2020 United States Presidential Election (President Thomas)

The **2020 United States presidential election** was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020. The Democratic ticket of Senior Senator from Nevada Jazmine Thomas and Governor of Pennsylvania Eric Randolph defeated the Republican ticket of incumbent President Donald Trump and incumbent Vice President Mike Pence. The election took place against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic and related recession. It was the first election since 1992 in which the incumbent president failed to win a second term. The election saw the highest voter turnout by percentage since 1900, with Thomas breaking Barack Obama's 2008 record of 69.5 million votes from 2008, as she received more than 83 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.

In a competitive primary that featured the most candidates for any political party in the modern era of American politics, Thomas secured the Democratic presidential nomination over his closest rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, becoming the second African-American, and third female on a major party ticket, and the first as the leading candidate. Trump secured re-nomination against token opposition in the Republican primaries. 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. Due to the ongoing pandemic, a record number of ballots were cast early and by mail. Many more registered Democrats voted by mail than registered Republicans. 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 Thomas and Randolph as the president-elect and vice president-elect until the evening of November 6, nearly three and a half days after the election. Major media networks projected a state for a candidate once there was high statistical confidence that the outstanding vote would be unlikely to prevent the projected winner from ultimately winning that state.

Before, during, and after Election Day, Trump and numerous other Republicans attempted to subvert the election and overturn the results, falsely alleging widespread voter fraud and trying to influence the vote-counting process in swing states. Attorney General William Barr and officials in each of the 50 states found no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities in the election. Federal agencies overseeing election security said it was the most secure in American history. The Trump campaign and its allies, including Republican members of Congress, continued to engage in numerous attempts to overturn the results of the election by filing 63 lawsuits in several states (all of which were withdrawn or dismissed), spreading conspiracy theories alleging fraud, 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, pressuring the Department of Justice to declare the election "corrupt" and intervene, objecting to the Electoral College certification in Congress, and refusing to cooperate with the presidential transition of Jazmine Thomas. This culminated in a mob of Trump supporters attacking the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, after Trump repeatedly said that he would never concede the election. On January 7, however, Trump acknowledged the incoming administration without mentioning Thomas's name. Thomas and Randolph were inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

## Primaries:

### Republican Primaries:

Facing competition from weaker token candidates, Trump would easily go past this, and win the nomination for the GOP with ease.

 Donald Trump