Democratic hopes of presidential nominee Joe Biden cruising to an easy victory have been dashed as he and President Trump notch razor-thin margins early on election night.
Biden’s campaign projected confidence in the closing days of his bid that the two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator had expanded the Democratic electoral map, forging multiple pathways to 270 electoral votes.
Yet hours after polls started closing across the country, another tighter narrative began to emerge.
Trump won Florida and its 29 electoral votes, and Texas and its 38 electoral votes. And though still in the initial stages of counting votes, he’s performing well in Georgia. Biden’s lead in North Carolina and Ohio also evaporated as Election Day ballots were taken into account.
Arizona, however, may be a bright spot for Biden. He appears to have picked up the state’s 11 electoral votes, the first time voters there have supported a Democratic candidate since electing former President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Trained political eyes will be watching the “blue wall,” a block of once reliably Democratic Upper Midwest states that Trump smashed four years ago. Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes, is perpetuating its reputation as the Keystone State. It’s his best hope of preventing Biden from replacing him in the Oval Office.
Trump, so far, has won Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming, according to the Associated Press.
Biden has taken California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.
As the White House race rages on, so does the battle for Senate control.
Two-term Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper ousted incumbent Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in their state, flipping the first Senate seat of the night. And although Democratic retired astronaut Mark Kelly beat sitting Republican-appointed Sen. Martha McSally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst fended off high-profile Democratic challengers, while Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones fell to Republican Tommy Tuberville. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue, and North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis all lead, but their races remain uncalled.
Democrats need to gain three to four seats for a Senate majority, depending on who wins the presidency.
Biden was favored to win the top-of-the-ticket contest based on steady national polls (and less stable state surveys). But Democrats were wary of overconfidence after 2016 Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton’s shock defeat in 2016.
In the aftermath of the election, Democratic strategists are going to grapple with whether they managed the Biden campaign correctly amid the coronavirus pandemic. His team opted to remain virtual for longer than its Trump counterpart, and after Labor Day, hosted a string of drive-in rallies in lieu of traditional get-out-the-vote events. Over the weekend, Democrats already voiced concern about black and Hispanic turnout in Florida’s Miami-Dade County.
Trump aides had alluded to the prospect of the president declaring victory if early results in Sunbelt states such as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas favored him. Those states tend to report their vote totals quickly, yet Georgia and North Carolina election officials delayed some of their deadlines due to technological snafus.
The posturing was in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling providing Pennsylvania with extra time to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day.
“You have to have numbers. You can’t have these things delayed for many days and maybe weeks. You can’t do that. The whole world is waiting. This country is waiting, but the whole world is waiting,” said Trump during a visit to the Republican National Committee’s headquarters, his only public event of the day.
Biden kept himself busy on Tuesday, making several stops in Pennsylvania, showing two of his granddaughters his childhood home in Scranton for the first time.
Trump watched the returns roll in from the White House, hosting about 400 people in the executive compound.
Biden, like throughout most of his general election bid, was based in Wilmington, Delaware. His staff said he’d addressed the nation from the Chase Center sometime during the evening, no matter the outcome.
