Associated Press
People cheered and pumped their fists along the Wilmington, Delaware, waterfront as the news that the presidential race had been called for the state’s former senator arrived on their cellphones.
The waterfront is just steps from the outdoor stage that Democrat Joe Biden erected on Election Day to celebrate victory.
On the water late Saturday morning, two men on a kayak yelled to a couple paddling by in the opposite direction, “Joe won! They called it!” as people on the shore whooped and hollered.
Biden’s campaign had not yet scheduled a victory celebration, but he was expected to take the stage for a drive-in rally after dark.
During a speech late Friday night, Biden said he would be declared the winner very soon, adding, “I hope to be talking to you tomorrow.
With Pennsylvania now in his column, Biden has passed the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.
Earlier:
Biden won Pennsylvania, surpassing the 270 electoral vote threshold to take the White House and become the 46th president of the United States.
Biden also carried Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan on his path to the presidency, flipping states that President Donald Trump won in 2016.
Pennsylvania was a must-win state for Trump.
The 77-year-old Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and sought to contrast his working-class roots with the affluent Trump’s by casting the race as “Scranton versus Park Avenue.”
Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots.
Trump is the first incumbent president to lose reelection since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
