Joe Biden Wins the 2020 Presidential Election

On Nov. 7, former-Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. President-elect Biden and his Vice-President Elect, Kamala Harris, have their work cut out for them as their first day in office approaches. 

With historic voter turnout this year, Joe Biden won both the popular vote with more than 77 million votes and the electoral college with 290 votes, according to the Associated Press. 

However, President Trump so far has refused to concede power and is currently filing lawsuits in states where he lost or is losing as ballot-counting continues, arguing that voter fraud kept him from winning re-election. 

“It’s so childish of him to try to do whatever he can to keep the presidency even though he’s already lost,” said junior David Martinez.

Trump is currently filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada over voter fraud allegations. Whether he claims the ballots were illegal or that late ballots were not counted, or that mail-in ballots shouldn’t be counted, Trump is keeping a strong stance in his belief that the election is being stolen from him.

Aside from the historic level of resistance from the sitting president, this election will go down in the history books: Kamala Harris breaks multiple barriers, becoming the first female vice president and the first biracial vice president in American history.

“Regardless of a person’s political affiliation, we need to celebrate the fact that here is, one, a woman, two, a woman of color, born to a Jamaican and Indian immigrant parents, who did not go to an Ivy League school and is now Vice-President-elect,” said American Government Teacher Jaya Subramanian. “I think that should be celebrated no matter what. You can disagree with Kamala Harris’s position on taxation, you can disagree with her views on climate change but you can not take away her personal narrative and this accomplishment.”

Many commentators noted that with more representation for women, young girls and young people of color can grow up seeing someone who looks like them as a role model. 

Senior Maria Brambila takes pride in the fact that Kamala Harris is a Bay Area native. 

“Just the fact that she’s from Oakland shows that despite the stereotypes about the city, someone could still get there through hard work,” Maria said.  “It’s like ‘Wow, someone from that area faced by poverty and gender inequality her whole life was able to make it up there.’”