The 2020 US Presidential Election was held on November 3, and put face to face Bernie Sanders, who failed to gain his party's nomination four years before, and Donald Trump, the incumbent president. Kanye West, independent; Jill Stein, green; Jesse Ventura, reform; Vermin Supreme, libertarian; and some other minor candidates also ran but did not get enough votes to win any electoral votes. Sanders was elected president after defeating Trump in an electoral landslide. This was the election with the two oldest major party candidates in American history; and the election of Sanders made him the oldest president ever elected at 79 years old. Bernie Sanders was the biggest winner in the electoral college since George H. W. Bush in 1988 and had the biggest percentage of the vote since Reagan 4 years before Bush. The voting turnout was of almost 60%, the highest since 1968.
Background[]
As president, Trump did not take the promises he had made during the campaign seriously. The border wall was not built and the ban on the entry of Muslims did not even get a vote in Congress, but, instead. Trump went through executive orders to accomplish his goals. However, despite these problems, Trump increased the minimum wage to $12 an hour; strengthened security on the southern border; made abortion illegal, except in cases of rape, incest, and risk to the mother or the baby; and defeated ISIS and Al-Qaeda in Syria. Along with that, the US-Russia relationship warmed, and the countries started a phase of cooperation both in Ukraine and Syria. Conversely, US-Iran relations worsened, and the terrorists who were in Syria and Iraq migrated to Iran for shelter.
Trump decided to run for a second-term on May 15, 2019, but was opposed in the battle for the Republican nomination by John Kasich (who consistently won many delegates, but not enough to steal the nomination from Trump). Other candidates tried to win the Republican nomination, but they were defeated early on in the process.
On the Democratic side, Sanders announced his second bid for the Democratic nomination for president; propelled by the hundreds of thousands of Millennials who asked him to run again; Sanders, on more than one occasion, inspired them. However, this time Sanders got the majority of votes and delegates, winning the nomination after a close fight against Biden. Biden went to the convention but ended up losing. There were other candidates, but none of them had the ability to fight the nomination of Sanders.
Nominations[]
Democratic Nomination[]
- Bernie Sanders (79), US Senator from Vermont, Former US Representative from Vermont, Former Mayor of Burlington
- Joe Biden (78), Former Vice President, Former US Senator from Delaware
- Cory Booker (51), US Senator from New Jersey, Former Mayor of Newark
- Sherrod Brown (67), US Senator from Ohio, Former US Representative from Ohio
- Joe Manchin (73), US Senator from West Virginia, Former Governor of West Virginia
- Amy Klobuchar (60), US Senator from Minnesota
- Chris Murphy (47), US Senator from Connecticut, Former US Representative from Connecticut
Republican Nomination[]
- Donald Trump (74), Current President
- John Kasich (68), Former Governor of Ohio, Former Representative from Ohio
- Tim Scott (55), US Senator from South Carolina, Former Representative from South Carolina
- Jack Fellure (89), Perennial Candidate from West Virginia
Voter Demographics[]
| Demographic Subgroup | Sanders | Trump | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Vote | 55 | 40 | 5 |
| Liberals | 89 | 7 | 4 |
| Moderates | 56 | 38 | 6 |
| Conservatives | 21 | 74 | 5 |
| Democrats | 90 | 7 | 3 |
| Republicans | 9 | 89 | 2 |
| Independents | 47 | 44 | 9 |
| Men | 48 | 46 | 6 |
| Women | 60 | 35 | 5 |
| Married Men | 41 | 54 | 5 |
| Married Women | 50 | 47 | 3 |
| Single Men | 59 | 34 | 7 |
| Single Women | 71 | 24 | 5 |
| White | 42 | 53 | 5 |
| Black | 92 | 4 | 4 |
| Asian | 70 | 25 | 5 |
| Other | 59 | 35 | 6 |
| Hispanic | 74 | 20 | 6 |
| Religion | 41 | 56 | 3 |
| Catholic | 49 | 48 | 3 |
| Mormon | 26 | 59 | 15 |
| Other Christian | 47 | 51 | 2 |
| Jewish | 64 | 31 | 5 |
| Other Religion | 67 | 26 | 7 |
| None | 73 | 21 | 6 |
| 18-24 years old | 64 | 29 | 7 |
| 25-29 years old | 61 | 32 | 7 |
| 30-39 years old | 58 | 35 | 7 |
| 40-49 years old | 48 | 47 | 5 |
| 50-64 years old | 44 | 53 | 3 |
| 65 and older | 41 | 56 | 3 |
| LGBT | 82 | 11 | 7 |
| Heterosexual | 52 | 43 | 5 |
General Election[]
Sanders was the nominee, but some establishment Democrats were not happy with his candidacy. Important figures like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Chuck Schumer refused to support him and tried to fuel the Kanye West campaign (all six campaigned for him and put a huge effort on the campaign trail to give West the momentum and, potentially, a surprising general election result). The Democrats were divided with massive discontent, and polls showed Sanders narrowly losing to a much hated incumbent president. The first polls after both major parties' conventions took place showed Trump with more than 40% of the votes and Sanders around 39%. On the campaign trail, Trump accused Sanders of being a communist and said that he would destroy the United States' economy by spending record amounts of money. Trump also said Sanders did not have foreign policy experience and pointed to his age as a huge problem. (In spite of the fact that Sanders was deemed healthier, both mentally and physically, than Trump by numerous medical professionals.) Trump further outlined his victory over ISIS in Syria and Iraq and used that to gain more votes. However, rather than attacking Trump, Sanders talked about the issues, which revealed to be decisive in the debates (which were the most watched debates ever in American politics). Around 100 million people watched the first debate and the numbers kept high during the following debates. With Tulsi Gabbard as his running mate, the polls started to turn in favor of Sanders and some polls even revealed the possibility of Sanders winning West Virginia and Utah.
No minor candidate went to the debates, and the results in the final election turned out to be largely in favor of Sanders. He ended up winning 54.7% of the popular vote and 382 electoral votes with long-time red state Utah, turning blue. Other usually red states in presidential elections, Alaska, Missouri and West Virginia, also favoured Sanders over Trump. In addition, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, and Iowa turned blue giving Sanders a massive victory. That victory was mostly because of the huge support from young people who turned out in numbers never seen before; with 64% of them voting for Sanders and only 29% voting for Trump. Kanye West got almost 5 million votes and Jesse Ventura got 2.2 million, while all other candidates got less than 1 million votes each. President Trump accepted defeat the following day.