Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally at Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020, in Philadelphia.
Andrew Harnik / AP Photo
Native son Joe Biden takes Pennsylvania and the presidency
The 77-year-old Biden was born in Scranton and sought to contrast his working-class roots with the affluent Trump’s by casting the race as “Scranton versus Park Avenue.”
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Marc Levy/The Associated Press -
Michael Rubinkam/Associated Press
Andrew Harnik / AP Photo
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally at Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020, in Philadelphia.
(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania catapulted its native son, Democrat Joe Biden, to victory and the White House on Saturday after a long, hard-fought and expensive campaign in which Democrats wrested the battleground state’s 20 electoral votes back from President Donald Trump after the Republican’s surprise victory in 2016.
Biden also carried Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan on his path to the presidency, flipping states that Trump won in 2016. Pennsylvania was a must-win state for Trump.
The 77-year-old Biden was born in Scranton and sought to contrast his working-class roots with the affluent Trump’s by casting the race as “Scranton versus Park Avenue.”
Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots.
Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo
In this Aug. 12, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., pass each other as Harris moves to the podium to speak during a campaign event at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del. Harris made history Saturday, Nov. 7, as the first Black woman elected as vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men — almost all of them white — entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.
Four years ago, Trump breached the Democrats’ “blue wall,” narrowly winning Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — a trio of Great Lakes states that had long served as a bulwark against Republican presidential candidates.
On Saturday, Biden captured it back — and also won the presidency — after The Associated Press declared the former vice president the winner of Pennsylvania at 11:25 a.m. Eastern time.
The AP called the race for Biden, who held a 30,952-vote lead, after it determined that the remaining ballots left to be counted would not allow Trump to catch up. The news agency has already declared Biden the winner in both Michigan and Wisconsin.
Under Pennsylvania law, a recount is automatic when the margin between two candidates in a statewide race is less than 0.5 percentage points. Biden’s lead over Trump was on track to stay outside that margin as final votes were counted.
There are roughly 62,000 mail ballots remaining to be counted. Biden has won the overwhelming majority of mail ballots cast in the state.
Biden’s win in Pennsylvania was a dramatic, though not unexpected, turn after Trump jumped out to an early Election Day lead of 675,000 votes and prematurely declared he had won the state.
Over coming days, as local elections officials tabulated more ballots, Trump’s lead dropped sharply, with Biden winning roughly 75% of the mail-in vote between Wednesday and Friday, according to an analysis by the AP.
Another reason the late-breaking mail vote broke Biden’s way: Under state law, elections officials are not allowed to process mail-in ballots until Election Day.
Biden has long played up the idea that he was Pennsylvania’s “third senator” during his decades representing neighboring Delaware. He also campaigned extensively in the state from his home in Delaware.
Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrises with pizza as he visits Pittsburgh Local Fire Fighters No. 1 in Pittsburgh, Pa., Monday, Aug. 31, 2020.
Until 1952, Biden lived with his parents and grandparents in a two-story Colonial on a tree-lined street in Green Ridge, an Irish Catholic enclave and one of Scranton’s nicest neighborhoods. Biden slept in an attic bedroom with sloped ceilings and a view of West Mountain, scrawling “Joe Biden was here” and “Kilroy was here” on the walls.
The family moved to Delaware in search of greater opportunity, but Biden returned frequently. As senator, he was a familiar presence in the Philadelphia media market.
Biden rolled up decisive margins in Philadelphia’s populous suburbs, doing better against Trump than even Hillary Clinton, who had racked up historic vote totals there four years ago. Once solidly Republican, the counties have trended Democratic in recent years, with a population that is more racially diverse, better-educated and wealthier than the rest of Pennsylvania.
In Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, Biden also appeared to score a larger margin than Clinton as Biden repeatedly courted influential blue-collar labor unions there, saying he would be the strongest pro-union president ever.
On the other side of the ledger, Trump overwhelmed Biden in many of the same rural counties, small towns and exurbs that he won in 20016. Still, Biden found some success in at least of the three longtime Democratic counties that Trump flipped in 2016, holding leads in Erie and Northampton.
In Lackawanna County, where Scranton is, Biden did substantially better than Clinton after Trump nearly flipped the longtime Democratic county in 2016. In neighboring Luzerne County, Biden whittled down Trump’s margin of victory over 2016 but still got beaten soundly in the longtime Democratic county.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
