2020 United States presidential election

For related races, see 2020 United States elections.

2020 United States presidential election
← 2016 November 3, 2020[a] 2024 →
538 members of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
Opinion polls
Turnout66.6% (Increase6.5 pp)[b]
 
Nominee Joe Biden Donald Trump
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Delaware Florida[c]
Running mate Kamala Harris Mike Pence
Electoral vote 306 232
States carried 25 + DC + NE-02 25 + ME-02
Popular vote 81,283,501[1] 74,223,975[1]
Percentage 51.3% 46.8%
2020 United States presidential election in California2020 United States presidential election in Oregon2020 United States presidential election in Washington (state)2020 United States presidential election in Idaho2020 United States presidential election in Nevada2020 United States presidential election in Utah2020 United States presidential election in Arizona2020 United States presidential election in Montana2020 United States presidential election in Wyoming2020 United States presidential election in Colorado2020 United States presidential election in New Mexico2020 United States presidential election in North Dakota2020 United States presidential election in South Dakota2020 United States presidential election in Nebraska2020 United States presidential election in Kansas2020 United States presidential election in Oklahoma2020 United States presidential election in Texas2020 United States presidential election in Minnesota2020 United States presidential election in Iowa2020 United States presidential election in Missouri2020 United States presidential election in Arkansas2020 United States presidential election in Louisiana2020 United States presidential election in Wisconsin2020 United States presidential election in Illinois2020 United States presidential election in Michigan2020 United States presidential election in Indiana2020 United States presidential election in Ohio2020 United States presidential election in Kentucky2020 United States presidential election in Tennessee2020 United States presidential election in Mississippi2020 United States presidential election in Alabama2020 United States presidential election in Georgia2020 United States presidential election in Florida2020 United States presidential election in South Carolina2020 United States presidential election in North Carolina2020 United States presidential election in Virginia2020 United States presidential election in West Virginia2020 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia2020 United States presidential election in Maryland2020 United States presidential election in Delaware2020 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania2020 United States presidential election in New Jersey2020 United States presidential election in New York2020 United States presidential election in Connecticut2020 United States presidential election in Rhode Island2020 United States presidential election in Vermont2020 United States presidential election in New Hampshire2020 United States presidential election in Maine2020 United States presidential election in Massachusetts2020 United States presidential election in Hawaii2020 United States presidential election in Alaska2020 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia2020 United States presidential election in Maryland2020 United States presidential election in Delaware2020 United States presidential election in New Jersey2020 United States presidential election in Connecticut2020 United States presidential election in Rhode Island2020 United States presidential election in Massachusetts2020 United States presidential election in Vermont2020 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Biden/Harris and red denotes those won by Trump/Pence. Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state and the District of Columbia
President before election

Donald Trump
Republican

Elected President

Joe Biden
Democratic

2020 U.S. presidential election
Attempts to overturn
Democratic Party
Republican Party
Third parties
Related races
← 2016 2020 2024 →

The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.[a] The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump, and vice president Mike Pence.[9] The election took place against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic and related recession. The election saw the highest voter turnout by percentage since 1900. Biden received more than 81 million votes,[10] the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.[11]

In a competitive primary that featured the most candidates for any political party in the modern era of American politics, Biden secured the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden's running mate, Harris, became the first African-American, first Asian-American, and third female[d] vice presidential nominee on a major party ticket. Trump secured re-nomination, getting a total of 2,549 delegates, one of the most in presidential primary history, in the Republican primaries.[12] Jo Jorgensen secured the Libertarian presidential nomination with Spike Cohen as her running mate, and Howie Hawkins secured the Green presidential nomination with Angela Nicole Walker as his running mate.

The central issues of the election included the public health and economic impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; civil unrest in reaction to the police murder of George Floyd and others; the Supreme Court following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett; and the future of the Affordable Care Act.[13] Due to the ongoing pandemic, a record number of ballots were cast early and by mail.[14] Thirty-eight states had over half of all votes cast using these methods, and only three states had fewer than 25%.[15]

Many more registered Democrats voted by mail than registered Republicans.[16][17] As a result of a large number of mail-in ballots, some swing states saw delays in vote counting and reporting; this led to major news outlets delaying their projection of Biden and Harris as the president-elect and vice president-elect until the morning of November 7, 2020. Major media networks tentatively call a state for a candidate once there is high statistical confidence that the outstanding vote would be unlikely to prevent the projected winner from ultimately winning that state.[18]

Biden received the majority in the Electoral College with 306 electoral votes, while Trump received 232. Trump was the first president to lose re-election since George H. W. Bush in 1992. Key to Biden's victory were his wins in the Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which Trump narrowly carried in 2016 and whose combined 46 electoral votes were enough to swing the election to either candidate. Biden also became the first Democrat to win a presidential election in Georgia since 1992 and in Arizona since 1996, as well as Nebraska's 2nd congressional district since 2008.[19][20]

Before, during, and after Election Day, Trump and numerous other Republicans engaged in an aggressive and unprecedented[21] attempt to subvert the election and overturn the results,[22] falsely alleging widespread voter fraud and trying to influence the vote-counting process in swing states[23] in what has been described as an attempted self-coup d'état.[24][25] Attorney General William Barr and officials in each of the 50 states found no evidence of fraud (widespread or otherwise) or irregularities in the election.[26][27] Federal agencies overseeing election security said it was the most secure in American history.[28][29][30] The Trump campaign and its allies, including Republican members of Congress,[31] continued to attempt to overturn the results of the election by filing numerous lawsuits in several states (most of which were withdrawn or dismissed),[32] spreading conspiracy theories alleging fraud,[33] pressuring Republican state election officials (including, notably, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in a phone call that later became widely publicized) and legislators to change results,[34] pressuring the Department of Justice to declare the election "corrupt" and intervene,[35][36] objecting to the Electoral College certification in Congress,[37][38] and refusing to cooperate with the presidential transition of Biden.[25] With Trump vowing that he would never concede the election and after exhorting his followers to "fight like hell",[39] a mob of Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, during the joint session of Congress held to certify the Electoral College count.[40] On January 7, Trump acknowledged the incoming administration without mentioning Biden's name.[41] Biden and Harris were inaugurated on January 20, 2021; in a break from tradition, Trump did not attend his successor's inauguration.[42] Trump was indicted on August 1, 2023, on four counts relating to conspiring to overturn the results.

Both Trump and Biden ran for their party's nominations in the 2024 election, but Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024. Harris replaced him as presumptive Democratic nominee, with Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. The Harris/Walz ticket went on to lose to Trump and his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, making Trump the first President since Grover Cleveland to be elected to two non-consecutive terms.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference FEC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Federal Elections 2016" (PDF). Federal Election Commission. December 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  3. ^ Table A-1. Reported Voting and Registration by Race, Hispanic Origin, Sex and Age Groups: November 1964 to 2020 Archived August 28, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Census Bureau.
  4. ^ "2020 November General Election Turnout Rates". www.electproject.org. Archived from the original on April 30, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  5. ^ "2016 November General Election Turnout Rates". www.electproject.org.
  6. ^ Choi, Matthew (October 31, 2019). "Trump, a symbol of New York, is officially a Floridian now". Politico. Archived from the original on January 6, 2020. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  7. ^ Knight, Stef W.; Ahmed, Naema (August 13, 2020). "When and how to vote in all 50 states". Axios. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  8. ^ McDonald, Michael (November 6, 2020). "2020 General Election Early Vote Statistics". U.S. Elections Project. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  9. ^ "Biden officially secures enough electors to become president". Associated Press News. December 5, 2020. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  10. ^ "Joe Biden Crosses 80 million votes". Newsweek. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  11. ^ Lewis, Sophie (November 7, 2020). "Joe Biden breaks Obama's record for most votes ever cast for a U.S presidential candidate". CBS News. Archived from the original on December 29, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  12. ^ "Republican Convention 2020". www.thegreenpapers.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  13. ^ *Edsall, Thomas B. (June 3, 2020). "Opinion: The George Floyd Election". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  14. ^ Saul, Stephanie; Hakim, Danny (November 3, 2020). "As Counting Begins, a Flood of Mail Ballots Complicates Vote Tallies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  15. ^ Yoder, Kyle; Tan, April; Martinez-Ruiz, Stefan (March 1, 2024). "The Expansion of Voting Before Election Day, 2000-2024" (PDF). Center for Election Innovation & Research. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  16. ^ Otterbein, Holly (November 3, 2020). "Democrats return nearly three times as many mail-in ballots as Republicans in Pennsylvania". Politico. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
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  18. ^ Wolf, Zachary (October 17, 2020). "It's not magic, it's math. Here's how CNN makes election projections". CNN. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  19. ^ "Joe Biden wins Georgia, turning the state blue for first time since '92". KUTV. November 13, 2020. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  20. ^ "Biden Takes Electoral Vote in 2nd District, Trump Wins Nebraska's 4 Other Votes". Nebraska Public Media. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  21. ^ *Cohen, Marshall (November 5, 2021). "Timeline of the coup: How Trump tried to weaponize the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election". CNN. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  22. ^ Haberman, Maggie; Savage, Charlie; Broadwater, Luke (August 8, 2023). "Previously Secret Memo Laid Out Strategy for Trump to Overturn Biden's Win - The House Jan. 6 committee's investigation did not uncover the memo, whose existence first came to light in last week's indictment". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 9, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  23. ^ *Pennycook, Gordon; Rand, D. G. (2021). "Examining false beliefs about voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 Presidential Election". Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. doi:10.37016/mr-2020-51. hdl:1721.1/144267. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2021. The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election saw an unprecedented number of false claims alleging election fraud and arguing that Donald Trump was the actual winner of the election.
  24. ^ Multiple sources:
    • Harvey, Michael (2022). "Introduction: History's Rhymes". In Harvey, Michael (ed.). Donald Trump in Historical Perspective. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003110361-1. ISBN 978-1-003-11036-1. Archived from the original on June 15, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2024. As with the Beer Hall Putsch, a would-be leader tried to take advantage of an already scheduled event (in Hitler's case, Kahr's speech; in Trump's, Congress's tallying of the electoral votes) to create a dramatic moment with himself at the center of attention, calling for bold action to upend the political order. Unlike Hitler's coup attempt, Trump already held top of office, so he was attempting to hold onto power, not seize it (the precise term for Trump's intended action is a 'self-coup' or 'autogolpe'). Thus, Trump was able to plan for the event well in advance, and with much greater control, including developing the legal arguments that could be used to justify rejecting the election's results. (p3)
    • Pion-Berlin, David; Bruneau, Thomas; Goetze, Richard B. Jr. (April 7, 2022). "The Trump self-coup attempt: comparisons and civil–military relations". Government and Opposition. FirstView (4): 789–806. doi:10.1017/gov.2022.13. S2CID 248033246.
    • Castañeda, Ernesto; Jenks, Daniel (April 17, 2023). Costa, Bruno Ferreira; Parton, Nigel (eds.). "January 6th and De-Democratization in the United States". Social Sciences. 12 (4). MDPI: 238. doi:10.3390/socsci12040238. ISSN 2076-0760. What the United States went through on January 6th was an attempt at a self-coup, where Trump would use force to stay as head of state even if abandoning democratic practices in the U.S. Some advised Trump to declare martial law to create a state of emergency and use that as an excuse to stay in power.
    • Eisen, Norman; Ayer, Donald; Perry, Joshua; Bookbinder, Noah; Perry, E. Danya (June 6, 2022). Trump on Trial: A Guide to the January 6 Hearings and the Question of Criminality (Report). Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on June 9, 2022. Retrieved December 16, 2023. [Trump] tried to delegitimize the election results by disseminating a series of far fetched and evidence-free claims of fraud. Meanwhile, with a ring of close confidants, Trump conceived and implemented unprecedented schemes to – in his own words – "overturn" the election outcome. Among the results of this "Big Lie" campaign were the terrible events of January 6, 2021 – an inflection point in what we now understand was nothing less than an attempted coup.
    • Eastman v Thompson, et al., 8:22-cv-00099-DOC-DFM Document 260, 44 (S.D. Cal. May 28, 2022) ("Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower – it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation's government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process... If Dr. Eastman and President Trump's plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself."), archived from the original.
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    • Musgrave, Paul (January 6, 2021). "This Is a Coup. Why Were Experts So Reluctant to See It Coming?". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
    • Solnit, Rebecca (January 6, 2021). "Call it what it was: a coup attempt". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
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    • Jacobson, Louis (January 6, 2021). "Is this a coup? Here's some history and context to help you decide". PolitiFact. Archived from the original on June 20, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2021. A good case can be made that the storming of the Capitol qualifies as a coup. It's especially so because the rioters entered at precisely the moment when the incumbent's loss was to be formally sealed, and they succeeded in stopping the count.
    • Barry, Dan; Frenkel, Sheera (January 7, 2021). "'Be There. Will Be Wild!': Trump All but Circled the Date". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
    • Duignan, Brian (August 4, 2021). "January 6 U.S. Capitol attack". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved September 22, 2021. Because its object was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office, the attack was widely regarded as an insurrection or attempted coup d'état.
  25. ^ a b Multiple sources:
  26. ^ Balsamo, Michael (December 1, 2020). "Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud". Associated Press News. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
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  30. ^ Chen, Shawna (November 12, 2020). "Department of Homeland Security calls election 'the most secure in American history'". Axios. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
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