Biden-Harris ticket surpasses 80M votes — the most in US history
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. (Photo by Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images)
The 2020 election was an event for the record books for more reasons than one: President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received more votes than any other presidential ticket in U.S. history.
According to The Cook Political Report, a non-partisan organization, the Biden-Harris ticket surpassed 80 million votes. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, received more than 73 million votes.
Both Biden and Trump superseded the previous record set when Barack Obama received nearly 70 million votes in 2008.
The Biden-Harris ticket was historic for several reasons. It was the first time a woman and a person of color was elected vice president.
Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, said in her victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware after the election, “I may be the first woman to hold this office. But I won’t be the last.”
“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they've never seen it before,” Harris said.
Biden’s win also reconfigured the political map. Historically red states, such as Georgia and Arizona, turned blue for the first time in decades, delivering Biden a solid victory over Trump. Biden also flipped other states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, repairing the “blue wall” by winning back the traditional Democratic states that went to Trump in 2016.
President Donald Trump (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Despite Biden’s projected win and the certification of results in the key states of Michigan and Pennsylvania, Trump tweeted Tuesday that we will never concede to Biden.
Trump filed a barrage of lawsuits in battleground states that he lost, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. So far, his efforts have proved futile as judges have dismissed his lawsuits and recounts haven’t changed the election outcome.
The Nevada Supreme Court made Joe Biden’s win in the state official on Tuesday, approving the state’s final canvass of the Nov. 3 election.
RELATED: Election 2020: Lawsuits filed, recounts requested by Trump campaign — here’s where they stand
On Monday, after a two-week delay, the General Services Administration’s Administrator Emily Murphy announced that she would clear the way for the Biden transition to formally begin, freeing up funds and resources for Biden to take office.
RELATED: GSA officially recognizes Biden as president-elect, clearing way for transition
This story was reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press contributed to this report.