Another presidential election, another record.
Back in 2008, Barack Obama didn’t only break the racial barrier to become the United States’ first Black president, he also received the most votes by a presidential candidate. That is, until this year’s election and the campaign of his former vice president, Joe Biden.
According to the Associated Press, Biden had received more than 72 million votes as of Wednesday night.
Obama had set the record 12 years ago with a total of 69,498,516 votes. Biden’s number is expected to grow as the votes are still being tallied—especially in several key swing states.
Biden appeared at an afternoon press conference with his running mate, Kamala Harris.
“Yesterday once again proved that democracy is
the heartbeat of this nation, just as it has been the heartbeat of this nation for two centuries. Even in the face of the pandemic, more Americans voted in this election than ever before in American history. Over 150 million people cast their votes. I think that’s just extraordinary.”He had said the numbers haven’t been totally counted, but he was confident that once all was said and done he will be the new president of the United States.
“I will govern as an American president,” Biden continued. “There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America.”
It remains to be seen whether Biden’s historic vote totals will actually translate into him winning the election. Although the final results are still pending, President Donald Trump currently has 3 million fewer votes than Biden. The last time Trump was behind in the overall vote tuned out pretty well for him; he lost the popular vote in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, but gained enough votes in the electoral college to become president.