Getty Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden addresses a crowd at a town hall event at Clinton College on August 29, 2019, in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Has Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election? Decision Desk HQ said he did on Friday morning, November 6, after he pulled ahead in Pennsylvania with more than 99% of the vote counted. However, other news networks and organizations have yet to call the race for Biden.
The analytics site, with which Heavy has partnered to provide real-time election results, made the call in a tweet at 8:50 a.m. Eastern time. The call came right after Biden was given a thin lead in Pennsylvania over Donald Trump of about 5,587 votes, as mail-in ballots put him ahead. You can see the most recent Electoral College vote estimates below.
However, other major publications and news networks have not called the race for Biden. Following the news of Biden’s advantage in Pennsylvania, the on-air anchors for CNN reiterated that they had not called Pennsylvania for Biden, nor had they called the presidential race for him.
“We are literally just waiting for a wave of votes to come in, as Pennsylvania counts the votes,” CNN anchor Dana Bash said.
Similarly, The New York Times tweeted, “Breaking News: Joe Biden has taken the lead in Pennsylvania as the state continues to tally votes. A win there would give him a majority of electoral votes.”
Decision Desk HQ is the only verified analytics source that has officially named Biden the next president of the United States. This announcement was endorsed by FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver.
Here’s what you need to know:
Decision Desk HQ Calls Pennsylvania, & the Presidential Race Nationwide, for Biden
Decision Desk HQ projects that @JoeBiden has won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes for a total of 273.
Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States of America.
Race called at 11-06 08:50 AM EST
All Results:
Millions of people across the country have been waiting for the presidential race call for days now. Soon after Decision Desk HQ’s 8:50 a.m. announcement, a few publications including Business Insider began calling the race for Biden as well, citing Decision Desk HQ.
Silver of FiveThirtyEight was quick to praise the analytics site for its decision to call the race for Biden.
“Good for them,” Silver tweeted. “The outcome has been apparent for a while. No reason other sources shouldn’t follow. There’s some doubt about the outcome of Georgia and Arizona, still, but Biden doesn’t need those states to be elected.”
Silver added in a subsequent tweet, “Whichever network calls this first will look good in retrospect.”
Biden Has Won More Votes in a Presidential Election Than Any Other Candidate in History
Biggest vote of all time.
Beating a sitting president.
Is going to win 306 electoral votes.
Putting a black woman in the White House as VP.
Besting the nastiest, most mendacious candidate in US history.
It’s an incredible result for Biden. Anyone telling you otherwise is a twit.
On Wednesday, Biden passed a historic milestone: he broke the record that President Barack Obama set in 2008 for the most votes ever cast in a presidential election. Per CBS News, Obama received 69,498,516 votes in his first presidential election.
As of just before noon Friday, Biden had received over 73.7 million votes for the American presidency. His final vote count is expected to be closer to 75 million, CNN projects. The vote count for Trump just before noon Friday stood at nearly 70 million.
In addition record voter turnout, Biden’s win means the U.S. will see another milestone in January: Kamala Harris will become the country’s first Black vice president and the first woman to hold the office.
READ NEXT: Police Foil Possible Attack on Pennsylvania Voting Center: Reports