The 2020 election was historic in many ways. Following Trump's surprising victory in 2016, Democrats were left scrambling for leadership and for a suitable candidate for 2020. Throughout 2018 and 2019, former vice president Joe Biden consistently led in the polls, and it seemed all but certain that he would end up being the Democratic nominee. However, Biden became entangled in a mess of controversies surrounding his son's business dealings in Ukraine. Although fact checkers said that such allegations are false, many voters were not convinced. In addition, he continued to make embarrassing gaffes on the campaign trail and in the debates. Still, CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox reported that Biden held a narrow lead going into the Iowa caucus in February, with Pete Buttigieg following close behind. However, Sanders won the Iowa caucus in a substantial upset; Buttigieg practically tied with him for second, and Elizabeth Warren and Biden finishing in a distant 3rd and 4th place respectively.
Sanders won an equally narrow win in the New Hampshire primary, with Biden coming in a meager 5th place. The corporate media started to take into consideration the possibility that Sanders could very well win the nomination. Sanders rode this surge of popularity to easily sweep the Nevada caucus, winning roughly 47% of the vote compared to Biden's 20% in 2nd place, and affirming his position as the established frontrunner.
Biden was able to win the South Carolina primaries, with Sanders finishing in a close second. The corporate media celebrated this win as a major rebound for Biden and that the former vice-president would rise back up to the top and win the nomination. However, their hopes were dashed again when on Super Tuesday, Sanders won 8 states, including the delegate-rich California. Biden was only able to win 3 states.
Following his Super Tuesday blowout, it was a near certainty that Sanders would win the nomination. Elizabeth Warren dropped out a few days after Super Tuesday, and Buttigieg followed a couple weeks later. That left Biden and Sanders as the last major candidates grappling for the nomination. The corporate media continued to push for Biden even has his chances diminished more and more every day. Then, in May, Biden dropped out, leaving Sanders to steamroll his way to the nomination.
That summer, Sanders surprised many people by selecting Tulsi Gabbard to be his running-mate; the corporate media were insisting that he would choose Elizabeth Warren. Sanders and Gabbard focused their campaign on the rust belt states that voted for Trump in 2016, as well the increasingly purple states of North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, and even Texas. President Trump also focused on these areas but also campaigned a lot in New Mexico, Minnesota, and Virginia- states that he stood little to no chance of winning. Post-mortem, many people blamed Trump's defeat on wasting time in safely blue states.
In October, Sanders and Trump participated in 3 debates. To say the least, they were quite nasty- Trump repeatedly called Sanders a socialist and a communist who hated America, while Sanders called Trump a corporate capitalist, a bigot, and a pathological liar who has sold America out to the Russians. However, a defining moment came when Trump refused to promise to concede the election if he lost. This energized his base, but disturbed many moderate voters. Tulsi Gabbard and Mike Pence also had one debate; the bumbling and seemingly distant Pence was no match for the well-spoken and eloquent Gabbard.
Following the debates, the national polls all either said that it was too close to predict a winner or that Trump had the lead. MSNBC and CNN and many other corporate outlets spent weeks lamenting about how Joe Biden should have won the nomination and how now Trump has a much higher chance of reelection.
On election night, millions of Americans gathered in front of their TV's, anxious to see the results unfold. Fox was already talking about how Trump was easily going to win a second term, whereas every other news outlet was pessimistic about Sanders' chances, to say the least. Trump took an early lead, quickly winning Ohio, Indiana, South Carolina, and West Virginia- the last of these for states voted in a whopping 99-1 margin for Trump. However, by 8 PM ET, Sanders was the projected winner of Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Hampshire, and several other safely liberal states. Trump easily won Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Republicans were still confident about a Trump victory up until 9 PM, when Sanders was surprisingly declared the winner of Florida; this was a devastating blow to Trump's reelection chances. But in an even greater shock, the Associated Press projected that Sanders would carry the state of Georgia, and had easily flipped Wisconsin as well. Less than an hour later, North Carolina was called for Sanders, and he was poised to defeat Trump.
Fox was seemingly going through the five stages of grief, first they insisted the results were a mistake (denial), next they insisted that Sanders was winning based on voter fraud (anger), then they talked about how Trump maybe could still win somehow (bargaining), and after that they talked about how miserable life would be now that America was about to become socialist (depression). Finally, at 11 PM, when Bernie Sanders clinched the presidency by winning California, Oregon, and Washington state, Fox finally accepted that Trump had lost.
Meanwhile, fireworks went off in almost every major metropolis in America. Sanders' supporters all took to the streets in a massive celebration. They were all having so much fun that night that they didn't even see that Amy McGrath defeated Senator Mitch McConnell in a stunning upset, and that at 4 AM, Texas, Kentucky, and Montana were called for Sanders, making him the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson to win over 400 electoral votes.
| State | Trump | Sanders | % |
| Alabama | 1,504,392 | 604,943 | 72-27 Trump |
| Alaska | 142,039 | 130,498 | |
| Arizona | 1,256,306 | 1,503,837 | |
| Arkansas | 705,158 | 381,292 | |
| California | 4,425,264 | 10,832,249 | |
| Colorado | 1,124,643 | 1,566,745 | |
| Connecticut | 565,430 | 1,036,404 | |
| Delaware | 160,499 | 277,917 | |
| District of Columbia | 4,024 | 300,839 | |
| Florida | 4,680,109 | 4,902,395 | |
| Georgia | 1,893,777 | 2,143,656 | |
| Hawaii | 100,776 | 280,278 | |
| Idaho | |||
| Illinois | |||
| Indiana | |||
| Iowa | 822,107 | 901,398 | |
| Kansas | |||
| Kentucky | 1,029,399 | 1,033,716 | |
| Louisiana | |||
| Maine | |||
| Maryland | |||
| Massachusetts | |||
| Michigan | 2,275,914 | 2,744.003 | |
| Minnesota | |||
| Mississippi | |||
| Missouri | |||
| Montana | 240,675 | 242,399 | |
| Nebraska | |||
| Nevada | |||
| New Hampshire | |||
| New Jersey | |||
| New Mexico | |||
| New York | |||
| North Carolina | |||
| North Dakota | |||
| Ohio | 3,124,359 | 2,092,958 | 60-40 Trump |
| Oklahoma | 1,058,295 | 379,480 | |
| Oregon | |||
| Pennsylvania | 3,051,209 | 3,499,987 | |
| Rhode Island | |||
| South Carolina | |||
| South Dakota | |||
| Tennessee | |||
| Texas | 4,338,948 | 4,366,291 | |
| Utah | |||
| Vermont | |||
| Virginia | |||
| Washington | |||
| West Virginia | 704,398 | 9,395 | 99-1 Trump |
| Wisconsin | |||
| Wyoming |