United States presidential election of 2020 summary

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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-10-31T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 31, 2024</time> </span> </div></div> <div class="mt-20"> <div class="mb-20 font-sans-serif font-weight-bold"> Below is the article summary. For the full article, see <a href="/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-2020">United States presidential election of 2020</a>. </div> <div class="collection-content topic-paragraph"> <article class="content"><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong>United States presidential election of 2020</strong>, U.S. presidential election held on Nov. 3, 2020, in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, in which Democrat <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/Joe-Biden" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Joe Biden</a> defeated incumbent Republican <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/Donald-Trump" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Donald Trump</a> to become the 46th president of the United States. Biden received more than 81 million votes to win the popular vote by more than seven million ballots over Trump, and Biden won the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/electoral-college" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Electoral College</a> vote by a count of 306 to 232. Refusing to acknowledge Biden’s victory, Trump claimed without evidence that the election had been stolen from him through fraud, and he mounted unsuccessful legal challenges in several states that he had lost. Acceptance by Trump’s supporters of his baseless insistence that the election had been stolen ultimately led to the storming of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/United-States-Capitol" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">U.S. Capitol</a> on Jan. 6, 2021, the day that the Electoral College results were to be reported to a joint session of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/Congress-of-the-United-States" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Congress</a>. Identifying the speech that Trump delivered to his supporters before they invaded the Capitol as “inciting violence against the government of the United States,” the House of Representatives impeached Trump by a vote of 232 to 197. Biden was sworn in as U.S. president on Jan. 20, 2021. On Feb. 13 seven Republican senators joined all Democrats in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/Senate-Roman-history" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Senate</a> in voting to convict Trump, who was no longer in office; the tally, 57–43, was short of the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> </article></div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal mb-20" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/07/221007-050-0B9861FF/Pro-Trump-supporters-storm-US-Capitol-January-6-2021-Washington-DC.jpg?w=100&h=75&c=crop" alt="January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters" width="100" height="75" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack" >January 6 U.S. Capitol attack Summary</a> <div class="font-weight-light font-serif font-14 line-clamp clamp-2 ilf-description">January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, by a mob of supporters of Republican Pres. Donald J. Trump. The attack disrupted a joint session of Congress convened to certify the results of the presidential election of 2020, which Trump had lost to his</div> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal mb-20" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/Republican-Party"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/35/73635-050-61DE246E/pin-Republican-Party.jpg?w=100&h=75&c=crop" alt="Republican Party pin" width="100" height="75" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/Republican-Party" >Republican Party Summary</a> <div class="font-weight-light font-serif font-14 line-clamp clamp-2 ilf-description">Republican Party, in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Democratic Party. During the 19th century the Republican Party stood against the extension of slavery to the country’s new territories and, ultimately, for slavery’s complete abolition. During the</div> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal mb-20" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/Democratic-Party"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/34/73634-050-B12861D8/pin-Democratic-Party.jpg?w=100&h=75&c=crop" alt="Democratic Party pin" width="100" height="75" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/Democratic-Party" >Democratic Party Summary</a> <div class="font-weight-light font-serif font-14 line-clamp clamp-2 ilf-description">Democratic Party, in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Republican Party. The Democratic Party has changed significantly during its more than two centuries of existence. During the 19th century the party supported or tolerated slavery, and it opposed</div> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal mb-20" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/United-States"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/33/4833-050-F6E415FE/Flag-United-States-of-America.jpg?w=100&h=75&c=crop" alt="United States" width="100" height="75" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/United-States" >United States Summary</a> <div class="font-weight-light font-serif font-14 line-clamp clamp-2 ilf-description">United States, country in North America, a federal republic of 50 states. Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States includes the state of Alaska, at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of Hawaii, in the</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"TopicCollectionPage","templateName":"CONCISE","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":6,"pageId":null,"pageLength":null,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-collection-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"TopicCollectionPage","pageSubtype":"CONCISE","articleTemplateType":null,"gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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United States presidential election of 2020 summary | Britannica