‹ 2016  2024 ›
| ||||
| 2020 United States presidential election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 3, 2020 | ||||
| Turnout | 66.7▲10 p.p. | |||
|
|
|||
| Nominee | Barack Obama | Marco Rubio | ||
| Party | Democratic | Republican | ||
| Home state | Hawaii | Florida | ||
| Running mate | Tim Kaine | Cathy McMorris Rodgers | ||
| Electoral vote | 349 | 189 | ||
| States carried | 29 | 22 | ||
| Popular vote | 83,332,134 | 69,306,224 | ||
| Percentage | 54.9% | 45% | ||
| ||||
| Presidential election results map. blue denotes those won by Obama/Kaine, red those won by Rubio/Rodgers. | ||||
President before election
Barack Obama Democratic Party
Elected President
Barack Obama Democratic Party | ||||
The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The incumbent Democratic president Barack Obama and vice president Tim Kaine defeated the ticket of Republican Senator from Florida Marco Rubio and Congresswoman from Washington Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Obama became the third U.S. President in a row to receive re-election. The election saw a sharp increase of voter turnout, which was the highest since 1900. Incumbent president Obama received the highest amount of votes for any presidential candidate in history. It was the first election which saw Douglass Commonwealth voting as a state.
Obama and Kaine didn't receive any challenge in their party's primary, being easily renominated for the Democratic ticket. The Republican primaries featured an open field with the biggest amount of candidates for any primary in modern American history, eventually the nomination was won by Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida. He chose Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers as his running mate, Rodgers became the third woman ever to appear on a presidential ticket as the vice presidential candidate. The election pivoted around economic issues, and the Obama administration's handling of the recession and COVID-19 outbreak and issues surrouding racial justice following major protests after deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Due to the nature of handling an election during a pandemic a record amount of ballots were cast early or by mail, this is thought to directly resulted in the record turnout and caused many states to make alternative voting methods more secure and accessible. On election night many swing states were dubbed too close to call due to the high number of mail-in votes, by November 7th however most major outlets called the election to incumbent president Obama, with him receiving 349 electoral votes, the most for any major party candidate since Joe Lieberman in 2004. The results were subsequently ceritified by all 51 states.