My friends at Decision Desk HQ have called the state of Pennsylvania for Joe Biden after a morning vote dump pushed the former Vice President into the lead with no path left for Trump to regain it.
President Donald Trump has pending litigation in order to try to force recounts in a number of close states, and on Thursday announced his belief that he had the race won. The incumbent has repeatedly cast into doubt the validity of results determined with increased mail-in ballots, a hallmark of this COVID-19 election cycle.
However, despite losing the White House, Republicans are poised to gain more seats in the House after media outlets, polling firms, and pundits all seemed to agree ahead of election day that the Democrats would be gaining a dozen or more seats and flip the Senate.
The Senate appears to be on track to remain Republican and continue to be led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has announced she will be running to keep that job, has proclaimed the win a “mandate” from the people of the United States, though I am certainly not convinced of that. Republicans made unexpected gains in the House, could hold on to the Senate, and even flipped state legislatures ahead of a crucial redistricting year.
Republicans also made tremendous gains among minority and women voters. In fact, according to exit polling, Trump made gains in virtually every demographic except white men - completely opposite the narrative that has been forced on the American people for the last four years. Hispanic and black voters appear to have saved the GOP in Florida and Texas, despite a massive “white flight” from Trump’s base.
What’s more, the most telling sign that Democrats are not in the position of strength that they are portraying is a growing sense of anger from several progressive pundits, who are still lashing out at Trump voters - some 69 million of them - because they dared to vote for the man.
Given the state of play, it seems likely that the GOP will have a very good run in the 2022 midterms (the party in power, this time Democrats, tends to do badly in midterms) and has a deep bench ready to go in 2024 (including the possibility of Trump himself jumping back in).
For now, though, America can rest. I don’t know if we’ve earned a break or not, but it’s definitely time we all took a nap.