2020:

Biden v Trump

Supporters at North Carolina Protect Our Votes Rally
NC Rally to Protect Our Votes with Team Democracy

A Tumultuous Year

On January 21st, 2020, the first case of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, was diagnosed in the United States1. Over the next two years, cases spread rapidly and shut down many parts of American life1. Coinciding with the pandemic, campaign season for the upcoming presidential election was in full swing. From the first detection of COVID-19 in January to Election Day in November, the U.S. had over 9.4 million cases and 232,000 deaths2.

Running for re-election, President Donald Trump swept through the Republican primary, facing little opposition on his way to the general election3. On the other side, former Vice President Joe Biden held off Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, winning 2727 delegates to Sanders’ 1118 delegates3.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered the campaign between Trump and Biden. With mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and advisories against large gatherings at the time, much of the campaign happened online and on social media4.

Throughout 2020, the high-profile killings of unarmed Black Americans by police officers also presented a highly salient issue during the campaign4. Racial justice and social unrest were heavily covered topics in the news media and by Democratic candidates in the primaries4.

In sum, between a global health pandemic and revived social movements regarding race, the events of the year upended any sense of normalcy in the 2020 campaign.

Election Night 2020

Due to the pandemic, in 2020, 43 out of 50 states allowed voters to vote by mail5. Only seven states required voters to have an excuse (outside of public health concerns) to request an absentee/mail-in ballot5. In total, about three-quarters of Americans were allowed to vote by mail if they so chose5.

Due to the certification and counting procedures accompanying mail-in voting, the results on election night were slow to come in. Some states, like the swing-states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, did not allow mail-in ballots to be opened and counted until Election Day6. Because of these processes, people who voted in person saw their votes reflected quickly on election night, while mail-in votes took longer to appear in the results7.

Because of this process, with in-person votes showing up early and mail-in votes slowly trickling in, the night started with Trump leading in many swing states7. As more mail-in ballots were counted, Trump’s lead in some swing states started to dissipate7. As this “red mirage” began to disappear, Trump went out and gave the following statement:

“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election… We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.” 8

Fraud Allegations

Unlike most American presidential elections, the winner could not be called on election night. As mail-in ballots continued to be processed, the election extended to Saturday, November 7th, when Pennsylvania went to Joe Biden and put Biden above the requisite 270 electoral votes9.

In the following weeks, President Trump continued to rail against the election outcome. He refused to concede and spread baseless claims of rampant voter fraud10. Trump alleged that the election had been stolen from him, specifically in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin10.

Trump and his associates, like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, filed numerous lawsuits in each of the swing states11. Giuliani’s actions and false accusations eventually led to his disbarment in Washington, D.C.11. Giuliani was found to have given “demonstrably false and misleading statements” in court11. Of the over 60 election lawsuits filed, all ultimately failed in court or were quickly dismissed12.

President Trump also allegedly used less-than-legal means to attempt to influence the election outcome. On a recorded call to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Trump demanded the following:

“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have… There’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.”13

After three separate counts of the ballots in Georgia, Biden won the state by an 11,779-vote margin13. Eventually, with all legal options exhausted, Trump began to pressure his vice president, Mike Pence, to reject the electoral votes cast for Biden on January 6th, 2021, when Congress met to certify the election results14. Despite numerous Republican objections to some states’ electoral votes, Pence and Congress certified Biden as the winner.

Trump’s false allegations of fraud also led to the January 6th Capitol Riot, when hundreds of his supporters assaulted Capitol police officers and disrupted the congressional proceedings14. Before his supporters marched from the Ellipse outside the White House to the Capitol Building, Trump said:

“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore… We must stop the steal and then we must ensure that such outrageous election fraud never happens again, can never be allowed to happen again… So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we’re going to the Capitol.”14

Following his actions on January 6th, the House impeached Trump for the second time during his first term14.

References

  1. Schumaker, E. (2020, September 22). Timeline: How Coronavirus Got Started. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/timeline-coronavirus-started/story?id=69435165 ↩ ↩2

  2. Algara, C., Amlani, S., Collitt, S., Hale, I., & Kazemian, S. (2024). Nail in the Coffin or Lifeline? Evaluating the Electoral Impact of COVID-19 on President Trump in the 2020 Election. Political Behavior, 46(1), 277–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-022-09826-x ↩

  3. CNN. (2020). View 2020 primary and caucus results. https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/primaries-and-caucuses ↩ ↩2

  4. Hatcher, W., & Ginn, M. H. (2024). COVID‐19 and 2020 presidential election speeches: A content analysis of pandemic campaign rhetoric. World Medical and Health Policy, 16(2), 208–217. https://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.600 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Love, J., Stevens, M., & Gamio, L. (2020, August 11). Where Americans Can Vote by Mail in the 2020 Elections. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/11/us/politics/vote-by-mail-us-states.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. DeSilver, D. (2020, October 22). Election night marks the end of one phase of campaign 2020 – and the start of another. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/10/22/election-night-marks-the-end-of-one-phase-of-campaign-2020-and-the-start-of-another/ ↩

  7. Curiel, J., Iii, C., & Williams, J. (n.d.). The Blue Shift in the 2020 Election . https://electionlab.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Blue-Shift-in-2020-Election.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Donald Trump 2020 Election Night Speech Transcript. (2020, November 4). Rev. https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-2020-election-night-speech-transcript ↩

  9. The Associated Press. (2024, November 22). Calling the 2020 presidential race state by state | The Associated Press. https://www.ap.org/the-definitive-source/behind-the-news/calling-the-2020-presidential-race-state-by-state/ ↩

  10. Bowler, S., & Donovan, T. (2023). Confidence in US Elections After the Big Lie. Political Research Quarterly, 77(1), 283-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129231206179 ↩ ↩2

  11. Faguy, A. (2024, July 2). Rudy Giuliani disbarred over false 2020 election claims. BBC News . https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckkg36614rzo ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. Campaign Legal Center. (n.d.). Results of Lawsuits Regarding the 2020 Elections. https://campaignlegal.org/results-lawsuits-regarding-2020-elections ↩

  13. Reuters Staff, Martina, M., Wolfe, J., & Sullivan, A. (2021, January 4). In recorded call, Trump pressures Georgia official to “find” votes to overturn election. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/recorded-call-trump-pressures-georgia-official-change-election-results-media-2021-01-03/ ↩ ↩2

  14. Naylor, B. (2021, February 10). Read Trump’s Jan. 6 Speech, a Key Part of Impeachment Trial. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

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