Joe Biden has won the US Presidential election.
After days of counting, millions of votes, and several calls to stop the process altogether, the 46th President of the United States has finally been named – and it’s Joe Biden.
The Democratic candidate emerged victorious today and is projected by news agencies across the world to be the next President of the United States after a race that at times seemed almost too close to call.
Biden needed 270 electoral votes to win and he finally secured them this evening after a win in Pennsylvania.
After the announcement, Biden tweeted:
America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country.
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. pic.twitter.com/moA9qhmjn8
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 7, 2020
The US President-Elect echoed similar sentiments over the last few days, stating that he was confident that his lead over Donald Trump would be enough to win the election.
“I am not here to declare that we have won,” he said at the time. “But I am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.
“Once this election is finalised and behind us, it will be time to do what we have always done as Americans, to put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us… to unite, to heal, to come together as a nation.”
This year’s US Presidential election took place on November 3, not long after the ballot count got underway, Donald Trump had already dubbed the election a “fraud” and demanding that any and all counting stop.
He also claimed that he had already won the race (he had not), and stating that it was “VERY STRANGE” (his caps, not ours) that States he had seemed to win the night before, now belonged to Biden.
As the first day of counts wore on, it became clear that Biden had won the popular vote by a landslide.
It wasn’t long before he surpassed the most votes ever recorded for one Presidential candidate in US history, when he amassed a running total of over 69,600,000 by the middle of Wednesday.
President Obama won with 69,498,516 votes during his first run in 2008 – the highest amount of votes ever recorded for a candidate at the time.
Meanwhile Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, has made history today as the first woman to become the Vice President of the United States of America:
Kamala Harris made history as the first Black woman to become vice president. The California senator, who is also the first person of South Asian descent elected VP, will become the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in government. #Election2020https://t.co/Mnlwk62nhO
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 7, 2020
Harris took to her Instagram account this evening and shared a video of her on a phone call with the new President-Elect.
