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- By Levi Rickert
Breaking News. WASHINGTON — Joseph Biden, from the state of Delaware, has been elected the 46th president of the United States. Biden in his third run for president beat the Republican incumbent President Donald Trump.
After four long days since Election Day on Tuesday to ensure all legal votes were counted, the Associated Press today proclaimed Biden the victor of the 2020 presidential election. The presidential race could not be called until a candidate crossed the 270 votes threshold required to win the Electoral College.
The vote tally from Pennsylvanis allowed Biden to cross the threshold.
While Biden has secured the Electoral College win, the counting of votes continues in states that still have not declared their winner of the presidential election. With Biden winning Pennsylvania does not need to win any other states still too close to call. The states that have yet to be called are Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
As of now, Biden won the popular vote with over 74 million votes (50.5 percent) to 70 million (47.7 percent) for Trump.
Biden’s votes represent the highest number in the history of the United States won by a candidate for the nation’s highest elective office.
The presidential election took place in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic that has afflicted more than nine million in the United States and has caused the deaths of over 230,000 Americans.
The pandemic, in part, caused the delay in the voter count because of the unprecedented number of Americans who chose to vote by mail-in ballot.
While historians will ultimately examine the reason for Trump becoming the first one-term president since Pres. George H.W. Bush, who was defeated by Pres. Bill Clinton in 1992, it appears Trump’s mishandling of the Covid-19 cost him the 2020 presidential election.
Biden will have to govern a divided nation. He has said often during the last weeks of the campaign, “I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president.”
Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) will be inaugurated on January 21, 2021. At 77-years-old, Biden will be the oldest man ever to assume the presidency. Harris will be the first women, African American and Asian Indian ever elected vice president of the United States.
For Biden, he becomes only the sixth vice president in history to be elected president.
The Biden for President campaign actively sought the Indian Country votes. One major move was when the campaign hired Clara Pratte (Navajo) as the tribal engagement director. In early October, the Biden for President campaign released a 12-page Biden-Harris Plan for Tribal Nations.
Pratte worked feverishly to reach Indian Country. She connected with tribal leaders and tribal political operatives during her tenure.
“The Biden team did not make the mistake of ignoring our tribal communities. We went hard and had meaningful conversations with tribal leaders and tribal members,” Pratte said to Native News Online. “We also had incredible teams in the states and volunteers throughout the country focused on indigenous peoples. We know solidly they came out for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Our tribal nations’ plan was robust, actionable and meaningful.”
Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden was born into a working-class family. He recalls he had to move in with his grandparents when his father lost his job and had to move to Delaware to find employment.
His road to the White House began when he was first elected a U.S. senator representing Delaware when he was only a 29-year-old young man. He served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009, when he resigned to become President Barack Obama’s vice president. During part of the time Biden served in the Senate, he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee.
During his tenure as vice president, Biden developed a close relationship with Obama, who surprised him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with distinction, on January 12, 2017, just days before they left office.
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