A divided nation waited, argued, worried, hoped, and it all came down to this: Former Vice President Joe Biden is the President-elect of the United States of America, and Sen. Kamala Harris makes history as the first Black person, first South-Asian person and first woman to become Vice President of the United States.
The razor thin vote came down to battleground states of Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Arizona, with absentee votes continuing to fall Biden’s way in predominantly Democratic areas.
But it was Pennsylvania that pushed the “scrappy boy from Scranton” over the edge, with an electoral college victory over Donald Trump—273-214.
Thanks to the work of Black women organizers across Georgia, including but certainly not limited to former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown, Black Voters Matter Co-Founder, and Nsé Ufot, CEO of The New Georgia Project, the once deep red state played a decisive role in the highly contentious race.
Black voters in Philadelphia also lead the charge to flip Pennsylvania blue.
Biden, who urged voters to keep the faith this week, won the popular vote by the largest margin in history as a distraught Trump filed lawsuits in attempt to subvert democracy by stopping votes from being counted.
While the Democratic Party managed to hold on to the House, control of the Senate could come down to two Georgia races—GOP Sen. David Perdue facing off against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff and GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler against Democratic candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
And while those races may be up in the air, as well as the future of the Democratic Party, which is splintered at best—the hard fought repudiation of President Donald Trump is not.