Connecticut
cheers as news of Biden victory spreads
Richard Blumenthal was in the car on the way to a Hartford rally, urging the counting of all votes when the call was made: Former Vice President Joe Biden won the American presidency Saturday, steaming ahead of President Donald Trump on a wave of mail- in ballots that ushered in a new political era at the end of a bitter, unusual campaign.
“It’s very, very exciting,” the U. S. senator from Connecticut said in an interview moments after the news broke. “I’m looking forward to an inspiring new era of leadership and unity, ending this very dark, dangerous time for our nation. Our long national nightmare is over.”
The arrival of the anticipated win dispelled the anxiety of Democrats across the nation who wrestled with deep, unquiet fears that 2020 might deliver another 2016- style upset. But Biden slowly cruised to victory, winning more votes than any previous presidential candidate and crossing the 270 electoral vote- threshold when he won his birth state of Pennsylvania Saturday morning.
“Joe Biden is a friend to me, a friend to Connecticut, and our country will be in great hands with him as 46th president of the United States,” Gov. Ned Lamont tweeted.
“I know that his leadership as president of the United States will work to unify our nation,” Lamont said later Saturday in a statement. “When I endorsed him last year, I felt that he represented the best of our country, and it is clear that tens of millions felt the same way, selecting him to move us forward in January, and recapture the soul of our country. Vice President Biden has a record of working for the middle class, fighting for increased access to health care, and working across the aisle.”
The victory of Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D- Calif., shatters a glass ceiling for women and minorities across the country: America's first female vice president, first Black vice president and first person of Indian descent to take the office.
Recounts and legal challenges may continue for days or weeks as Trump has continued unfounded claims of voter fraud and other election irregularities, but even Republicans accepted that it was time to turn the page on Trump's one- term. Trump said in a statement Saturday that the election was not over and he will continue to challenge the results in court.
Like Trump, Marjorie Bonadides, a Republican member of the Hamden Legislative Council, said she wasn’t yet ready to declare Biden the winner.
“The media is calling an election that has not been certified. The press and social media are now the arbiters of our election process? They already censor what we can post, search for, and hear. I'm astonished they feel they have a mandate to do that,” she said.
“I want a free and fair election, I want all legal votes counted. When that has been satisfied, my faith will be restored. Rushing to call this election for Biden is another tactic to say to people, ‘ move along, nothing to see here.’”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong disagreed, saying “this election was fair, legal, transparent and accurate.”
“Voters decided this outcome. Not the candidates. Not the courts,” he said. “This is the genius of our Republic, and the beauty of our nation. We must now begin the peaceful transfer of power, as we have for more than 240 years. And we must reject all efforts now to sow chaos and confusion, and to undermine faith in our democratic process.”
‘ A new day for our country’
In addition to the already planned rally in Hartford that drew Biden and Trump supporters, a few impromptu Democratic celebrations popped up Saturday afternoon around Connecticut. Groups gathered in Fairfield, Westport and Greenwich waving signs and encouraging passing motorists to honk their horns for the Biden victory.
Biden’s win brought relief to Camila Bortolleto, co- founder of CT Students for a Dream.
“Over the past four years, the Trump administration has been anti- immigrant and xenophobic,” she said. “That’s undeniable.”
But she said her organization would continue to fight for immigrants.
“That suffering will not end with the new administration,” Bortolleto said. “There is still a lot of work to be done. Things don’t just magically reverse themselves.”
University of Connecticut student Michael Cerulli, a 2019 Trumbull High grad and president of the College Democrats of Connecticut, believes young voters helped propel Biden.
“That was absolutely key. Look at Georgia, young people put Biden over the top, and it is 100 percent due to the effort and hard work by the College Democrats and youth outreach by the Democrats,” he said.
“We showed up this time. The youth vote turned out. And we sent a message to elected officials and a warning sign to future campaigns — ignore young people at your peril. Because young people turned out — this was huge for us.”
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, a Democrat, said it’s “a new day for our country.”
“We move forward knowing that the work to make a better America starts with us: what we choose and what we believe in,” he said. “At the same time, the hate and division still present in our country is a struggle we will have to reckon with. It is daunting, but here in New Haven, I want every resident to know that we are in this together. We will face what lies ahead as the family of New Haven.”
The Biden celebration even extended into Greenwich, where about 30 people gathered outside Town Hall on Saturday afternoon.
At the nearby train station, a group of four high school friends from New York got together for brunch and to “celebrate the beginning of our new democratic future,” Donna Costa said, drawing a laugh from her friends. “We’re very excited.”
Her vote for Biden was recently cast in hopes of bringing the country back to a “democratic nation,” the Rockland Country woman said.
“I really feel that President Biden will bring the beginning of healing and peace, and be able to grow the causes like Black Lives Matter, and fairness for all people of all genders,” she said.
Stamford resident Rajiah Williams Leon felt a sense of relief when she heard the results on Saturday.
“I felt relieved because we’ve all felt this collective weight from many different things and hopefully this change will lead to growth,” she said.
“Besides all the racism and the violence — all the tragedy — ( and) beyond that, we just need to accept and move forward, and today feels like we can all breathe a little more deeply knowing that hopefully, we all collectively led to the change that our planet desperately needed.”
Michael Freda, the Republican first selectman of North Haven, hopes the Biden victory will signal more unity.
“Now that the election results are in, it is my hope that we can move forward in a positive fashion and come together as a society, and come together in our communities, by working together to create a bright future for all of us while also learning to embrace different points of view, with those of us in government leading by example to work across party lines to effectively serve our fine citizens,” he said.
Mike Safranek, chairman of the Danbury Republican Town Committee, said he was “disappointed” by the apparent Biden victory, but was waiting for the results to be certified.
With the nation deeply divided, Safranek said he is hoping for unity.
“We need to love the country more than we hate each other ( politically),” he said. “That’s the most significant point.”
U. S. Rep. Jim Himes, D- 4, was hiking in the woods in Massachusetts with his father, when he got an alert on his phone that the race was called for Biden.
To him, the outcome was clear for the past few days, but getting the news on Saturday “was a huge emotional relief.”
“I realize I’ve been carrying around the weight of trying to explain and soothe and offer optimism in the face of a very dark president to my constituents and in some ways, it’s been one of the biggest challenges for me as a representative — dealing with the fear and the anxiety and concern of so many of my constituents,” he said. “The all important suburban woman, who made a big difference in this election, there are a lot of them in my district.”
He said Biden will “restitch the country back together” and now it was time to fight to win a Democratic majority in the Senate, with two Georgia Senate races advancing to runoffs in January.
He said he planned to spend “a good chunk” of the remainder of Saturday in the woods “recuperating.”
“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do, inside the Connecticut delegation and inside the Congress, but today I’m getting back to nature a little bit with a big sigh of relief,” he said. “There might be a celebratory cocktail or so involved as well.”