2020 Presidential Election (The Future of America)

2020 Presidential Election
The United States presidential election of 2020 was the 59th quadrennial American presidential election, held on Wednesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of Incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Senator from Minnesota Amy Klobuchar. Trump held his office as the 45th President, on January 20, 2021. Concurrent with the presidential election, Senate, House, and many gubernatorial and state and local elections were also held on November 3. The 2020 Presidential election marks the highest third party performance since Ross Perot in 1992 by Green Party candidate Elisabeth Warren.

This was the first time since the 1972 re-election of Richard Nixon that Minnesota voted for a Republican, and the first time since 2008 that the Republican nominee won the states of Nevada and Virginia. It was also the second consecutive presidential race where the two main candidates were from New York.

As the incumbent president, Trump secured the Republican nomination with opposition only from former Ohio Governor John Kasich, The Democratic Party was more fractured; Andrew Cuomo was consistently ranked high in the polls, but faced challenges from a number of more pogressive contenders, particularly Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Despite heavy opposition Cuomo effectively secured the nomination with a brokered convention. The campaigns focused heavily on the character of the candidates: debate centered largely around Donald Trump's treatment of women and minorities while the Trump camp focused on Cuomo's flawed record as Governor of New York and history of corruption. Other issues included long-term federal budget issues, the future of Syrian refugees, and Health Care. Foreign policy was also discussed including conflicts with North Korea, the size of and spending on the military, relations with Russia and China, and appropriate counteractions to terrorism.

Republican Primaries and Convention
Former Ohio Governor John Kasich was the only serious opponent of President Trump; Brian Sandoval, the former Governor of Nevada, also decided to run against the President, but dropped out shortly after losing the Nevada primary. Kasich's best showing was in the Ohio primary, where he won by a 52–48% margin. The Republican convention was head on July 22 - 25, 2020, and was held in Grand Rapids Michigan. During the second day of the Republican Convention John Kasich conceded the nomination to President Trump and endorsed libertarian party nominee John McAfee instead. President Trump's convention speech emphasized his record for conservative reform as president and painted both Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Cuomo as corrupt career politicians. Perhaps the most talked about speech was from Senator Kid Rock who fired up the convention hall with a patriotic speech. In total, the 2020 Republican Convention received 30.7 million viewers across all of the major TV networks and had about 50,000 attendees throughout the four days of the convention.

Democratic Primaries and Convention
By summer of 2019, Elisabeth Warren had become the apparent front-runner for the Democratic nomination, performing strongly in most polls and leading the pack with the largest campaign finances. Warren's strength as a fund raiser was attributed mainly to her embrace of using donations from individual supporters as opposed to funding from the Democratic Party. Regarded as a staunch progressive during her time as senator, Warren emerged during his presidential campaign as a left-wing populist, denouncing the policies of the Trump administration as well as fellow Democrats, who, in her view, were to corporate. Warren got an early start to her campaign, having announced her candidacy shortly after the 2018 midterms. In total, only 12 Democrats got significant support, the most noteworthy being Senator Elisabeth Warren, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. After a virtually tied race, Governor Andrew Cuomo was able to pull a narrow victory and won most of the delegates. The 2020 Democratic Party National Convention was held on July 28 to August 1st in Atlanta Georgia, making 2020 the first time since 1988 that a Democratic convention was hosted in Atlanta. Martin O'Malley, who only won 7 rural states, endorsed Andrew Cuomo and gave a brief speech slamming Donald Trump as incompetent. Although Elizabeth Warren was offered a prime slot at the convention to speak, she outright refused and did not attend the rest of the convention. The next two days of the convention erupted in protest with groups such as ANTIFA rioting in protest of the delegates nominating Cuomo over Warren. As a response to the riots, Elizabeth Warren formally announced she was running on a Green Party ticket. Andrew Cuomo's convention speech revolved around party unity and progressive ideals. The most memorable moment from the convention was when Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar was chosen to be Cuomo's Vice Presidential choice. The 2020 Democratic Convention received 32.8 million viewers across all of the major TV networks and had roughly 46,000 people attend throughout the convention. Although there was major speculation of who would actually receive the Democratic nomination, the convention itself was overshadowed by the protests.

Green Party Primaries and Convention
After former Green Party candidate Jill Stein declined to run in 2020, the spot as nominee was wide open. Before the Democratic Convention, activist Darryl Cherney was favored to win the nomination, but lost to Warren by a landslide in the run offs. Darryl Cherney endorsed Warren and in return, he was chosen to be her V.P. The Green Party National Convention was held from September 12 to 16 and was hosted in Baltimore Maryland. The 2020 Green Party Convention was the first one nationally televised and received 14.3 million in total.

General Election Campaign
Andrew Cuomo focused his candidacy on several themes, including raising middle class incomes, expanding LGBT rights, and returning to a socialized healthcare system. Cuomo proposed allowing illegal immigrants to have a path to citizenship and proposed the issue was about race, not national origin. Donald Trump's campaign drew heavily on his personal image and record as president. The rprimay slogan of the Trump campaign, extensively used on campaign merchandise, was "Keep America Great", a play on his 2016 slogan "Make merica Great Again." President Trump had an uneasy, and at times adversarial relationship with the press throughout his Presidency and heavily criticized various media publications, most noteworthy, CNN. As the campaign began to heat up, both Cuomo and Trump denounced Elizabeth Warren, (who at one point was leaading in Massachusetts and Vermont) for being a spoiler candidate. In response to Warrens's growing poll numbers, the Andrew Cuomo campaign and Democratic allies increased their criticism of her in September 2020, warning that "a vote for a third party is a vote for Donald Trump" and deploying Senator Bernie Sanders to win over voters who might be considering voting for Warren. Cuomo was endorsed by The New York Times the Los Angeles Times, the Houston Chronicle, and the ''Chicago Sun-Times. ''Three debates took place between Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump, but Elizabeth Warren was excluded. As November 3ed was approaching, Elizabeth Warren saw a large dip in the polls while Cuomo rose by about 3% following the debates. On November 2nd, President Trump was favored to win.

Results
The election was held on November 3, 2020. Cuomo cast his vote in Albany New York, while Trump voted in a D.C public school. On November 4, 2020, at 1:30 AM Eastern Time, Trump secured over 270 electoral votes, the majority of the 538 electors in the Electoral College, enough for him to retain office. Cuomo called Trump that night, conceding defeat. President Trump was able to flip the states of Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Virginia, mostly due to vote splitting between Cuomo and Warren. Donald Trump improved on his 2016 margins, swinging more votes in the northeast and West.