Election 2020 updates, November 7: Latest results and news in races for president, others across Washington state and the nation

WASHINGTON — Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States on Saturday and offered himself to the nation as a leader who “seeks not to divide, but to unify” a country gripped by a historic pandemic and a confluence of economic and social turmoil.

“I sought this office to restore the soul of America,” Biden said in a prime-time victory speech not far from his Delaware home, “and to make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home.”

Biden crossed the winning threshold of 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania. His victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed processing.

Trump refused to concede, threatening further legal action on ballot counting. But Biden used his acceptance speech as an olive branch to those who did not vote for him, telling Trump voters that he understood their disappointment but adding, “Let’s give each other a chance.”

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to each other again, to make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy,” he said. “We are not enemies. We are Americans.”

Read the full story here.

Honking horns, waving flags and sounding whoops of joy, Seattleites took to the streets Saturday to celebrate the news that Joe Biden had defeated President Donald Trump.

Farmers were just setting up the Columbia City Harvest Market when the clanging started after news networks called the race for Biden. People were standing in the windows of an apartment building, just down the street, pounding pots and pans.

“That was how I found out,” said Shane Clyburn, the manager of the market. “I said, ‘Yeah! We won!’ We’re going to have everybody in high spirits today,” he said, then paused. “This has been the longest week of my life.”

Aya Masilela drove by the market with her friend, Mollie Wolf, who honked the horn of her car. They were thrilled that Biden’s win included the historic election of Kamala Harris as vice-president.

“There’s a lot happening,” said Masilela. “It’s not just the conclusion of this administration. We’re getting a vice president who actually looks like me. And we’re getting rid of a president and vice president who hate people like me.”

For many in Seattle, the defeat of Trump brought a sense of relief after four seemingly endless years of conflict, ugly tweets and falsehoods flowing from the White House.

Read the full story here.

As thousands of people poured into the streets across Washington to celebrate the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President-elect and Vice President-elect, hundreds stood in protest.

 Law enforcement Saturday afternoon kept raucous demonstrators separated from each other in a brief but tense scene at the Capitol campus in Olympia.

They were met by counter-protesters whose group was smaller in number but equally charged, that caused law enforcement to briefly close down Capitol Way and keep the group on opposite sides of the street.

The demonstrators traded insults under gray skies on the day news outlets declared Democratic nominee Biden had won enough votes to be the next president. The pro-Trump demonstration was part of a nationwide group of “Stop the Steal” rallies, according to one demonstrator. Supporters of the president held signs suggesting there has been vote fraud, as well as “Thin Blue Line” and Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flags.

“It’s just a message of support for the president, and Loren Culp too,” said Casey Hubbard, referring to the GOP challenger who last week lost in his bid to unseat Gov. Jay Inslee. Hubbard, a 29-year-old from Renton, stood in front of a church across the street from the Capitol and waved an American flag and a flag that read, “Jesus is King.”

Read the full story here.

With music, honking horns, champagne and dancing, Seattleites took to the streets of Capitol Hill Saturday to celebrate that Joe Biden had defeated President Donald Trump.

President-elect Joe Biden is speaking after being introduced by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. He was clear in his speech that he considers the election a win, even as President Donald Trump has yet to concede.

"Folks, the people of this nation have spoken," Biden said. "They have delivered us a clear victory. A convincing victory. A victory for 'We the People.'”

He brought up his plan to address the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 120,000 cases were reported across the U.S. on Saturday.

"We cannot repair the economy, restore our vitality, or relish life’s most precious moments — hugging a grandchild, birthdays, weddings, graduations, all the moments that matter most to us — until we get this virus under control," he said.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is speaking first from Wilmington, Delaware. She walked out to car honks and cheering from the crowd.

She began her speech with a quote from Congressman John Lewis, who died earlier this year: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”

She thanked campaign staff, poll workers and volunteers, and voters.

"To the American people: thank you for making your voices heard," she said.

She mentioned the women who secured voting rights decades ago, and the work of women of color.

"While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last," she said.

Four years ago, in perhaps her first official action as a congresswoman, Seattle’s newly elected Rep. Pramila Jayapal made a last-ditch effort to stop Donald Trump from becoming president.

Addressing a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2017, Jayapal stood and objected to the certification of the Electoral College vote. She tried to cite evidence of voter suppression in Georgia.

The president of the Senate, who was chairing the joint session, interrupted.

“For what purpose does the gentlewoman rise?” he said. Jayapal started to answer. The president of the Senate slammed down his gavel. “There is no debate,” he said.

Jayapal tried to continue. “Mr. President, even as people waited hours in Georgia…”

The president of the Senate slammed his gavel again. “There is no debate.”

The president of the Senate? That was then-Vice President Joe Biden, presiding over the chamber.

Read the full story here.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will speak soon from Wilmington, Delaware. Watch the speech in the video below:

President Donald Trump’s bid to discredit the integrity of the U.S. election results and use legal action to block the completion of vote tallies in some states has raised fears, even among his own aides, that he will refuse to concede and seek to undermine the transfer of power after Joe Biden’s victory Saturday.

Trump associates have said privately that the president is unlikely to formally concede the race under any circumstances in the traditional manner of a concession speech and a phone call to Biden. And though some aides have suggested that they are hoping to convince him to publicly commit to a peaceful transition, experts warned that Trump could work to scuttle cooperation with Biden’s team in ensuring a smooth turnover of the management of the federal government on Inauguration Day come Jan. 20.

“I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” Trump tweeted Saturday shortly before all major news organizations called the contest for Biden.

Read the full story here.

Control of the Senate likely won’t be decided until a January runoff in Georgia, even after Democrat Joe Biden won the White House on Saturday.

That post-election cliff-hanger will determine the balance of power in Washington, as neither party appears to have a lock on a Senate majority right now.

So far, the tally for the next Senate is 48 Republicans and 48 Democrats after Tuesday’s election. Two seats in Georgia are headed to runoffs on Jan. 5. And seats in North Carolina and Alaska are still to early to call.

The stakes are high for for a momentous political struggle in Georgia during President Donald Trump’s final lame-duck days in office. The state is closely divided, with Democrats making gains on Republicans, fueled by a surge of new voters. But no Democrat has been elected U.S. senator in Georgia in some 20 years. As much as $500 million could be spent on the two races, one strategist said.

Read the full story here.

Joe Biden was fresh off winning the Michigan primary and effectively capturing the Democratic presidential nomination, a prize he’d sought for the better part of three decades. Instead of plotting a strategy to build momentum, he was contemplating an abrupt halt.

He gathered his senior team in a conference room on the 19th floor of his campaign’s Philadelphia headquarters, the type of in-person meeting that would soon be deemed a public health risk. A former surgeon general and Food and Drug Administration commissioner joined on speakerphone.

As the coronavirus began to explode across the United States that March, Biden asked a question that would ultimately guide the campaign’s thinking for months: “What should I be modeling?”

Read the full story here.

President-elect Joe Biden’s victory was celebrated by civil rights activists and Black leaders who warned that a tough road lies ahead to address America’s persistent inequalities and the racial division that Donald Trump fueled during his presidency.

Biden will take office in January as the nation confronts a series of crises that have taken a disproportionate toll on Black Americans and people of color, including the pandemic and resulting job losses. Many cities saw protests against racial injustice during a summer of unrest.

During a contentious campaign against Trump, Biden made explicit appeals for the support of Black voters. He pledged to unify the country, acknowledged systemic racism, criticized his rival for stoking division and picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first Black woman on a major party’s presidential ticket. While those were all welcomed steps, Black leaders and activists say they will keep pushing the incoming administration to do more.

Read the full story here.

Nikai Mackie began her Saturday morning like many teenagers, by checking Instagram. This morning, the dawning of her 17th year, her feed buzzed with excitement: Kamala Harris, vice president-elect.

“A good birthday present,” Mackie said. “Relief.”

And for the first time, Mackie, a young Black woman, saw someone who looks like her elected to one of the two highest positions in government.

“It feels really good to see myself in someone who is so high in leadership, and I feel like we’ve come really far in history,” said Mackie, a junior at Interlake High School in Bellevue. “Remarkable moment.”

For a majority of Americans, the election of Harris — a woman who is both Indian American and Black — represents the first time someone who shares a core aspect of their identity will serve in the second-highest office in government. The news of her election resonated with cheers and celebration in communities across Seattle on Saturday.

Read the full story here.

Shortly before the 2020 election was called for President Donald Trump’s rival, the president’s campaign manager told staff to “stay at the ready” and prepare for protests in battleground states “at a moment’s notice.”

But privately, people close to Trump acknowledged it was over, with one adviser telling McClatchy that only a “handful” of aides still believed that there was a way for Trump to win.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who just tested positive for the coronavirus, was said to be walking a tightrope.

“Meadows knows it’s over but is pretending in front of Trump that he still has a shot,” the adviser said.

Trump’s inner circle has tightened in recent days, as factions emerged among his senior advisers inside and outside the White House on how to move forward. One group was said to be urging the president to hold off on conceding, while the other was telling him the nation cannot endure a protracted struggle.

Another Trump adviser told McClatchy that the president was unlikely to concede unless his children told him to do so.

Read the full story here.

Farmers were just setting up the Columbia City Harvest Market when the banging started. People were standing in the windows of the Angeline apartment building, just down the street, pounding pots and pans, and on the windows.

“That was how I found out,” Shane Clyburn, the manager of the market, said of learning that Joe Biden had won the presidential election,

“I said, ‘Yeah! We won!’ We’re going to have everybody in high spirits today,” he said, then paused.

“This has been the longest week of my life.”

Becka Tilsen, and her husband, Basil Shadid, walked toward the farmer’s market with their daughter, Nour, banging tambourines.

Tilsen had gotten a text from her best friend, in all capital letters: “THEY JUST CALLED FOR BIDEN.”

After verifying the news, Tilden said, they started making noise.

“We’re just happy!” Tilden said. “We’re celebrating the joy that we haven’t felt, especially in the last four years.”

Justus Jessen, a German citizen who, with his mother, Annette Heide-Jessen, runs Breadwares by Kaffeeklatsch, heard the racket while he was unloading for the market.

“I called everyone,” he said of learning the news. “My Dad in Germany has been watching everything.”

He’s not worried of what President Trump might do once he leaves office.

“He’s got a lot of financial and legal allegations to deal with, and they’re going to keep him busy,” Jessen said. “I want somebody normal.”

Aya Masilela drove by with her friend, Mollie Wolf, who honked the horn of her car.

“There’s a lot happening,” said Masilela. “It’s not just the conclusion of this administration. We’re getting a vice president who actually looks like me. And we’re getting rid of a president and vice president who hate people like me.”

Not long after Biden was declared the winner, Jamie and Michael Rawding saw fireworks in the morning sky, somewhere around Washington Park. They heard people banging on pots and pans and cheering.

Then they got into their station wagon with their dog, Lucca and a giant BIDEN flag sticking out of the sunroof and headed downtown, where they were greeted with honks and raised fists and big smiles.

“We are ecstatic,” Jamie said, “The faith is coming back.”

Said Michael: “Did you see (tearful CNN commentator) Van Jones? I lost it.”

This morning on Broadway Street in Capitol Hill, Brittney Moraski, a 34-year-old Biden campaign volunteer, could be seen holding a Biden Harris poster and bumping “YMCA” and Midnight Train to Georgia” from a small speaker.

“I think it’s important everyone feels joy today,” said Moraski, her grin peeking out of a black mask. “It’s been such a drawn out experience.”

Cheers from nearby apartment complexes could be heard in the distance. Every few minutes, bundled up pedestrians stopped to cheer after hearing honks.

Moraski, who’s volunteered on every Democratic president campaign since John Kerry ran in 2004, said presidential elections are “an expression of who we are and want to be as Americans.” The past four years, she said, taught her America has a lot of work to do. She said she was inspired by Biden’s campaign slogan, “Build Back Better.” The biggest issues at stake for her this election were racial and economic justice.

People stopped to take selfies with her as she stood across the street from the Capitol Hill light rail station, some offering their own take on the results. Some joked that Biden had “already won,” so why was she holding the sign? Approaching Moraski, a man in a blue surgical mask said that while he didn’t vote, he was happy Trump lost because of his “bad behavior.” Moraski nodded thanked the man and wished him a good day.

“Today we celebrate. Tomorrow we work,” she said, turning back to the street.

With a fifth day of vote counting testing the nation’s patience, news organizations on Saturday moved swiftly following a crucial release of data from Pennsylvania to declare Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

CNN made its call at 11:24 a.m. Eastern, and was followed within two minutes by The Associated Press, NBC, CBS and ABC. Fox News called the race at 11:40.

Because votes are counted state by state, verdicts by the media outlets’ decision desks serve as the unofficial finish line for the presidential race. The dramatic changes in how people voted this year, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the challenges that created for tallying ballots, complicated the process.

The closeness of the race in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina proved another challenge.

“We just have to be certain before we call a winner in the presidential election,” said Sally Buzbee, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP.

Read the story here.

Even before the Saturday media projections of Biden winning the presidency, a #StoptheSteal rally was being promoted for 3 p .m. Saturday at Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver, Washington.  One of the promoters was the far right Patriot Prayer group, founded by  Clark County resident Joey Gibson.

   A Patriot Prayer social media post from Gibson labeled the rally a “call to action.”

“The president has been taking all the attacks and the hatred but stood tall for us. Now it is  the time for the people to stand with the President and #StopTheSteal Exposure the Fraud,” read the post, which could be found on Twitter.

The Stop the Steal  movement was launched Wednesday on Facebook, and a day later had more  than 320,000 users in its group. It caught the attention of Facebook, which shut the group down for trying to incite violence, The New York Time reported.

  The Patriot Prayer post urged people who were not in the Vancouver area to organize their own rallies in support of the president.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s White House victory was powered by a broad and racially diverse coalition of voters driven to the polls by fierce opposition to President Donald Trump and anxiety over a surging, deadly pandemic.

Both nationwide and in key battleground states across the Midwest and Sun Belt, the Democrat dominated with voters worried about the coronavirus and hungry for the federal government to do more to contain its spread, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. After four years of political turbulence under Trump, Biden handily won voters looking for a leader who could unify the country, and those pushing for racial justice. More saw him as empathetic and honest, and willing to stand up to extremism, compared with the Republican incumbent.

“It has to do with decency. This country has got integrity and hopefully we can get decency,” said Kay Nicholas, a 73-year-old retired teacher and school principal from Brighton, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. “I think Joe Biden can do it and bring back kindness.”

The election ultimately emerged as a contest between two conflicting visions of America in a time of crisis. Biden voters saw a nation in chaos and a void in presidential leadership, while Trump’s supporters believed the economy was roaring back to health and that the president was delivering on the dramatic political change he campaign on four years ago.

“We love our president, we love our Constitution, we love everything that he’s promised and followed through on,” said Annastasia Theodoropoulos, a 50-year-old Trump supporter in Milford, Pennsylvania, a borough outside Scranton.

Read the story here.

“He’s fired!” shouted Kimberly Mustafa, one of around 200 people gathered at Westlake Plaza to mark the defeat of President Trump and rally for social justice.

The crowd was cheerful but Mustafa, who sells head wraps and face masks for a living, said the final two months of President Trump’s term might be rough. “It’s going to be tumultuous,” she said, as Ice Cube’s song “Arrest the President” thundered over the rally’s sound system. “He’s going to try to line his pockets and we’ve got to watch him like a toddler.”

Pardis, a computer-science researcher at the University of Washington from the Middle Easet and first-time voter in the U.S., was more unambiguously celebratory. “Today is the day we’ll be happy,” she said. (Paris declined to give her last name or nation of origin, saying she was concerned about harassment from the government of her home country.) “Our voices got heard. Tomorrow, we don’t know what will happen.”

Aneelah Afzali, a Muslim from the Faith Leaders Action Group (FLAG) insisted today’s rally was not a victory celebration.

“Our work must continue,” she said. “We are here to stand as moral witnesses to the struggle for justice, for Black Lives Matter, the struggle against family separation and police brutality.”

Like several of the attendees at Westlake, Afzali was not uncritically enthusiastic about President-Elect Biden. “Today’s results are one piece in the right direction,” she explained. “We need to hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable, and we will continue to be part of this movement that has been on the streets for around 160 days now.”

Gary Roberts, 63, of Mill Creek, voted for President Donald Trump, and says President-elect Joe Biden’s biggest challenges are dealing with the pandemic and bringing the country back together.

“I haven’t seen the country this divided in my entire life,” Roberts said. “Even with the Kent State shooting, we didn’t have this kind of stuff."

Read more reactions around Seattle here.

BALLINA, Ireland — As America turned slowly blue, Ballina held its breath.

Was it really possible that Joe Biden, considered a native son of this charming town on Ireland’s west coast — albeit five generations removed — was about to become the next American president?

It was. On Saturday, the election was called for Biden, and Ballina was ready to celebrate.

The first Champagne cork was popped by Biden’s distant cousins in the town’s Market Square, watched by a few hundred delighted townspeople, two hours before CNN made the call. Someone drove up in a cherry red ’57 Buick Electra coupe with Elvis cushions in the back window. A speaker played Biden’s campaign song, Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own,” and the walk-on music from former President Bill Clinton’s winning campaign, “Don’t Stop (Thinking about Tomorrow).”

Pride in Biden is strong in this town. His great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt was born in Ballina and emigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania, just after the great Irish famine of 1845 to 1849, according to historians.

Read the full story here.

The statement was issued while Trump was golfing at his club in Virginia.

“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor. In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.

“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access.

“So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”

People in other parts of the world started celebrating Joe Biden’s election victory Saturday and expressed hope that the Democrat will quickly set to work on a topic that wasn’t vital in the White House for the past four years, reported The Associated Press.

“Welcome back America!” tweeted the mayor of Paris.

In Rome, people gathered in a coffee bar broke out in cheers when media outlets delivered the news. A city official in Berlin said, “After the birth of my son, the election of Joe Biden is by far the best news of this year.”

Cascading around the globe on social media and live news broadcasts, word of the victory in Pennsylvania that pushed Barack Obama’s former vice president past the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to take over the Oval Office himself brought widespread relief in world capitals.

Find more on this story as it unfolds.

WASHINGTON — Saturday’s election verdict isn’t the last step in selecting an American president. Under a system that’s been tweaked over two centuries, there is still a monthslong timeline during which the 538-member Electoral College picks the president.

A look at the key steps:

— When American citizens vote for a presidential candidate, they really are voting for electors in their state. Those electors in most cases are committed to support the voters’ candidate of choice. The number of electors is equal to the number of electoral votes held by each state. State laws vary on how electors are selected but, generally, a slate of electors for each party’s candidate is chosen at state party conventions or by a vote of a party’s central committee.

— After Election Day, states count and certify the results of the popular vote. When completed, each governor is required by law to prepare “as soon as practicable” documents known as “Certificates of Ascertainment” of the vote. The certificates list the electors’ names and the number of votes cast for the winner and loser. The certificate, carrying the seal of each state, is sent to the archivist of the United States.

— Dec. 8 is the deadline for resolving election disputes at the state level. All state recounts and court contests over presidential election results are to be completed by this date.

Read more about the key steps here.

A video of CNN commentator Van Jones’ reaction to the news of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris went viral Saturday morning.

The two-minute video shows Jones struggling to maintain composure after CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asks him his thoughts.

See a post with the video here.

Annabelle Heisley, a 23-year-old graduate student in Capitol Hill, said she was in bed, scrolling through her phone when she discovered the news.

“I pounced on my girlfriend who was sleeping so soundfully to tell her Biden was president,” Heisley said

“I think Biden has his work cut out for him with what’s happened over the last four years,” Heisley said. She hopes the new president will address immigration, for one.

“I’m hoping [Biden] will fix some of the damage Trump has done to this country and provide a more united front.”

Bob Martin and a group of friends had just emerged from a polar bear plunge in Lake Washington on Saturday morning when Martin received a phone call from his daughter about the presidential election being called for Joe Biden. Her message: “Dad, we did it!” A moment later, Martin and his friends were dancing in their wetsuits, the 69-year-old said, warning up over coffee outside the View Ridge PCC grocery store.

Yet as the group warmed up over coffee outside the View Ridge PCC, Peter Berner-Hayes expressed some concern. “I personally worry about the 70 million American who voted for a leader who’s been so hurtful,” said Berner-Hayes, 64, who also lives in Phinney Ridge. "Large numbers of Americans don’t believe this result is real. They believe the election has been stolen."

In South Seattle, after popping a bottle of champagne with his husband when he heard Biden won, Columbia City health researcher Kevin Hallgren grabbed the most festive thing he had to walk the dog. “As a gay man, I was pretty OK, but trans rights are definitely an issue,” as well as rights for Black people.

Belltown's Solomon Williamson, 33, doesn’t like to be optimistic. He’s been let down too many times. But still, he’s hopeful for the Biden-Harris administration, which he voted for in the Nov. 3 election.

He described the past four years as “surreal.”

“It felt like I was in a time machine going back to the 1960s with advancements getting rolled back.

“This country has always been [divided] but this past administration fed and stoked the fires,” said Solomon, a shower attendant, while standing outside the Green Lake Community Center.

While he doesn’t have children himself, the future of his sister’s children are at stake, he said.

Solomon, who is Black, wants to see Biden listen to the protests for racial justice over the summer.

While he doesn’t support abolishing the police, he wants to see more funding for underprivileged communities and more public services for children “to make sure they’re fed, clothed and bathed.”

Joe Biden, the winner of the presidency, will move to restore dozens of environmental safeguards President Donald Trump abolished and launch the boldest climate change plan of any president in history. While some of Biden’s most sweeping programs will encounter stiff resistance from Senate Republicans and conservative attorneys general, the United States is poised to make a 180-degree turn on climate change and conservation policy.

Biden’s team already has plans on how it will restrict oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters; ratchet up federal mileage standards for cars and SUVs; block pipelines that transport fossil fuels across the country; provide federal incentives to develop renewable power; and mobilize other nations to make deeper cuts in their own carbon emissions.

“Joe Biden ran on climate. How great is this?” said Gina McCarthy, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency during Barack Obama’s second term and now helms the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’ll be time for the White House to finally get back to leading the charge against the central environmental crisis of our time.”

Read the full story here.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell:

“My heartfelt thanks to Joe Biden for running on a platform of uniting the country, delivering the plan and resources needed to fight COVID-19, and working on an economic agenda for all Americans. He will bring people together to combat climate change and tackle racial injustice. Joe Biden is the right man for this job of moving our country forward. I am also so proud of my colleague Kamala Harris. She made history and opened doors for women, especially women of color, that will never again be closed.”

Seattle City Council President M. Lorena Gonzalez:

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, who defied political gravity with his extraordinary rise from reality star and businessman to the presidency, has fallen back to earth.

In the end, his flurry of raucous rallies, an unprecedented turnout operation and sheer force of will could not overcome the reality of his enduring unpopularity and a raging pandemic that has killed more than 236,000 people in the U.S. and thrown millions out of work.

Yet Trump’s acerbic brand of politics — his Twitter taunts, his vindictive drive to punish enemies, his go-it-alone approach to the world — made its mark across the far reaches of the government and beyond. And his better-than-expected election performance against Democrat Joe Biden suggests his impact is likely to resonate for generations in politics, governing and policy, even in defeat.

It remains to be seen what Trump intends to do after his term ends on Jan. 20. Retreat to the golf course? Launch his own television network? Lay the groundwork to run again? And how fiercely will he try to contest his fate?

“I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics. I would absolutely put him on the short list of people who are likely to run in 2024,” Trump’s former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said in an online interview with the Institute of International & European Affairs. “He doesn’t like losing.”

Read the full story here.

Fireworks and hooting could be heard on Capitol Hill shortly after the networks declared Biden the winner.

A group of neighbors gathered outside their building near 12th Avenue and Republican Street to celebrate and drink champagne shortly before 9 a.m.

“So happy,” said Randi Hutchins, 33, a teacher. “At 8:30 our entire building started messaging and now we’re out here drinking champagne.”

A Seattle police car pulled up in the midst of their celebration to ask if they had heard any fireworks or gunshots. The intersection nearby still smelled of firecrackers that had been set when the news networks confirmed Biden as president.

“I’m super happy about it, but it’s saddening how close it was,” said Zula Battulga, 27, walking her 11-week-old puppy on Capitol Hill. “I’m very happy to have a female vice president.”

Kamala Harris made history Saturday 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.

The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington’s power centers. Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism. As the highest-ranking woman ever elected in American government, her victory gives hope to women who were devastated by Hillary Clinton’s defeat four years ago.

Harris has been a rising star in Democratic politics for much of the last two decades, serving as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator. After Harris ended her own 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate. They will be sworn in as president and vice president on Jan. 20.

Biden’s running mate selection carried added significance because he will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, at 78, and hasn’t committed to seeking a second term in 2024.

Read the full story here.

Four years ago, President Donald 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, Democrat Joe Biden captured it back — and also won the presidency — after The Associated Press declared the former vice president the winner of his native Pennsylvania at 11:25 a.m. EST.

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 of that margin as final votes are counted.

Over coming days, as local elections officials tabulated more ballots, Trump’s lead dropped sharply, with Biden winning roughly 75 percent 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, who was born in Scranton, claims favorite-son status in the state and has long played up the idea that he was Pennsylvania’s “third senator” during his decades representing neighboring Delaware. He’s also campaigned extensively in the state from his home in Delaware.

Joe Biden is projected to defeat Donald Trump in the race for U.S. president. Biden won Pennsylvania, giving him enough electoral votes to claim victory.

Democrat Joe Biden continues to grow his vote advantage over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, which could decide the presidential race, but a winner has yet to be called as counties laboriously count ballots.

The decision desks at The Associated Press and television networks call races in states when they’re confident the vote advantage of the leading candidate can’t be overcome, and they don’t want to get it wrong — especially when that call will determine the next president and the incumbent is hurling unsupported charges of massive fraud.

“This particular year, there are just so many curve balls that have been thrown our way that we really are taking a little bit more time to make sure that we understand exactly what we’re seeing and analyzing it,” said John Lapinski, who manages calls in the presidential race for NBC News.

Read the full story here.

President Donald Trump's campaign team will hold a news conference at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time in Philadelphia.

Trump tweeted that a "big press conference" was planned at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Meanwhile, the Four Seasons hotel clarified on Twitter that the conference wouldn't be held at its Philadelphia venue.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden’s transition team isn’t waiting for a verdict in the presidential race before getting to work.

As officials continue to count ballots in several undecided states, longtime Biden aide Ted Kaufman is leading efforts to ensure the former vice president can begin building out a government in anticipation of a victory.

Kaufman is a former senator from Delaware who was appointed to fill the seat vacated when Biden was elected vice president. He also worked on Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008, and helped write legislation formalizing the presidential transition process.

Biden first asked Kaufman to start work on a just-in-case transition in April, shortly after the former vice president locked up the presidential nomination at the conclusion of a once-crowded Democratic primary. Now, each day after the election that goes by without a declared winner is one day fewer to formally begin preparing to take over the White House.

The transition can be a frenzied process even under normal circumstances.

Read the full story here.

BOSTON — A texting company run by one of President Donald Trump’s top campaign officials sent out thousands of targeted, anonymous text messages urging supporters to rally where votes were being counted in Philadelphia on Thursday, falsely claiming Democrats were trying to steal the presidential election.

The messages directed Trump fans to converge at a downtown intersection where hundreds of protesters from the opposing candidates’ camps faced off Thursday afternoon. Pennsylvania is a crucial battleground state where former Vice President Joe Biden’s jumped ahead Friday and in a televised address later predicted a victory that would give him the presidency.

“This kind of message is playing with fire, and we are very lucky that it does not seem to have driven more conflict,” said John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s online watchdog Citizen Lab. Scott-Railton helped track down the source.

Read the full story here.

WASHINGTON — Democrat Joe Biden edged ever closer Saturday to a victory over President Donald Trump as the long, exacting work of counting votes extended into a fourth day after the election.

The delay in producing a verdict could be attributed to high turnout, a massive number of mail-in ballots and slim margins between the candidates. Biden held leads in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia, putting him in a stronger position to capture the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take the White House.

There was intense focus on Pennsylvania, where Biden led Trump by more than 28,000 votes, and Nevada, where Biden was up by about 22,000. The prolonged wait added to the anxiety of a nation facing historic challenges, including the surging coronavirus pandemic and deep political polarization.

When Biden addressed the nation Friday night near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, he acknowledged the sluggish pace of the count “can be numbing.” But he added: “Never forget the tallies aren’t just numbers: They represent votes and voters.”

He expressed confidence that victory ultimately would be his. “The numbers tell us a clear and convincing story: We’re going to win this race,” the former vice president said.

Read the full story here.

Election night was the low point of the year when it comes to sleep.

According to data compiled through a health-tracking device designed in Finland, Americans lost a total of 138 million hours of sleep on election night.

The Oura ring, which as the name suggests is worn on a user’s finger, also tracked faster heart rates as U.S. users reported more stress and anxiety than normal, according to a blog post by the company. It said the average number of hours slept fell to 6 1/2 — a record low for the year — from the usual 7 hours. By Wednesday night, sleep patterns had returned to normal, it said.

Read the full story here.