2020
The 2020 U.S. presidential election was won by Joe Biden (Democratic) with 306 of 538 electoral votes, defeating Donald Trump (Republican). Electoral vote margin: 74 EV, popular-vote margin +4.5%; turnout 66.6%. The cycle falls in the Modern Polarization era of American electoral history.
Pandemic-era turnout breaks records
Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump in a high-turnout election dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had killed over 230,000 Americans before Election Day. Biden won 81.3 million votes — the most ever recorded — while Trump won 74.2 million, also a record for a losing candidate. Trump refused to concede, claiming widespread fraud, and his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Biden carried Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan — all states Trump had won in 2016.
COVID-19 pandemic; racial justice (George Floyd protests); democracy and election integrity
Record turnout (66.6%); most votes ever (81.3M); Trump's refusal to concede led to January 6 Capitol riot
States · 51 reporting
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Curated picksWhy We're Polarized
Ezra Klein
How modern American politics got this way.
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John Sides et al.
How Trump and the 2020 election reshaped the parties.
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Maggie Haberman
Trump in his own habitat.
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