Biden wins on healing message
Strong support from Black voters rescued candidacy
Joe Biden won the White House because of who he is and who he isn’t.
Biden campaigned with metronomic consistency for racial equity and common decency to save “the soul of the nation” since declaring his candidacy on April 25, 2019. He promoted plans to expand health care and investment in middle-class jobs. His message held through a campaign dominated by protests for racial justice and a pandemic that killed more than 230,000 Americans – and counting.
But Biden also contrasted himself with opponents. As Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont racked up Democratic primary wins and delegates, Biden distinguished himself from the self-proclaimed socialist to hold the more moderate center. During the general election, Biden contrasted himself with President Donald Trump, whose administration polarized the country over the response to COVID-19, the economic collapse and the protests.
The election became a referendum on Trump – an up or down vote on his four-year term – rather than a choice between him and Biden, according to political experts. About two-thirds of voters said their opinion of Trump, either for or against, drove their choice, according to AP Votecast, an expansive survey of the electorate.
“2020 was a referendum on the incumbent president on overdrive,” said Melissa Miller, associate professor of political science at Bowling Green State University.
But one of the most pivotal figures who supported Biden’s resurgence, Rep. James Clyburn, D-south Carolina, said the challenger still had to offer voters something to believe in.
“I’ve said, ‘He’s not the perfect candidate.’ We’re not comparing him to the Almighty. We’re comparing him to the alternative,” Clyburn told USA TODAY. “You needed somebody who was basically center-left, you needed somebody who had a good solid reputation as a person who could bring people together. You needed a real contrast to the bombastic incumbent.”
Victory wasn’t assured, despite Biden leading national polls most of last year. Biden called his fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Feb. 3 “a gut punch.” He left New Hampshire on Feb. 11 before the count of the primary votes that placed him fifth with just 8.4% of the vote. In Nevada on Feb. 22, Biden placed a distant second to Sanders.
But as his money dwindled and support waned, Biden pleaded for patience as the race headed toward the more diverse electorate in South Carolina. “You shouldn’t be able to win the presidency without support from Black and brown voters,” Biden said before winning a decisive 30-point margin against Sanders on Feb. 29.
Perhaps the biggest reason Biden won was because he sought and won the endorsement three days earlier from Clyburn, the third-ranking member of the House and the most powerful Black lawmaker in Congress.
Strong support from Black voters allowed Biden to consolidate his support among party leaders as the candidate with the broadest appeal. Three out of five Black voters supported Biden in South Carolina, compared to one out of five for Sanders.
With the Super Tuesday win over Sanders, the Democratic Party united
behind Biden. He pocketed endorsements from establishment Democrats such as former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada before sweeping Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.
Biden racked up more endorsements, including from former presidential rivals, Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey. The following week, Biden won every county in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi and never looked back.
Biden and Sanders appointed task forces to hammer out policy compromises like a party platform, which included more progressive positions for Biden on health insurance, climate change and an overhaul of criminal justice.
“I think Joe Biden has done a good job in starting those conversations and getting us to where we are today,” said Waleed Shahid, spokesman for Justice Democrats, an organization that aims to elect progressive candidates, saying that no other nominee in recent history offered the movement that sort of olive branch.
The death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25 sparked nationwide protests for racial justice. The incident rekindled attention on the shooting death of Breonna Taylor during a police raid March 13 in Louisville, Kentucky. And outrage roiled Kenosha, Wisconsin, after a police officer shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake on Aug. 23.
The personal responses of Trump and Biden offered another stark contrast.
Trump campaigned as the law-andorder president, supporting police as protests occasionally turned violent with arson, burglaries and shootings. Federal authorities on June 1 cleared a path with tear gas for Trump to walk from the White House to a nearby church to hold a Bible aloft.
Biden walked a line between supporting peaceful protests while denouncing violence. He urged greater training for police to calm tense confrontations, while dismissing proposals from more progressive supporters to defund police. And Biden, who had lost his wife, a daughter and a son to an accident and illness, met relatives of the
victims.
Protests over police violence were a factor in the election for 91% of voters, according to a Votecast survey of 110,485 voters by The Associated Press. More than three out of four voters said racism is a “very” or “somewhat” serious problem in U.S. society, according to the survey. But the responses divided sharply along party lines, with 90% of the voters saying racism wasn’t a problem supporting Trump, according to the survey.
Two-thirds of voters said the criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul or major changes, according to the survey.
Stefanie Brown James, who led efforts to engage African American leaders and voters in 2012 for former President Barack Obama, said protests and calls for racial justice forced Biden to confront systemic racism and talk about his plans. The protests were embraced by more than just Black people with participation of whites, Latinos and Asians, she said.
“I think it pushed him, and it also pushed other voters, and other demographics, to also understand we need some real policy changes and some policy solutions because this is egregious the way Black people are treated in this country,” James said.
The coronavirus pandemic changed the nature of the campaign completely. Both parties held conventions largely remotely. Door-to-door canvassing became tougher. Rallies halted temporarily.
But the response to the health crisis became one of the defining contrasts between the campaigns. Biden remained mostly secluded at his Delaware home and appeared at speeches or rallies where participants wore masks and kept separated. Trump resumed rallies with large crowds packed closely together without requiring masks.
About two-thirds of likely voters approved of Biden’s more cautious approach, according to a USA TODAY/SUFfolk University poll released days before the election.
The coronavirus pandemic was the “most important issue facing the country” to 41% of voters, according to the AP Votecast survey. The economy was the top issue for 28% and all other issues re
ceived single-digit responses, the survey found.
Trump blasted Biden repeatedly for campaigning largely by remote video rather than visiting states like the president. Trump tweeted side-by-side images Oct. 28 showing him arriving by helicopter at a crowded rally while Biden walked into a sparsely populated gathering where attendants sat separated in white circles.
“He’s waved a white flag on life. He doesn’t leave his basement,” Trump told reporters Oct. 26 after he landed for a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “He’s a pathetic candidate, I will tell you that.”
“The big difference between us – and the reason why it looks like we’re not traveling – we’re not putting on superspreaders,” Biden told reporters in Chester, Pennsylvania, the same day. “It’s important to be responsible.”
Despite the hurdle of holding fundraisers by video call and being the challenger rather than incumbent, Biden raised far more money during the campaign than Trump. The advantage allowed Biden to run two or three times as many ads as Trump in key battlegrounds.
Biden’s campaign received $952 million through Oct. 14, compared to $601 million to Trump’s campaign, according to the Federal Election Committee. Fundraising doesn’t dictate the winner, as Trump demonstrated in 2016 when he was dramatically outspent.
But the financial advantage allowed Biden to spend $223 million airing television ads 356,366 times from April 9 through Oct. 15, according to a report from the Wesleyan Media Project. Trump spent $161 million on 261,633 airings during the same period, the study found.
Another advantage to Biden’s bountiful advertising was that he could afford to expand the campaign map. Biden ventured beyond the fiercely competitive states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin during final week of the campaign to also visit Georgia and Iowa. He argued a week before voting ended that he also had a fighting chance in Ohio and North Carolina.
“I just want to make sure we can earn every vote possible,” Biden told reporters in Chester.