Gulf Frame
Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been elected president of the United States after being projected to win the state of Pennsylvania, giving Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes to help carry Biden over the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
The 77-year-old will be the oldest president of the United States. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and tried to contrast his working-class roots from Trump’s affluent upbringing.
Kamala Harris will be the nation’s first Black and South Asian vice president, and first woman to hold that office.
Harris reacted on Twitter to their projected win. “This election is about so much more than @JoeBiden or me. It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it,” Harris tweeted alongside a video. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started,” she added.
“For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight,” Mr. Biden, speaking at the conclusion of his third run for the presidency, said. “I’ve lost a couple times myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.”
He added, “This is the time to heal in America.”
Senator Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect, spoke first, telling voters that they had chosen “hope and unity, decency, science and, yes, truth.”
She invoked her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who came to the United States from India at the age of 19, and paid tribute to the women “who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight.”
“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she said. “Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”
