election results have been rolling in for the last few hours.
Joe Biden has won California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming have been called for the President.
Results in Alaska, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania are yet to be announced. Biden presently has a lead in Nevada and appears to have a more logical path to victory. Biden is also ahead in Arizona, but Trump is gaining on him as more votes are counted. The opposite is happening in Georgia and Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead has been shrinking all day.
CNN called Wisconsin for Biden at around 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The Trump campaign is set to demand a recount of the state, citing ‘reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results.’
CNN then declared Michigan for Biden just after 4 p.m. The Trump campaign has also filed suit in Michigan: ‘President Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law. We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted.’
The Trump campaign told reporters on a press call on Tuesday afternoon that ‘we are declaring a victory in Pennsylvania’, per The Spectator’s Amber Athey. The President has also been attempting to prematurely claim victory in the undecided states via his personal Twitter account.
Joe Biden addressed a drive-in crowd of supporters in Wilmington, Delaware, where he described how his campaign were ‘feeling good’ about their prospects, particularly their win in Minnesota and prospective win in Arizona.
‘We knew this was gonna go long. But who knew we were gonna go into tomorrow morning maybe even longer,’ Biden said. ‘But look we feel good about where we are. We really do. I’m here to tell you tonight we believe we’re on track to win this election.’
‘We knew because of the mail-in voting this would take longer than usual…it ain’t over until every ballot is counted. Every vote is counted.
‘We’re confident about Arizona,’ he continued. ‘That’s a turnaround. We also just won Minnesota. And we’re still in the game in Georgia. We’re feeling really good about Wisconsin and Michigan. And by the way it’s going to take time to count the votes but we’re going to win Pennsylvania.
‘As I’ve said all along it’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to say who won this election.
‘I’m grateful to the poll workers, the volunteers, the canvassers — everyone who’s participated in this democratic process.’
‘Keep the faith guys,’ he concluded. ‘We’re gonna win this. Your patience is great.’
Donald Trump, in response, tweeted ‘I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!’ and ‘We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!’ In a since-deleted version of the tweet, the President spelled it ‘Poles’. His latter tweet has been branded ‘disputed’ and so potentially ‘misleading’ by Twitter.
I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
Trump’s speech, delivered to an audience of around 100 in the White House a little after 2:30 a.m. ET, lived up to expectations. The President one-upped Biden’s declaration of confidence by prematurely claiming victory in states where votes are still being counted: ‘This is a fraud on the American public, this is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election, frankly we did win this election. We are going to the Supreme Court to prevent them finding new ballots at four o’clock in the morning. We will win this and as far as I’m concerned, we already have.’ Pundits left, right and center interpreted the President’s comments as a grave threat to the American democratic process.
FiveThirtyEight gave President Trump a 50 percent chance of winning the electoral college at around 9 on Tuesday night. Bookies in the United Kingdom had made him the favorite to win.
President Trump won Texas and its 38 Electoral College votes by nine points. He also won Florida, where Biden dramatically under-performed in Miami-Dade County compared to Hillary Clinton four years ago. This suggests something the Republican party spent all Election Day saying might be true — the Democrats cannibalized their urban vote with early voting, so they did not have that same on-the-day advantage which they formerly had in so many battleground cities. Trump over-performed with Hispanic voters in the state. It looks like Biden’s strategy of playing ‘Despacito’ on his cell phone did not pay off.
Arizona, with its 10 electoral votes, was declared for Joe Biden by Fox News. Their call was considered to be controversial, with many on the right including Arizona’s governor and the Trump campaign angry at what they perceived to be an early call. AP also called Arizona for Biden at just before 3 a.m. The Trump campaign however remain confident that once the votes are counted, the Sun Belt state will land in their column.
In the Midwest, the AP called Minnesota for Joe Biden and Iowa for Donald Trump at just past midnight Eastern time.
But Trump did win Ohio. Biden was ahead in the Buckeye State early in the night, but a source close to the Trump campaign said at around 9 p.m. that a significant number of the votes yet to come in were likely Republican, as early votes and the cities were among the first counted.
Cory Gardner has lost his Senate seat in Colorado to John Hickenlooper, while Democrat Doug Jones was defeated by Tommy Tuberville in the Alabama Senate race. Sen. Gary Peters fought off a vigorous challenge in Michigan from Republican John James. Republicans Bill Hagerty, Cynthia Lummis and Roger Marshall have won the vacant Senate seats in Tennessee, Wyoming and Kansas respectively, while Democrat Ben Ray Luján has won the Senate seat for New Mexico. And Democratic challenger Mark Kelly has beaten incumbent Martha McSally in the Arizona Senate race.
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Sen. Mitch McConnell has won reelection in Kentucky, where Democrats had spent $50 million trying to unseat him. Republican senators Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, Susan Collins in Maine, John Cornyn in Texas, Tom Cotton in Arkansas, Steve Daines in Montana, Joni Ernst in Iowa, Lindsay Graham in South Carolina, Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, Jim Inhofe in Oklahoma, Shelley Moore Caputo in West Virginia, Jim Risch in Idaho, Mike Rounds in South Dakota and Ben Sasse in Nebraska have also held their seats, as have Democratic senators Cory Booker in New Jersey, Chris Coons in Delaware, Richard Durbin in Illinois, Ed Markey in Massachusetts, Jack Reed in Rhode Island, Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, Tina Smith in Minnesota and Mark Warner in Virginia. In Georgia, Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler will advance to a run-off election.
We are awaiting the results of the Senate races between Cal Cunningham and Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Al Gross and Dan Sullivan in Alaska, Jon Ossoff and David Perdue in Georgia, and Gary Peters and John James in Michigan.
Fox News’s Decision Desk is projecting that the Democrats will retain control of the House.
So far all incumbent governors have won reelection: Doug Burgum in North Dakota, John Carney in Delaware, Eric Holcomb in Indiana, Jay Inslee in Washington, Jim Justice in West Virginia, Mike Parson in Missouri, Phil Scott in Vermont and Chris Sununu in New Hampshire
