Biden projected to become the next president of the United States

Over three days after Americans went to the polls and with thousands of Democrat-breaking ballots left uncounted, several media outlets, including CNN and Sky News, have projected that Joseph R Biden will surpass the 270 electoral college votes needed to become the 46th president of the United States.

Joe Biden

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore

Joe Biden received more than 75 million votes, the most of any presidential hopeful, and with all but four states left to declare the former vice-president has 279 electoral college votes compared to Donald J Trump's 214. 

Over 70 million Americans cast their vote in favour of the outgoing President, which is the second-highest number of ballots cast for a candidate in the race for the White House.

In a written statement, the Democrat nominee said he was "honoured and humbled" to be entrusted by the American people and stressed that it was time for the nation to "unite and heal".

"With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation", added President-elect Biden.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated Biden and Harris. He said: "The U.S. is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities from climate change to trade and security."

Trump, who will be the first president since George HW Bush to fail to secure re-election the White House, is reported to have found out that Biden is projected to win the state of Pennsylvania and tip past 270 electoral college votes on one of his golf courses in Virginia. 

Whilst travelling to the golf course, the 45th president tweeted: "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!"

President Trump refused to concede defeat and has said that he "will not rest until the American people have the honest vote count they deserve and that democracy demands.”

Since then his lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, has confirmed that Trump's team intends to initiate numerous lawsuits in multiple swing states on Monday.

Nevertheless, the Trump campaign has not provided any evidence that there has been any irregularity in counting ballots or voter fraud. 

Biden, who at 78-years-old will be America's oldest president, managed to erode Trump's election night lead in several key battleground states, including the so-called “blue wall” Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Great Lake States proved decisive to Trump's 2016 victory against Hillary R Clinton. But Biden leads Trump by 0.5 points in Pennsylvania, 2.7 per cent in Michigan and 20,000 votes in Wisconsin. 

However, the Biden-Harris ticket also benefited from a rather offensive campaign. Whilst the Lone Star State of Texas remains red; the Democrats are projected to flip the reliably Republican states of Arizona and Georgia.

In Georgia, Trump led well into election night, but with 99 per cent of ballots counted Biden now commands a lead of little more than 7,000 votes.

The state has backed the Republican candidate in eight of the 10 most recent races. The only exceptions came when the former state governor, Jimmy Carter, lost his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan in 1980 and when fellow southerner, Bill Clinton, won in 1992.

Nevertheless, the Peach State is set to go to a recount over the coming weeks.

To the west, Arizona's Republican leanings have been even more robust. Since 1952, only Bill Clinton could flip the red state. Even Obama's successful 2008 bid could not alter Arizona's Republican tendencies. That said, Obama was against the state's former governor, John McCain.

Arizona is still yet to count the last 10 per cent of its ballots but was projected early on election night by Fox News to flip from red to blue. 

This provoked anger from the Trump campaign, and the president's team is reported to have spoken to the network's owner, Rupert Murdoch, about the projection.

Nonetheless, yet again Trump defied the pollsters and political pundits by making what was seen as a sure victory for Biden a scrap to the very end.

Many pundits and polling companies projected that the Biden-Harris ticket would wipe out Trump and, more importantly, Trumpism.

But given Trump’s defiance of the pundits’ predictions, his success in preventing the Democrats from taking control of the Senate, and his newfound popularity amongst Hispanic voters, there evidently remains an appetite for Trumpian politics across the pond.

Sky News’ Ed Conway argued that “the cult of Donald Trump has not ended. The American people came out and voted for their president in numbers far greater than anyone had anticipated.” 

There is now growing speculation that the narrative forged by the Trump campaign is actually being deployed to springboard the 45th President into launching a third bid for the presidency in 2024. 

The Grand Old Party managed to retain a majority of its seats in the Senate and has managed to make gains in the House of Representatives. 

Trump extended his lead from 2016 in some states and he retained Florida and Ohio, historically two of the nation’s most important swing states, with relative ease.

Carrying both Florida and Ohio was essential for the Trump team because no Republican candidate has been elected president without carrying the two.

Whilst the two states are of less significance to the Democrats, John F Kennedy's victory in 1960 is the only occasion that a post-war president from either party has won the race to the White House without victory in either Florida or Ohio.

This gave some false hope of a Trump re-election on Wednesday, and at some points, the bookies' odds tipped away from Biden.

But in 2020, Trump’s convincing victories in Florida and Ohio will be of little significance in the race to 270. 

Joe Biden's path to power has been a long one. He was first elected as the senator for Delaware in 1972 and went on to serve for six terms. Later on, Biden had two unsuccessful bids for the White House before being selected as Obama's running mate in 2008.

But Biden's success is also monumental because his running mate, Kamala Harris, will become the first woman and first person of colour to be elected by the American people on a general election ticket.

Biden and Harris’ symbolic victory has been touted as a turning point in American political history.

It has brought to an end four years of populism and returned American politics back to the status quo.