2020 US Presidential election: Biden vs Trump

== Background ==
Despite being historically unpopular amongst the Democratic party, President Trump seemed destined for reelection. This was mainly because the Democratic party was struggling to find a candidate who could unite all of them. Throughout 2018 and most of 2019, former vice president Joe Biden maintained a large lead in the polls and it seemed imminent that he would become the Democratic nominee. However, his Democratic challengers, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg began surging in the polls and Biden's lead gradually diminished to nothing. Although a technology problem in Iowa caused a delay of the caucus results, it was established immediately that Biden was crushed there, finishing in a distant fourth. Biden fared worse in New Hampshire, finishing in an embarrassing fifth place. However, Biden rebounded with a huge victory in the South Carolina primary. Bernie Sanders countered by easily winning the Nevada caucuses. One by one, everyone except Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren dropped out.
Super Tuesday was expected to be a decisive victory for Bernie Sanders across most states. However, Joe Biden won huge upset victories in Massachusetts, Maine, Texas, and Minnesota- all states that were expected to be in Sanders' column. Biden thus became the established front runner.
== After Super Tuesday ==
Only a couple weeks after Super Tuesday, the United States was thrown into a recession because of widespread business closures due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Most people did not see this coming, but it became clear in the following weeks that the coronavirus had been manifesting itself across the United States for months. This made president Trump very unpopular because he had ignored the warnings about the virus and did not take it seriously. He also told many egregious lies about the virus; perhaps the most ridiculous was that people could inject themselves with disinfectants to cure themselves. 
Although the worst of the virus was over by June, its effects still caused the economy to suffer throughout the summer, especially because officials were warning of a virus resurgence in the fall. Trump, however, declared the United States "victorious" against the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the rest of the caucuses and primaries were conducted mostly by mail only. At this point, Biden was the presumptive nominee. In July, Biden selected California senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate.
Throughout the summer, Biden was leading in the polls in most battleground states. Many undecided voters said that they were now going to vote Democratic because of Trump's poor response to the virus. As the weather started to cool in October, the number of coronavirus cases started to increase again in America. Biden and Trump participated in 3 debates. Biden criticized Trump for not taking the virus seriously and said that a Biden administration would rely off of the data and advice provided by medical authorities. Trump did not really have much of a defense for all of this because the economy was a smoldering crater and it was clear that he failed to protect people.
On election day, voter turnout was historically high. As a result, Biden won back almost every battleground state that Hillary Clinton had lost 4 years previously, except for Ohio, where Trump won over 60% of the vote. Biden also flipped Arizona and narrowly won the state of Texas; the latter of these states turning blue was a gut punch to the Republican party. Thus, Biden's victory was the largest Democratic landslide since 1964.
Category:Elections