Finally, on Nov. 7, after almost a week of waiting, the American people got a definitive response as to who their next president-elect would be. As of Saturday, Joseph R. Biden, former vice president under the Obama administration, is the president-elect of the United States.
The result came after days of waiting for key battleground states to count all of their votes. Biden flipped Michigan and Wisconsin, who voted Republican in the 2016 Presidential Election, and had a lead in Arizona and Nevada, with an extremely close race in Georgia and Pennsylvania. Once the Associated Press called Arizona for Biden, awarding him with 11 electoral votes, he only needed six more to reach 270 electoral votes and win the presidency. All that was needed was for him to win Nevada, which would provide him with the six necessary votes.
However, on Saturday morning, it was confirmed that Biden had won Pennsylvania after multiple days of counting votes with the state fluctuating between Biden and incumbent Donald Trump. This victory awarded Biden with 20 electoral votes, putting him over the threshold of 270 votes.
The Biden and Kamala Harris win turned into a historic victory. Harris will be the country’s first female, black and South Asian vice president.
In her victory speech on Saturday, Harris emphasized how important her position is in the grand scheme of things, since now little girls of all races can look up to her as a role model and see themselves in her shoes.
“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she said.
Michael Pepe ‘22 is thankful that the election is over and hopes that the country will move forward in a positive direction.
“Election day? More like election week,” he joked.
Pepe also expressed frustration with the divisive nature of politics over the past four years.
“It’s a real shame how divided this nation became,” he said. “There are rallies celebrating Trump’s loss and anti-celebrations for Biden’s win. I’m not asking for people to always get along, but to at least respect each other and not fight.”
In his victory speech on Saturday evening in his home state of Delaware, Biden emphasized that his presidency will focus on uniting the country after a divisive four years under Trump.
“I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify, who doesn’t see red and blue states, but the United States. And who will work with all my heart to win the confidence of the whole people,” Biden said.
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