Pennsylvania helps native son Biden over top to presidency

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania catapulted its native son, Joe Biden, to victory and the White House on Saturday after a long, hard-fought and expensive campaign in which Democrats wrested the battleground state’s 20 electoral votes back from President Donald Trump after the Republican’s surprise victory in 2016.

Biden also carried Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan on his path to the presidency, flipping states that Trump won in 2016, but it was Pennsylvania that put him over the top. The state had been a must-win for the incumbent.

The 77-year-old Biden was born in Scranton and sought to contrast his working-class roots with the affluent Trump’s by casting the race as “Scranton versus Park Avenue.” It was a familiar theme for Biden, who has long played up his connection to lunch-bucket Scranton and still has friends there.

“Against extraordinary odds, he achieved what he really wanted, his goal,” said lifelong friend Tom Bell, a retired insurance agent who grew up in the same neighborhood as Biden.

Bell called it a win for Scranton, too.

“Scranton is just kind of an old-fashioned city with old-fashioned values,” he said, “and people are extremely proud of Joe Biden.”

Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots, and the Trump campaign mounted several legal challenges that remain pending in the state.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani vowed again Saturday that the litigation would continue next week over the vote count in Pennsylvania. In a statement, Trump vowed not to concede “until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”

A couple thousand Trump supporters rallied peacefully at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, with American flags, Trump flags and “Stop the Steal” signs.

In Philadelphia, Trump supporters gathered outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where votes were still being counted.

Outnumbering them was a jubilant crowd of Biden supporters who taunted the Trump supporters and danced to music. Police watched both sides.

Julio Cortez The Associated Press People dance in celebration Saturday outside the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg after Democrat Joe Biden, who was born in the state, defeated President Donald Trump in the race for president of the United States.