Joe Biden became president-elect Nov. 7 after winning Pennsylvania securing 273 votes then cemented on December 14th with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 votes. In the national popular vote, Biden received 81.2 million votes and Trump received 74.2 million votes. The Electoral College vote is typically a formality, occurring more than a month after Election Day votes are cast. But Trump’s unprecedented legal and legislative efforts to overturn the election results this year have imparted a greater significance upon the proceedings. The result also provided a history-making moment for President-elect Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, who became the first woman, and first Black and South Asian American elected vice president in a country that has been driven by racial tensions. Mr. Biden, 77, who will become the 46th president and the oldest man ever sworn into the office, on Jan. 20. The November presidential election saw record-high turnout following a general election campaign in which large numbers of registered voters consistently reported high levels of interest in the election and its outcome.
Voters overcame their fears of the coronavirus, long lines at the polls and the vexing challenges of a transformed election system to render a verdict on Mr. Trump’s chaotic and norm-breaking presidency. Mr. Trump was the first incumbent president to lose a bid for re-election since George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.
With his third run for the White House — after unsuccessful bids in 1988 and 2008, and after spending eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president; Mr. Biden finally attained a goal that he has dreamed of for decades. He was swept into office this year with the support of a diverse coalition of younger voters, older voters, Black Americans and white college-educated voters, particularly women. After an extraordinary race in which he campaigned as an elder statesman, Biden is seeking to restore civility and stability to American politics and to expand the government’s role in guiding the country through the surging coronavirus pandemic. Scientists and the world are breathing a collective sigh of relief. But concerns remain: nearly half of voters cast their ballots for President Donald Trump, whose actions have repeatedly undermined science and scientific institutions. Biden will have his work cut out for him in January as he takes the helm of a politically polarized nation. Once Biden takes office on 20 January, he will have an opportunity to reverse many policies introduced by the Trump administration that were damaging to science and public health. This includes actions on climate change, immigration and the COVID-19 pandemic, which could claim more than a quarter of a million lives in the United States before Trump leaves office in January. Researchers are hopeful that much of the damage can be repaired.
Biden, a Democrat who served as vice-president under former president Barack Obama, has promised to ramp up US test-and-trace programs to help bring the coronavirus under control, to rejoin the 2015 Paris climate agreement to fight global warming, and to reverse travel bans and visa restrictions that have made the United States a less desirable destination for foreign researchers. Biden’s vice-president elect, Kamala Harris, an attorney and US senator from California, will be the first woman to achieve one of the top two offices in the country.
All we can hope transition will be peaceful while the US is struggling to deal with the coronavirus, which to date has claimed as many American lives as those lost in World World II.
By Alizé Utteryn 12/16/2020
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