Brandon Ascencio
Chronicle Reporter
What a year 2020 has been. We have witnessed history in the making. We saw the beginning of 2020 almost breakout into a World War. We are currently experiencing a worldwide pandemic, and this month, a historic election in the United States.
Most of us high school students have only been able to properly experience one or maybe two elections in the past. However, 2020 brought us a new type of election- President Donald J. Trump, 45th president of the United States ran against Joe Biden, vice president of the 44th president of the United States. When these two were first elected as candidates everything seemed normal. Overtime, things got heated, people wanted Joe Biden as our new president and began asking for change, and others wanted Donald Trump to be re-elected as our president.
We had our first official presidential debate on Sep. 29. For many, this was a huge deal and many were ready to experience the most fiercest debate of the century. However, after the debate, so many were sad to see that it was the biggest joke in all social media for weeks. People joking about how the debate was only Donald Trump talking over Biden, and making fun of Biden for just sitting there not saying anything. At this point in time, this made many hardcore supporters, give up. Many were sad to see how humiliating this debate was, for many this wasn’t a debate, it was just two old men arguing.
We in the United States were in a real pickle when things jumped towards a bad direction. Our 45th president, the same president saying this worldwide pandemic wasn’t anything serious, the same president who threw shade at Joe Biden for wearing his mask everywhere, our 45th president, had caught Covid-19. This began the U.S. election fire. In my opinion, this was the beginning of a fire that is still going to this day. Everyone went crazy. Democrats rose up thinking many republicans would realize Trump was a bad president even lying to his people.
However, after a week of being taken care of Trump was good to go into the next presidential event. Donald Trump getting back to normal (even though he received the most expensive care and best doctors). Many Republicans thought that maybe the president wasn’t a liar, maybe he healed because this pandemic isn’t that bad, and so, the fire grew.
In the weeks leading to election night there were many protests, and harassment towards both groups. People were getting ready for an all out civil war. People were arming themselves and everyone was in fear. This harassment, and the whole pandemic going on, encouraged the idea of mail in votes, and boy was that a huge issue.
Election night on Nov. 3 came around quickly, and boy is it one to remember. We saw a historic election, a historic number of voters came out to vote.
“…at least 162 million Americans voted in the 2020 election, the largest number of voters in a U.S. Presidential election in history.”, according to Townandcountrymag.com
With this historic number of voters also came history numbers for the candidates, Joe Biden and Trump set new records for the amount of votes they both received separately- this passed any previous presidents in history. Joe Biden received 75 million votes, while Trump received only a little under him 71 million. Historic moments were also made within the states. Places like Arizona turned into a blue state for the first time in history. This result came into a shock when on Nov. 7 Biden had won the presidential election
Biden had won with 290 electoral votes compared to Trump who had only won 214. This was a shock to many Democrats, who even though they didn’t expect it went out to celebrate all across the country. The fire that was burning was going out, but with constant news of the mail in ballots, the fire only grew brighter.
Biden was behind in most states on Nov. 3, however many were surprised to see on the morning of Nov. 4, Biden had taken a huge leap forward, and it only kept increasing. The mail in votes, across the U.S. were being received, and a huge percentage of these votes were for Biden.
This whole mail in votes victory, however, became the center of conspiracy theories. Many Republicans pointed fingers saying the election was robbed, even on twitter president Trump was ranting saying he was robbed by voter fraud. Many believed that President Trump would take Biden to the supreme court over voter fraud, but without evidence, Trump can only accept defeat.
Biden, now the 46th elected President of the U.S. Now, that might be great, but a huge step for women with Biden winning, a historic moment for women, Kamala Harris, has become the first female vice president. She has stepped up with Biden, and she along with Joe, made a historic step for women. This is a huge step in the right direction, this gives many of us hope that we will soon see the first female president, and make one of the most notable moments in history.
This year has been full of surprises and this election wasn’t anything different, we saw states change sides for the first time ever, historic number of votes, sadly an increase in social media violence, and even possibly two presidents battling in the Supreme Court. This truly has been a historic moment and one we won’t forget.