Fired up, Ready for JOE! (A Mini Timeline)

[Progressive]

Good evening and welcome to coverage of election night 2020! It's safe to say that the White House is holding its breath, anxious about the results to come. The Democratic ticket, with former Vice President Joe Biden and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard at the helm, is reportedly cautiously optimistic tonight that a Democrat will return to the White House.

With a drubbing in the 2018 Midterm Elections, Republicans in Congress remain equally alarmed that they will further receive bad news from the voters. But it all comes down to tonight. Still, Republicans insist that Trump, at the top of the ticket, fooled pundits once before and can do it again this evening.

Before the first polls close, let's review how we got to this point in American political history.

In Review: The Trump Presidency

Four years of success. Four years of failure. Four years of nothing. Four years of disaster. It seems that there's a talking point for every critic in how to frame the Trump presidency.

Upon taking office, President Trump managed to jam the federal judiciary with shockingly extreme judges such as John K. Busch. Of course, Neil Gorsuch, Associate Supreme Court Justice, was confirmed to the Court after Majority Leader McConnell's unprecedented obstruction of a President Obama court nominee.

After that, Trump has had little success in Congress in the past four years. His attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act lasted into early 2018, and Republican leaders in the Senate never mustered a floor vote on the repeal or an a replacement. Trump did manage to push the privatization of Air Traffic Control which was later repealed in 2019 after private companies demanded higher payment than the federal government did when it controlled air traffic control.

Numerous Trump cabinet members resigned including Attorney General Sessions who was replaced by former New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who resigned abruptly in the summer of 2017, replaced later by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich after a four-month-long Senate battle.

The Department of Justice made numerous unprecedented moves including federal prosecution of marijuana-related activities in states like Colorado and California. The Department of Education essentially stopped federally enforcing the IDEA law guaranteeing a free, appropriate public education to students with disabilities. In fact, the non-enforcement of IDEA became so contentious that Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin was defeated in 2019 for re-election by Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes who earned the support of Autism-family activists when it was revealed that Gov. Bevin would follow the Trump administration's lead to not enforce IDEA on a state level.

Politically, President Trump remained heavily unpopular. His high mark was in the late summer of 2019 after a hurricane hit the Carolina coast. FEMA and other agencies coordinated a reasonably competent response, and Trump approval soared from the high 30s to about 49% to 47% of Americans disapproving. But his numbers soon collapsed following a series of Tweets condemning North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, who urged more federal resources following the storm. Trump earned the scorn of Democrats and Republicans alike.

The investigation into Russian collusion bore little fruit against President Trump, though Special Counsel Bob Mueller agreed not to indict Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner if the two men, along with Special Assistant Ivanka Trump, agreed to permanently give up their security clearance and access to government information. Trump lauded this as a win, but was reportedly livid that his family was no longer able to participate in White House internal workings.

By election day 2020, President Trump had an approval rating standing at 39%, with 57% of Americans disapproving. 54% of Americans felt that Trump did not deserve to be re-elected with 43%  stating that he did.

NEXT POST: A review of the 2020 Democratic Primary and 2018 midterms, before the first election results take place.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I hope Uncle Joe isn't senile at this point or worse, because the prospect of Tulsi's presidency scares me.

[Kamala]

Tanned, relaxed and ready to serve! Go Joe!

[Progressive]

In Review: 2020 Democratic Primary

The 2020 Democratic primary was contentious and crowded. At its most packed, the following candidates all led presidential campaigns:

*Vice President Joe Biden
*Sen. Bernie Sanders
*Sen. Cory Booker
*Gov. Terry McAuliffe
*Sen. Chris Murphy
*Gov. Andrew Cuomo
*Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz
*Sen. Kamala Harris
*Rep. Tim Ryan
*Former Sen. Russ Feingold
*Former Sec. Julian Castro
*Former Sec. Ash Carter

Ahead of Iowa, Gov. Cuomo, Sec. Carter, and Rep. Tim Ryan dropped out of the election as a result of not gaining tracking in the polls. After months of "musical chairs" for top 3 in Iowa, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders appeared locked in a battle for first place.

Iowa Results: Joe Biden won the Iowa Caucuses with a small but comfortable 3 point margin against Bernie Sanders for second, Cory Booker for third, and Howard Schultz in fourth place.

McAuliffe, Harris, Feingold and Castro dropped out.

New Hampshire Results: Bernie Sanders beat Joe Biden in New Hampshire 42% to 33%, with Booker coming in a distant third place again.

Chris Murphy dropped out.

South Carolina Results: Cory Booker led South Carolina polls narrowly before Iowa. After two stinging third place finishes, the Booker campaign decided that if it could finish in second place, ahead of Sanders it would stay in the race.

Biden won South Carolina with 40% of the vote, Sanders scored 28% of the vote, and Booker earned about 20% of the vote. Starbucks CEO, whose popularity was strongest in wealthy suburbs, earned about 7% of the vote.

Cory Booker dropped out.

Nevada Caucus Results: After a contentious ground game battle, Bernie Sanders finished ahead in the Nevada Caucuses with 43% of the vote, compared to Biden's 40% of the vote. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sank millions of dollars into the Nevada ground game and won about 15% of the caucus vote.

Howard Schultz dropped out.

Remainder: After a contentious battle between Biden and Sanders, Biden won the primary. Ahead of the 2020 contests, super delegates were eliminated. With unrest among Sanders supporters, despite a clear Biden clinch of the nomination, Biden selected Tulsi Gabbard as vice president, despite early reports indicating that Sen. Kamala Harris was the clear favorite.

NEXT: 2018 Midterm Recap

[Jaguar4life]

>Tulsi Gabbard
NYESSSSSSSS

[Rookie Yinzer]

Yuck at Gabbard! But I'm along for the ride. Go Joe Go!

[Jaguar4life]

Why do a lot of Dems seem to dislike Gabbard?

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Why do a lot of Dems seem to dislike Gabbard?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/04/11/what-is-tulsi-gabbard-thinking-on-syria/

[RC (a la Frémont)]

Yuck at Gabbard! But I'm along for the ride. Go Joe Go!

Biden/Gabbard = Cruz/Fiorina imo, just not a good VP selection.

[Progressive]

In Review: 2018 Midterm Elections

Senate: Democrats gained 2 seats and Republicans gained 0 seats. Democrat Jackie Rosen defeated Republican Danny Tarkanian who defeated incumbent Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada, and Democrat Mark Kelly defeated Republican Kelli Ward, who defeated incumbent Republican Jeff Flake in a primary.

House: Democrats won 23 House seats and lost 1 House seat, with a net gain of 22 Democratic seats, falling just short of winning the House. Trump and the GOP promoted this result as a victory.

Gubernatorial: Democrats won gubernatorial races in GOP-held or open seat with a GOP predecessor in: Maine, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Kansas.

**I'm happy to provide specific info on any race**

NEXT POST: Election results!

[GoTfan]

Can i get details on the Vermont senate race? Considering that Bernie has a challenger?

[Progressive]

Can i get details on the Vermont senate race? Considering that Bernie has a challenger?

Bernie defeated his primary challengers and general election challenger overwhelmingly

[Progressive]

Joe Biden        53%
373 Electoral Votes [WINNER]

Donald Trump 45%
165 Electoral Votes