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The 2020 US Presidential Election was won by Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden, who defeated incumbent US President Donald Trump.

The 2020 US elections

The Democrats won the Presidency at these elections with Joe Biden as their candidate. In addition, the Democrats retained control of the House of Representatives and gained control of the Senate.

Although there is a 50/50 split in the Senate, the Democrats are the majority party. This is because the Vice President has the deciding vote in a tie-break scenario. The current Vice President (Kamala Harris) is a Democrat.

2020 Presidential Election

Nationally, Joe Biden won 51.3% of the vote to Donald Trump’s 46.9%. This translated into 306 Electoral College votes for Biden and 232 for Trump. A majority of 270 electoral college votes are required to elect the President.

Biden won the same states as Hillary Clinton in 2016, but added Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the east of the country. This is an area known as the ‘blue wall’. Those in the suburbs voted for Biden in higher margins than in 2020. Trump was still strong in the rural areas.

Biden also won two states in the ‘sun belt’ – Arizona and Georgia. Neither of these have been Democrat in the past 20 years. Again, Biden did well in the cities and the suburbs.

Across almost all states, Joe Biden won the support of those that were college educated. Similarly, Trump won the support of white non-college educated voters.

Younger voters aged 18-29 years, by far preferred Biden, whereas older voters 65+ years opted more for Trump.

2022 US midterm elections

Midterm elections in the US involve one third of the Senate up for re-election (35 senators in 2022) and all of the House of Representatives (435 representatives).

In the Senate, the Democrats did better than expected ending up with one more senator than before the election. There are now 51 Democrat senators and 49 Republican senators.

In the House of Representatives the Democratic Party did less well. The Republican Party gained 10 representatives giving the Republicans an overall majority. There are now 219 Republicans in the House of Representatives to 213 Democrats. The winning post for an overall majority is 218.

Due to the Republican Party taking control of the House of Representatives, it is now harder for Democratic President Joe Biden to get legislation through Congress. Parties tend to stick together when voting on new laws.

In December 2023, the House of Representatives voted 221 to 212 to set up an enquiry into Biden’s time as vice-president which could lead to a formal impeachment investigation later in 2024. (Source: ����ý News).