sound so bad

The Inauguration of the 46th President

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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris rev up their supporters in Wilmington, Delaware, at the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention in August. Biden will be the oldest person to serve as president. Harris is the first woman of color elected on a presidential ticket. OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Enter Biden and Harris: Agents of Calm

To many exhausted voters, it seems, old-style politics didn’t sound so bad after 4 years of chaos

David Colton

Special to USA TODAY

After four years of chaotic politics, extreme social stress and a crippling pandemic that left too much of America grieving, the majority of voters in 2020 opted for a return to “normalcy,” if such a thing is possible in an angry digital age.

The inaugurations of Joe Biden, a two-term vice president and proven politician, and Kamala Harris, a U.S. senator from California who will be the first woman of color in such a high office, signal an attempt to re-establish Washington norms.

Their elections with 81 million votes — the most ever — supplant the personality-driven presidency of Donald Trump, who spent his term challenging the very notions of process and compromise that Biden and Harris represent.

For all of Trump’s unproven claims of voter fraud, the outcome was a clear rejection of his undisciplined and divisive approach.

“The American people,’’ said Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum matter-of-factly four days after the election, “wanted something calmer, something quieter and something reassuring that Joe Biden was presenting to them.”

Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert said the country was exhausted from the bombastic Trump years, telling Vanity Fair that “if Joe Biden is a pair of khaki pants inside a manila envelope, that would be great.”

David Gergen, an adviser to four past presidents (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton), said in an interview that the vote was “a rejection of the forces that seemed to stand for authoritarianism.”

“Trump is still very powerful, but there’s some relief, an underlying celebration of freedom and democracy,” Gergen said. “A Gallup Poll shows people are more optimistic about the future than they’ve been in a while, and that’s a good thing.”

Still, Biden faces unique challenges, including a

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The Inauguration

How it usually goes — a celebration of democracy: Outgoing President George W. Bush and his successor, Barack Obama, leave the White House to ride to the Capitol together for Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009. PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy ride in the inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 1981. In his address, Reagan noted that the peaceful transfer of power embodied by the day’s events would be viewed as a “miracle” by much of the world. AP President Franklin Roosevelt, right, is sworn in for his second term on Jan. 20, 1937. Prior to then, inaugurations had been March 4. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution changed the date. AP predecessor intent on questioning his legitimacy, and convincing the 74 million who didn’t vote for him that he does not represent a return to what they call “the swamp” of old-style politics.

At 78, Biden will be the oldest president (Reagan left office at 77).

Harris, 56, is a former attorney general in California and was a senator for four years, about the same length of time Barack Obama served in the Senate before becoming president. By contrast, Biden is a career politician, first winning an election in 1970 for county council in Delaware. Two years later he was elected to the Senate at age 29. (He turned 30, the constitutional minimum age to serve as a senator, a month before taking office.) His first presidential campaign was more than 30 years ago; he withdrew in 1987 after revelations that he had plagiarized parts of a speech by a British politician (an offense that these days would probably just be a political misdemeanor).

In his memoir A Promised Land, Obama wrote that he picked Biden as his running mate in 2008 because he was a seasoned politician who could offset criticisms of Obama’s inexperience. Biden, he wrote, “had heart,” adding he was “smart, practical and did his homework.”

Biden had vied for the presidency himself in the 2008 Democratic primary campaign that Obama eventually won.

Biden tamped down his ambition and drive during the 2020 campaign, going low-key and virtual while Trump barnstormed in Air Force One and held large rallies despite the pandemic. Biden’s strategy paid off, and even his swearingin will be a relatively quiet affair.

Traditionally, presidential inaugurations are grand panoramas of American pageantry and unity, a colorful and peaceful transfer of power with family and defeated foes in attendance. “In the eyes of many in the world, this everyfour-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle,” Reagan proclaimed in his 1981 inaugural speech.

But just as often, the miracles are forgotten after boring speeches or modest parades in freezing January weather (it was so cold in 1985, minus-7 degrees, that President Reagan’s second swearing-in was moved inside).

Sometimes, though, inaugural addresses make history: h Franklin Roosevelt famously declared, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself ” when he was sworn in during the depths of the Depression in 1933.

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h John F. Kennedy implored a “new generation” to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” in 1961. h George H.W. Bush promised a “kinder” and “gentler” conservatism in 1989, months before the Berlin Wall fell.

Can a President Joe Biden be as memorable? Never known for soaring rhetoric, his voice has been compassionate — “we are all in this together” — but softspoken since his election. And he has a historical tendency to drone on.

“If a speech was scheduled for 15 minutes, Joe went for at least half an hour,” Obama writes in his memoir. “If it was scheduled for a half-hour, there was no telling how long he might talk.”

Biden also faces a unique inaugural dilemma. Because of COVID-19, the speech and parade and a ceremony honoring pandemic heroes and victims will be virtual, with spectators urged to stay away. There’s also the potential for socalled “split-screen coverage,” where networks cover the inauguration as well as pro-Trump rallies or demonstrations.

That happened in 1981 when Iran released 444 American hostages just 20 minutes after Reagan concluded his inaugural speech. Newspapers the next day used dueling headlines to capture both events.

“Newsrooms have to cover the news,” Gergen said, “but Trump’s voice will not be as powerful. I doubt he will be covered live very much. This is his swan song in terms of a national audience.”

Because of the restrictions, questions of crowd size will thankfully be moot. (For the record, Obama apparently holds the record for an inaugural crowd, as many as 1.8 million in 2009, to Trump’s possible 600,000 in 2017, according to expert estimates.)

“The inaugural is a great moment for celebration of the essence of a democracy,” political analyst Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said in an email interview. But he worries whether Biden will be able to take office “without a major tarnish” of protests.

Ornstein called repeated efforts to “reject the legitimacy” of Biden’s election “attempted sedition, even if it is symbolic. But what a symbol.”

“Even so,” Ornstein said, “when he assumes the presidency, it is a big moment for us and our country.”

Spectators wave to the Obamas as they pass by during the inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 2009. Expert estimates put the size of the crowd for Obama’s inauguration at 1.8 million, believed to be the largest to date. EMILY BARNES/GETTY IMAGES

The Bidens and Obamas wave to George W. Bush and Laura Bush as they leave the White House for Texas on Jan. 20, 2009. EMMANUEL DUNAND AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES President John F. Kennedy used his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 1961, to declare that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans” — and to challenge that generation to step up in service of their country. AP

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The Inauguration of the 46th President

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Wearing the masks that became standard attire in the pandemic year of 2020, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris celebrate their victory on Nov. 7 in Wilmington, Delaware. With them are their spouses, Jill Biden and Douglas Emhoff. ANDREW HARNIK/POOL VIA GETTY IMAGES

After bitter race and a 4-day wait, Biden emerges as next president

Democrats promise ‘normalcy’ after drama of the Trump years

John Fritze, Bart Jansen, Camille Caldera USA TODAY

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Joe Biden, a former vice president and a longtime fixture in American politics, won the presidency after a bitterly fought election campaign in which he promised a more robust response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more civil form of politics.

Biden’s victory over incumbent Donald Trump puts the nation on a sharply different course just four years after an election that installed one of the most unconventional leaders in American history.

Biden said he was “honored and humbled” by the outcome and that it was time for the country to unite and heal. “With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” he said.

Democrats didn’t get the swift and overwhelming victory they had hoped for, and Biden’s win wasn’t confirmed until four days after Election Day, due to the slow process of counting a crush of absentee ballots attributable to the pandemic.

The turning point came Nov. 7, when Biden claimed victory in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born, one of the biggest Electoral College prizes, and one of three northern industrial states that went to Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020.

In an election shaped by the virus that has killed more than 350,000 Americans and left millions out of work, Biden argued that he had the temperament, experience and character to provide steady leadership. He ran as a centrist Democrat focused on pocketbook issues such as health care and the economy but also on restoring “normalcy” to Washington after four years of Trump drama.

Any presidential election is history-making, but this one is especially so because of who will be vice president rather than president. Biden’s running mate, California senator Kamala Harris, is the first woman, the first African American and the first person of South Asian ancestry to assume the vice presidency. Biden, who is 78, will also be the oldest person in U.S. history to become president.

Trump’s defeat makes him the first one-term president since 1992, when Republican George H.W. Bush lost to Democrat Bill Clinton.

Deep divisions in the body politic

Biden enters the White House at a perilous moment, partly because of the pandemic but also because of huge fissures that have widened in American society over immigration, race relations and racism, guns, economic inequality and even the meaning of truth and U.S. leadership in the world.

Biden has said he wants to serve all Americans, not just the Democratic base. But even with that promise, the divisions will not disappear. The closeness of the election means Biden faces a huge challenge in trying to stitch the country together.

Biden won the popular vote with a total of more than 81 million votes, about 7 million more than Trump, and in the Electoral College, with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.

“Once this election is finalized and behind us,

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Joseph R. Biden Jr.

it’ll be time for us to do what we’ve always done as Americans, to put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to one another,” he said.

A wrenching roller-coaster ride

In the end, the election unfolded with the kind of drama Trump often lives for: a wrenching rollercoaster ride in which the incumbent started out on top, then began falling quickly. Trump claimed the huge prize of Florida, his adopted home state, cutting off the prospect of a quick Biden win and pointing toward a cliffhanger.

There were surprises along the way. Despite predictions of a lengthy count-and-recount saga in Florida (in other words, a replay of the 2000 election), Trump snapped up the state decisively. But Biden wrested away both Arizona and Georgia, dependably Republican states that Trump carried by more than 3 percentage points each in 2016.

Over days of vote-counting, a crucial question loomed: whether Biden could piece back together the Democratic “blue wall” — specifically the northern states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — that crumbled four years ago, dooming Hillary Clinton’s race against Trump.

The outcome in the Rust Belt was far from clear when Biden addressed hundreds of supporters at drive-in rally in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, just before midnight on Election Day.

“Your patience is commendable,” Biden told supporters.

Waiting for results

By that point, it was clear that the results were to remain inconclusive for some time — at least until the morning, and probably much longer.

When the voting wrapped up Tuesday, Trump had substantial leads and appeared to be poised to capture most of the contested states. But Biden’s momentum shifted on Wednesday afternoon when Wisconsin was called in his favor, followed soon after by Michigan. Arizona had already been forecast as a Biden win, backing a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1996.

As Biden’s vote tallies inched higher in Georgia and Pennsylvania and he maintained a slim lead in Nevada, the path for Trump had narrowed substantially by the time Americans sat down for dinner on Wednesday.

That change occurred as election officials began counting absentee ballots, which leaned Biden’s way. In many key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, mail ballots were counted after votes that had been cast in person on Election Day. Since Democrats voted early in much higher numbers than Republicans, Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania became evident as more ballots were counted.

By Friday morning, the excitement was palpable in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. After Biden overtook Trump in Pennsylvania, Democratic supporters started to gather.

A Biden supporter celebrates outside City Hall in Philadelphia on Nov. 7 after the victory was sealed. BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Holding signs and American flags, supporters exchanged shouts of “It’s gonna be a great day” and “Here we go, guys!”

It was clear that Biden was about to capture Pennsylvania, and with it the 270 Electoral College votes he needed to clinch a presidential victory following the tumultuous 2020 campaign.

On Friday night, Biden made a brief indoor appearance at the Chase Center arena in Wilmington, where he said Americans “spoke loudly for our ticket,” but he again urged patience as the ballot counting continued.

“We don’t have a final declaration, a victory yet,” Biden said. “We’re going to win this race with a clear majority of the nation behind us.”

Around 11:30 a.m. the next day, the declaration of victory for the former vice president set off a crescendo of honks, cheers and shouts of “Free at Last” and “God Bless America” in Wilmington outside Biden’s campaign headquarters.

Turnout smashes record

While Trump and others had warned of widespread fraud, intimidation and even violence ahead of Election Day, there were no signs of major problems. Instead, the election was defined by a record number of Americans voting by mail with few incidents. Millions more patiently waited in lines at schools and government buildings across the country to cast their ballots. Nearly 160 million Americans voted, by far the largest turnout in a modern election.

Though it was not widespread, there was tension: Protesters took to the streets in cities across the country. A crowd made up mostly of Trump supporters gathered as election workers counted ballots in Arizona. The National Guard was deployed in Portland, Oregon. Arrests were made in Minneapolis and New York City.

Trump, who throughout the year repeatedly declined to say whether he would accept the outcome of the race, made clear that he would not concede without a fight. He filed a series of court challenges that recalled the protracted legal battle that frayed the country in 2000, when the Supreme Court ultimately decided the election for Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore.

The president’s aides also threatened to demand a recount in Wisconsin. As Trump grew more impatient with the outcome, he made wilder claims — prompting Twitter, the social media platform that elevated his national prominence in the first place, to label many of his posts with a warning that his words “might be misleading.”

“We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election,” Trump wrote in one of the tweets labeled with a warning because there was no evidence of any wrongdoing in the counting of the ballots. “We will never let them do it.”

Trump’s lawsuits were thrown out or withdrawn in dozens of instances around the country, with judges noting in sometimes scathing terms that the president’s legal team had failed to provide any substantive evidence. Simply “calling an election unfair does not make it so,” read one ruling in Pennsylvania.

Difference of style

Biden, making his third White House run (after 1988 and 2008), campaigned on expanding access to health care and investing in middle-class jobs while combating the pandemic with a more robust federal response. He promised to rebuild friendships with allies in Europe and Asia with whom Trump often bickered while confronting adversaries he said Trump coddled in Russia, China and North Korea.

But by far the biggest difference between the men was stylistic: Biden ran on his temperament, offering it as a contrast to the bombastic approach Trump has taken to the presidency for four years. Biden essentially proposed to rebuild a functioning federal government based on his experience as vice president under Barack Obama and his 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware.

Throughout the campaign, Trump tried to frame Biden as far left — a “socialist” in his words — despite the former vice president’s record as a bipartisan dealmaker who ran to the right of more liberal candidates in the primary. Biden never embraced a “Medicare for All” system of health care or the so-called Green New Deal for the environment.

Even before the race was called, Biden began shifting away from his campaign talking points and toward a more presidential tone focused on calming tensions. As vote counting continued in battlegrounds throughout the day and Trump delivered fiery remarks at the White House, Biden came to a lectern in Delaware and urged Americans to take a breath.

“Democracy is sometimes messy,” he said. “It sometimes requires a little patience.”

The Inauguration of the 46th President

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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris takes the stage in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 7 after the ticket’s victory was sealed. ROBERT DEUTSCH/USA TODAY

Harris makes histor y many times over

‘Very different life experiences’ made her Biden’s ideal VP pick

Maureen Groppe

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The vice-presidential glass ceiling has been broken. Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election means Kamala Harris will be the first woman to serve as vice president.

“We did it. We did it, Joe,” a smiling Harris told Biden by phone in a video she tweeted out after the election was called in their favor. “You’re going to be the next president of the United States.”

“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. We have a lot of work ahead of us,” she wrote in a separate tweet. “Let’s get started.”

Harris, 56, was the first Black woman on a major party’s presidential ticket, as well as the first person of Asian heritage in such a position.

Her husband, entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff, will be the first “second gentleman.”

Harris has said she expects to work closely with Biden, offering him a perspective shaped by a different background.

“It is about a partnership that also is informed by one of the reasons I think Joe asked me to join him, which is that he and I have ... the same ideals and values but we have very different life experiences,” Harris said at a campaign fundraiser.

Former president Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president for eight years, has called her an “ideal partner” for Biden. He said she is more than prepared for the job as “someone who knows what it’s like to overcome barriers.”

Harris was the first Black woman to be elected

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Vice President Kamala Harris

Harris speaks at a rally in Devenport, Iowa, in August 2019 after completing a five-day bus tour of the state. Harris was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out after her campaign failed to gain traction in Iowa. JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, holds a copy of “The Bill of Rights” as Harris is sworn in as San Francisco district attorney in 2004. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George administers the oath of office. GEORGE NIKITIN/AP district attorney in San Francisco and attorney general of California and was only the second Black woman elected to the Senate. (The first: Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois in 1992.)

Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, called Harris’ newest victory an “enormously significant moment.”

“Her win puts to rest the question of the electability of women to high office — a question that haunted both the women and people of color who ran for the Democratic nomination this cycle,” Walsh said.

Harris’ niece Meena shared a more succinct reaction, tweeting: “My 4 year old just yelled `BLACK GIRLS ARE WELCOME TO BE PRESIDENT!’”

Biden had faced pressure to choose a woman of color as his running mate because of the large role African Americans — and particularly Black women — have played in the Democratic Party and because of the racial issues thrust into the foreground by the coronavirus pandemic and the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police.

“There is no vaccine for racism,” Harris said during her speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination. “We’ve got to do the work for George Floyd, for Breonna Taylor and for the lives of too many others to name.”

Announcing his choice, Biden called the former prosecutor a “fearless fighter for the little guy, one of the country’s finest public servants.”

Two ran for VP before her

Harris was the third woman nominated for vice presidential on a major party ticket. California congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro ran on the Democratic ticket with Walter Mondale in 1984, and Alaska governor Sarah Palin was running mate to Republican John McCain in 2008.

Harris’ debate with Vice President Mike Pence was the second-most-watched vice presidential debate, after the 2008 matchup between Biden and Palin.

Harris’ response when Pence tried to cut in on her allotted time — “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking; I’m speaking” — sparked a meme. T-shirts, face masks and other products emblazoned with those words were quickly available on the internet.

Biden’s age, 78, contributed to the public’s interest in Harris, due to the possibility that he might not serve a full term or seek reelection.

Republicans sought to characterize Harris as member of the “radical left” who would control the more centrist Biden.

Voters had a divided opinion of Harris, with 46% “very” or “somewhat” favorable and 47% “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable, according to a VoteCast survey of 110,405 voters by The Associated Press. The difference was as polarized as the rest of the election. Of those who viewed her favorably, 93% supported Biden; 87% of those viewing her unfavorably supported Donald Trump.

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Harris

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Biden’s selection of Harris gave the campaign a big fundraising boost. Backers sent more than $34 million immediately after Biden announced his pick, and Harris headlined numerous fundraisers throughout the fall. Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., which Harris belongs to, began donating $19.08 apiece. The sorority, the oldest Greek-letter organization established by Black college-educated women, was founded in 1908 at Howard University, her alma mater.

Harris was often dispatched to energize voters of color. The first candidate on a major party ticket to have attended a historically Black college or university, Harris campaigned at HBCUs, barbershops and other places of significance for communities of color. For many virtual campaign events, Harris broadcast out of a studio set up at Howard University.

“I say it’s about time a graduate from a state university and a HBCU graduate are in the White House,” Biden said of himself and Harris at a rally in Atlanta.

About the second gentleman

Emhoff was also a regular presence on the campaign trail and formed a bond with Jill Biden, who herself had been the spouse of a vice president.

Emhoff, who is Jewish, was a regular Biden surrogate for campaign events targeting Jewish supporters. He was also “sent all the time to probably the hardest spots,” Biden senior strategic adviser Greg Schultz said during an October campaign event.

Emhoff has been offered lots of advice on how to tackle his new role.

“Everyone’s got an opinion on this, which is nice to hear,” Emhoff said during the campaign. “Which means people are actually excited about the prospect of someone like me in this role — and I get that.”

He hopes to tap his legal background and focus on justice-related issues, particularly “access to justice.”

Emhoff still has the voicemail of a congratulatory call from Biden after Harris and Emhoff got engaged in March 2014.

It was Harris’ first marriage and Emhoff ’s second. His son and daughter — named Cole and Ella after jazz legends Cole Porter and Ella Fitzgerald — came up with their own name for her: Mamala.

During an appearance on Hillary Clinton’s podcast, Harris described how she had been teaching Emhoff how to cook after the pandemic confined them to their Washington, D.C., apartment.

Harris’ own passion for cooking was often a topic on the campaign trail. She has described it as “one of my joys” and recirculated a video of herself making masala dosa with actress and writer Mindy Kaling last year.

She told Clinton that one of Emhoff ’s own culinary attempts went awry, setting off a fire alarm. Harris had to wave her briefing book back and forth to clear the air. The couple agreed that Emhoff should stick to three dishes he knows how to cook — “and we don’t need to experiment with anything else,” Harris said.

Harris as San Francisco’s top prosecutor in June 2004. She later became California attorney general, then was elected to the Senate. MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP

Presidential ambitions

Harris had sought the Democratic nomination herself but ended her campaign before the first primary votes were cast. She struggled to place herself in an ideological camp, particularly on how far she would go to support the health care proposal dubbed “Medicare for All.” She also faced criticism from some on the left for her prosecutorial record.

One of her biggest moments during the primary campaign came during a debate when she challenged Biden over his remarks about working with segregationist senators. She described herself as part of the second class to integrate her school as a child after mandatory school busing, which forced Biden to apologize for his earlier comments.

Although Biden didn’t hold a grudge, Trump immediately called Harris a “phony” after her selection. He frequently made fun of her first name — which is Sanskrit for “lotus” — and hurled insults at her from his campaign rallies, included calling her a monster.

Women’s groups spent millions on ads to “push back on disinformation and racist, sexist attacks” on Harris and show her in a positive light.

“She has taken on some of the toughest fights...and she’s done it all with a sense of style,” said the narrator in an ad called “Chucks” that included footage of Harris wearing her signature shoe choice, Converse Chuck Taylors, and a young girl dancing in the same footwear. “Someday soon, anyone will be able to see themselves as president.”

Daughter of immigrants

Harris was born in Oakland, California, to Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer scientist who immigrated from India, and Donald Harris, a professor of economics who immigrated from Jamaica.

Her first job was cleaning laboratory pipettes for her mother. “She fired me. I was awful,” Harris said.

Gopalan would also tell Harris and her sister: “Don’t sit around and complain about things. Do something.”

Harris frequently mentions the “stroller’s-eye view” she had of the civil rights movement, as her parents marched for social justice — a central topic of family discussions.

She wrote in her memoir that she was inspired to become a prosecutor in part because of the prosecutors who went after the Ku Klux Klan and because of U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who sent Justice Department officials to protect the Freedom Riders civil rights activists in 1961.

But she had to defend to friends and family her decision to try to change the justice system — a system they saw as too often offering injustice — from the inside rather than the outside.

Harris points to a program she championed as district attorney to direct young people arrested for drug crimes into training and counseling programs instead of sending them to jail.

As California’s attorney general, she pushed for a tough settlement from five major banks accused of foreclosure abuse. A fellow state attorney general who joined the fight was Beau Biden of Delaware — Joe Biden’s oldest son. The two developed a friendship before Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.

After Harris joined the Senate in 2017, she put her prosecutorial skills to work grilling witnesses at hearings. “I thought she was the meanest, the most horrible, the most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate,” Trump complained of Harris’ tough questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Breaking barriers means breaking things

When Harris found herself competing for the presidential nomination with three other female Democratic senators, the rivals enjoyed lighter moments on the campaign trail — laughing with each other and comparing notes on the still-rare experience of being a woman running for president.

“We have spent a lot of time together, sharing looks at each other across a room when statements are being made,” giving each other a knowing look, like “Yeah, that just happened,” Harris said during a fundraiser that included two of those senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. (The third was Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.)

Klobuchar recounted how, during one debate, the women demanded that technicians raise the temperature in the freezing studio.

“You couldn’t feel your feet,” Klobuchar said. “And on the break, we’re sitting there huddled together … and we said to the technician from NBC: `You know what? Women do worse when it’s so cold. This isn’t fair. You have got to turn this up, right now.’ And so they turned up the heat, as we did.”

Harris said women who go first know the sacrifices they’ve made and hope to make it easier for women to come up after.

Breaking barriers, she said, involves breaking things.

“And when you break things, you might get cut. You might bleed. It will be painful,” she said more than once. “It will be worth it.”

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Supporters of the Democratic slate of candidates attend a socially distanced get-out-the-vote rally on the University of Minnesota campus on Election Day. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the 2020 presidential election generated the most votes ever cast in a U.S. race. STEPHEN MATUREN/GETTY IMAGES

‘A real contrast’

How Joe Biden’s message of moderation united Democrats and won the election

Bart Jansen and Rebecca Morin

USA TODAY

Joe Biden won the White House because of who he is and who he isn’t.

Biden campaigned with metronomic consistency for racial equity and common decency to save "the soul of the nation" since declaring his candidacy on April 25, 2019. He pushed for expanded health care and investment in middle-class jobs. His message held through a campaign dominated by protests for racial justice and a pandemic that killed over 350,000 Americans — and counting.

But Biden also contrasted himself with his rivals. As Bernie Sanders claimed wins in early primaries, Biden distinguished himself from the selfproclaimed socialist to hold the more moderate center. During the general election, Biden contrasted his style with that of Donald Trump, whose administration polarized the country over the response to COVID-19, the resulting economic damage and the summer’s protests.

The election became a referendum on Trump — an up or down vote on his four-year term — rather than a choice between him and Biden, according to political experts. About two-thirds of voters said their opinion of Trump, either for or against, drove their choice, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of the electorate.

“2020 was a referendum on the incumbent president on overdrive," said Melissa Miller, associate professor of political science at Bowling Green State University.

But one of the most pivotal figures supporting Biden, South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, said the challenger still had to offer voters

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The Path to Victory

Biden supporters gather at Olmsted Center on the Drake University campus in Des Moines on Feb. 3 to await results from the Iowa caucuses. Biden would finish a disappointing fourth in Iowa, which held the first nominating contest of the campaign, although the biggest story coming out of the caucuses was the vote-counting confusion that delayed results for days. BRYON HOULGRAVE/THE DES MOINES REGISTER

something to believe in. “I’ve said he’s not the perfect candidate. We’re not comparing him to the Almighty. We’re comparing him to the alternative," Clyburn told USA TODAY. "You needed somebody who was basically center-left, you needed somebody who had a good solid reputation as a person who could bring people together. You needed a real contrast to the bombastic incumbent."

South Carolina rescues Biden

Victory wasn't assured, despite Biden leading national polls most of last year. Biden called his fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Feb. 3 “a gut punch." He left New Hampshire on Feb. 11 before votes there were counted; he placed fifth with just 8.4% of the vote. In Nevada on Feb. 22, Biden came in a distant second to Sanders.

But as his money dwindled and support waned, Biden pleaded for patience as the race headed toward the more diverse electorate in South Carolina. “You shouldn’t be able to win the presidency without support from Black and brown voters,” Biden said before winning a decisive 30-point margin over Sanders on Feb. 29.

“All those of you who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign," Biden said after the win. "Just days ago, the press and the pundits declared this candidacy dead."

Perhaps the biggest reason Biden won was because he sought and won the endorsement three days earlier from Clyburn, the third-ranking member of the House and the most powerful Black lawmaker in Congress.

“Joe Biden bending the knee was a really important part of his winning," Niambi Carter, associate professor in political science and director of graduate studies at Howard University, told USA TODAY.

Black voters 'signal' pragmatic choice

Strong support from Black voters allowed Biden to consolidate his support among party leaders as the candidate with the broadest appeal. Three out of five Black voters in South Carolina supported Biden, compared with 1 out of 5 for Sanders.

The results culled the field. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, dropped out the next day, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota the day after. That narrowed the choice on Super Tuesday between the more moderate Biden or the more hard-left Sanders.

“That was a very powerful signal to other Democrats,” said David Hopkins, associate professor of political science at Boston College. “Democratic voters wanted a signal from a trusted source, and Black voters in South Carolina were a trusted source.”

With the win, the Democratic Party united behind Biden. He pocketed endorsements from establishment Democrats such as former Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada before sweeping Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.

Biden racked up more endorsements, including from former presidential rivals Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey. The following week, Biden won every county in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi and never looked back.

Carter, the Howard professor, said part of the reason Black voters helped guide the broader party was because of their priority for choosing a winner rather than necessarily the candidate with views closest to their own.

“Black voters are pragmatic. They think, 'If we pick a Bernie Sanders, they are going to beat him over the head with this socialist label. They are going to treat socialism as a dirty word and he won’t be able to do anything,' " Carter said. “'Let’s go with a guy who may not have the most innovative ideas, but we think white people will go for him, too.'"

Progressives stick by, but urge change

The Democratic Party changed its nominating rules after the 2016 campaign in response to complaints that the delegate selection process gave an advantage to establishment Democrats over those with more grassroots support. But Sanders' early success this time around worried party officials. They looked ahead to Republicans blasting their nominee as a socialist and Democrats losing another election. “(Black support “The Democratic Party establishment never wanted Sanders,” in South Carolina) said Caitlin Jewitt, assistant pro- was a very powerfulfessor of political science at Virginia Tech and author of “The Pri- signal. ... Democratic mary Rules: Parties, Voters and Presidential Nominations.” voters wanted a

“At that point, it was double- signal from a trusted barreled. It can’t be Sanders, but it has to be somebody who can beat source, and Black Trump." voters in South

Sanders was more cooperative this time around. In 2016, even af- Carolina were a ter Democrat Hillary Clinton had wrapped up the nomination, trusted source.” Sanders continued contesting David Hopkins primaries and didn’t endorse her Boston College political scientist until July. Tensions lingered at the party convention. This year, Sanders endorsed Biden in April.

Waleed Shahid, spokesman for Justice Democrats, an organization that aims to elect progressive candidates, said there would be no “honeymoon” for Biden in office. Progressives are eager to see how much Biden can win for economic stimulus and what funding he will provide to address systemic racism and climate change.

Protests contrast Trump, Biden

The death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25 sparked nationwide protests. The incident refocused attention on the

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shooting death of Breonna Taylor during a police raid March 13 in Louisville, Kentucky. And outrage roiled Kenosha, Wisconsin, after a police officer shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake on Aug. 23.

The responses of Trump and Biden offered another stark contrast.

Trump positioned himself as a law-and-order president, supporting police as protests occasionally turned violent with arson, burglaries and shootings. Federal authorities used tear gas outside the White House on June 1 to clear a path so Trump could walk to a nearby church to be photographed holding a Bible aloft.

Biden walked a line between supporting peaceful protests while denouncing violence. He urged greater training for police to defuse confrontations while dismissing proposals from more liberal supporters to defund police. And Biden, who had lost his wife, a daughter and a son to an accident and illness, met relatives of the victims.

Biden recounted a wrenching conversation with Floyd's daughter, Gianna, in a video for his funeral. "You're so brave," Biden said. "No child should have to ask questions that too many Black children have asked for generations: 'Why? Why is Daddy gone?' In looking through your eyes, we should also be asking ourselves why the answer is so often too cruel and painful."

Protests over police violence were a factor in the election for 91% of voters, according to a VoteCast survey of 110,485 voters by The Associated Press. More than three out of four voters said racism is a “very” or “somewhat” serious problem in U.S. society, according to the survey. But the responses divided sharply along party lines, with 90% of the voters saying racism wasn’t a problem supporting Trump, according to the survey.

Two-thirds of voters said the criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul or major changes, according to the survey.

Stefanie Brown James, who led efforts to engage African American leaders and voters in 2012 for then-President Barack Obama, said protests and calls for racial justice forced Biden to confront systemic racism and talk about his plans. The protests were embraced by more than just Black people with participation of whites, Latinos and Asians, she said. "I think it pushed him, and it also pushed other voters, and other demographics, to also understand we need some real policy changes and some policy solutions because this is egregious the way Black people are treated in this country."

The groundbreaking running mate

Harris cemented her reputation for tough oversight of the Trump administration during clashes in hearings with Attorney General William Barr

Biden speaks at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sept. 3, during protests in the city over a police shooting that left a Black man paralyzed. Donald Trump had visited Kenosha just two days earlier. CAROLYN KASTER/AP

and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Harris brought the political experience of her own short-lived presidential campaign as well as having won election in the country’s most populous state as attorney general and then senator.

But beyond her resume, Harris fulfilled a goal of women and people of color by becoming the first African American woman and the first person of South Asian person descent on a major party’s presidential ticket. Black women demanded recognition for their demographic group, a reliably Democratic voter bloc.

“I think it was essential," said Carter, the professor at Howard University, where Harris earned her bachelor's degree. “That was an inspirational message that bridged a lot of parts of the Democratic coalition."

People danced on a hot, blue-sky afternoon in the parking lot at Morehouse College in Atlanta while waiting for Harris to speak at the historically Black school. Jacinda Jackson, 34, president of DeKalb Young Democrats, brought her mother, Brenda Thomas, to celebrate the historic nominee.

“Seeing a Black woman become the first vice president is something that is very, very special, and so I brought my mom as well,” Jackson said. “She wanted to come as well because it is very important for Black women to see themselves in this kind of role.”

Biden adopts safe coronavirus practices

The coronavirus pandemic changed the nature of the campaign completely. Both parties held conventions largely remotely. Door-to-door canvassing became tougher. Rallies halted temporarily.

But the response to the health crisis became one of the defining contrasts between the campaigns. Biden remained mostly secluded at his Delaware home and appeared at speeches or rallies where participants wore masks and kept separated. Trump resumed rallies with large crowds packed closely together without requiring masks.

About two-thirds of likely voters approved of Biden's more cautious approach, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released days before the election.

The coronavirus pandemic was the “most important issue facing the country” to 41% of voters, according to the AP VoteCast survey. The economy was the top issue for 28% and all other issues received single-digit responses, the survey found.

The survey found about 1 in 5 voters thought the virus was completely or mostly under control. But half the respondents said it wasn’t under control at all, and 3 in 10 said it was somewhat under control, according to the survey. More than 3 out of 4 voters favored a requirement that people wear masks, according to the survey.

“The big difference between us — and the reason why it looks like we’re not traveling — we’re not putting on superspreaders," Biden told reporters in Chester, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 26. “It’s important to be responsible."

Trump blasted Biden repeatedly for campaigning largely by remote video rather than visiting states like the president. Trump tweeted side-byside images Oct. 28 showing him arriving by helicopter at a crowded rally while Biden walked into a sparsely populated gathering where attendants sat separated in white circles.

“He’s waved a white flag on life. He doesn’t leave his basement,” Trump told reporters Oct. 26 after he landed for a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “He’s a pathetic candidate, I will tell you that.”

The virus infiltrated both campaigns. Trump was hospitalized for several days after testing positive for the virus. And Harris canceled a weekend of campaign trips in mid-October after a staffer tested positive for the virus.

Money buys ads, expands map

Despite the hurdle of holding fundraisers by video call and being the challenger rather than incumbent, Biden raised far more money during the campaign than Trump. The advantage allowed Biden to run two or three times as many ads as Trump in key battlegrounds.

Biden's campaign brought in $952 million through Oct. 14, compared with $601 million to Trump's campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission. However, fundraising doesn't dictate the winner, as Trump demonstrated in 2016 when he was dramatically outspent.

An advantage to Biden's bountiful advertising was that he could afford to expand the campaign map. Biden ventured beyond the fiercely competitive states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin during final weeks of the campaign to also visit Georgia and Iowa. He argued a week before voting ended that he also had a fighting chance in Ohio and North Carolina. "I just want to make sure we can earn every vote possible," Biden told reporters in Chester.

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