Joe Biden Projected Winner in Key Battleground States
The election remains contentious as votes in battleground states are revealed inching Democratic nominee Joe Biden closer to a win
Photo: Wikimedia Commons/David Lienemann
The election remains contentious as votes in battleground states are revealed inching Democratic nominee Joe Biden closer to a win. He’s won Michigan and Wisconsin, previously red states that helped Trump win in 2016, giving him 264 electoral votes to Trump’s 214. Biden made history after receiving more than 71 million votes surpassing President Barack Obama’s tally of 69,498,516. Now if Biden wins Pennsylvania he’ll receive 20 electoral votes making him president-elect with more than the required 270 votes. The state, one of the three “blue wall” states along with Wisconsin and Michigan, contributed to Trump’s win in 2016 but the latest reports show Biden has a 7,000 vote lead.
Earlier today it was announced that Biden was leading in Georgia by a little over 1,500 votes leading Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, to confirm they’ll do a recount. While in Nevada he leads by a little more than 22K votes (and six electoral votes) and the latest numbers indicate a 9,027 vote lead in Pennsylvania.
As mail-in ballots continue to roll in, both candidates have commented on the process with Biden calling for patience and Trump claiming voter fraud.
“The people will not be silenced, be bullied, or surrender. Every vote must be counted,” Biden tweeted, adding “Keep the faith, folks.”
Keep the faith, folks.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 6, 2020
Trump’s team has also reportedly been threatening legal action in states including Georgia and Michigan (they both dismissed the lawsuits) attacking the voting process. Biden’s campaign lawyer Bob Bauer accused the Trump campaign of “continually alleging irregularities, failures of the system and fraud without any basis.” This behavior is not unusual for Trump who alleged systems were rigged or fraudulent when the results didn’t go his way, as then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton pointed out during the debates in 2016 saying “This is how Donald thinks.”
Listen, if you‘re *actually* surprised that #Trump is making outlandish claims about election fraud with precisely zero evidence, then you have not been paying attention . . . pic.twitter.com/rhyVtua7ve
— Jo Lorenz • The Progressivists (@iamjolorenz) November 6, 2020
Biden’s win would also mean a historic moment for his vice president Kamala Harris who would be the first female vice president and the first Black and Asian VP. Biden, who turns 78 on Nov. 20, would also make history as the oldest president to take office, a title formerly held by Ronald Reagon who was 77 when he left office in 1989.
“Democracy is sometimes messy, so sometimes it requires a little patience. But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years with a system of governance that has been the envy of the world,” Biden tweeted as votes are being counted, adding, “I ask people to stay calm. The process is working. The count is being completed.“
