Julia is covering the 2020 presidential election looking mostly through the lens of battleground Pa., with a focus on voters and the issues and candidates resonating with them.
From the first days of his campaign, Biden made it clear that winning back Pennsylvania was central to his strategy for winning the White House. It was close, but it paid off.
The wins mirror the state overall: After a dramatic swing to Trump in 2016, Pennsylvania shifted back to Democrats this year, even if only by a small margin.
For many Trump supporters, Biden’s narrow victory in the state felt especially disorienting because Trump significantly increased his turnout this year. But Biden also improved upon Clinton's turnout.
He pledged to marshal the forces of science, fairness, and decency, and to fight the virus, racism, and climate change at his acceptance speech in Wilmington on Saturday.
Scranton vs. Park Avenue, Biden called the race. And in Pennsylvania's sixth-largest city, which voted overwhelmingly for him, Scranton is claiming victory, too.