US Election Update

The world is a surprisingly connected place. What happens in one country often has impacts on another. This is why so many people globally have been carefully watching the US election unfold.

The tension between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has saturated media outlets. It has been going on all year in the lead up to the election, and the election itself has been no different- in fact, it has been called the most controversial American election ever.

America holds elections every four years, and this year was the 59th one. It is usually on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, which this year fell on the 3rd of November.

The United States has two main political parties; the Republicans and the Democrats. The Republicans are associated with the colour red, and the Democrats with the colour blue. Following this, states that vote Republican are called red states and states that usually vote Democrat are blue states. States which switch, are known as swing states.

In this election, some of the key swing states favoured the Democrat Party, this can be seen on the map below. After the Democrat party won the majority of the votes in the state of Pennsylvania, they had enough votes to win the election. This means that Joe Biden is the new President-elect and Kamala Harris is the
new Vice President-elect. Kamala Harris will be the first female and the first African American vice president ever. She acknowledged this in a tweet saying- “while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”

As you may have expected, this election outcome is not respected by Donald Trump. He has previously indicated that he intended to disrupt the democratic process by stopping the vote-counting before it was completed or to give up the presidency if he lost.

Trump has since cited claims of election fraud. He has filled a handful of lawsuits and says he “will never give up fighting.” It’s going to be hard to predict what Trump does and says next. But he certainly seems like a sore loser! The presidency of Biden and Harris will begin in January 2021 and will undoubtedly have many implications for the rest of the world- even for us in New Zealand. I for one, am looking forward to a change of leader in the US and hopefully some positive changes worldwide.

Have you been following the US election? What do you think of the outcome? Let us know below!