Joe Biden projected to win Pennsylvania and Nevada, will be 46th President
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Democrat Joe Biden has surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold to take the White House and become the 46th president of the United States. FOX News is projecting Biden will win Pennsylvania and Nevada, putting him well over the 270 mark at 290 to President Donald Trump's 214.
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, Pennsylvania, 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. Trump is the first incumbent president to lose reelection since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a statement Saturday morning after the AP projected Biden's victory to offer her congratulations.
“I want to congratulate President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on their hard-fought win in this election. I look forward to working with both of them as we continue to fight the spread of COVID-19, work to rebuild our economy, and save lives. Now, with the election behind us, it is time for the American people to unite against our common enemy: COVID-19. This virus has ravaged our country, infecting over 200,000 Michiganders and killing over 7,500. Our hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise, and we are recording a record number of cases each day in Michigan and across the country. It is all of our responsibility to do everything in our power to protect our families, frontline workers, and small businesses. To the people of Michigan: I urge you to wear a mask, maintain safe physical distancing, wash your hands frequently, and get your flu vaccine. To our newly elected leaders, from the White House down to the Michigan State Legislature, let’s roll up our sleeves, work together, and beat this virus once and for all.”
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign said it filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, and also asked for a recount in Wisconsin. The new filings, joining existing Republican legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada, demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, and raise absentee ballot concerns, the campaign said.
Early Thursday afternoon, a Georgia judge dismissed the lawsuit. The Trump campaign also announced it was filing a lawsuit in Nevada, alleging nonresidents voted there. Michigan's lawsuit has also been dismissed.
Trump demanded on Twitter Thursday morning that any vote “that came in after Election Day” not be counted, which the platform labeled as misleading regarding the Election Process.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Biden looked to strike a unifying tone amid the uncertainty and said that while he was not declaring that he has won, he believes he will be declared the victor.
"Here, the people rule, power cannot be taken or asserted, it flows from the people," Biden said.
FOX 2 Detroit will be tracking the results all week in Michigan and across the entire country. Find out the results FIRST by downloading the FOX 2 Detroit News app in your app store.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.