FORMER U.S. Vice President Joe Biden took a major step forward in the 2020 presidential election Wednesday with wins in Michigan and Wisconsin, two of the three key battleground states.
Both are typically blue states President Donald Trump flipped from the Democrats in 2016 when he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The two wins put Biden on the verge of clinching a victory, even without a decision in the third battleground state of Pennsylvania. But Trump still has a narrow path for a comeback if he can take the smaller states of Arizona and Nevada. Those states will be opening more votes Thursday.
The president’s campaign is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to halt vote counting in Pennsylvania and is asking for a recount in Wisconsin.
Nikkei Asia is following the results live. For all our coverage on the election, visit our U.S. Elections 2020 page.
These are the latest developments (U.S. Eastern time):
Thursday, Nov. 5
10:25 a.m. The two candidates start the morning with two opposing messages. Biden tweets that “Every vote must be counted.”
President Trump, in all caps, tweets “STOP THE COUNT!” and reiterates that any vote that came in after election day “WILL NOT BE COUNTED!”
8:00 a.m. Michigan may not have been as razor thin as expected. After more counting, Biden leads Trump by 50.6% to 47.8%. An analyst points out that the margin is 12 times larger than Trump’s margin over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes, 89% of estimated votes reported): Trump 50.7% Biden 48.1% (Difference 164,414 votes)
Georgia (16 electoral votes, 96% reported): Trump 49.6% Biden 49.2% (Difference 18,540 votes)
North Carolina (15 electoral votes, 95% reported) : Trump 50.1% Biden 48.7% (Difference 76,737 votes)
Arizona (11 electoral votes, 86% reported): Biden 50.5% Trump 48.1% (Difference 68,390 votes)
Nevada (6 electoral votes, 86% reported): Biden 49.3% Trump 48.7% (Difference 7,647 votes)
5:24 a.m. Duong Hoai Nam, vice spokesperson at the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says at a news conference regarding the impact of the election on bilateral relations: “We believe that every U.S. president will support” efforts by both countries to continue promoting and expanding them.
5:00 a.m. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng has said he hopes the next U.S. administration will work with Beijing to mend ties, while a columnist for the Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times called the American election a “farce.” We’ve wrapped up some of the reactions from across Asia.
4:00 a.m. The race for Arizona’s 11 electoral votes remains tense.
Although FOX called the state for Biden on election night — reportedly infuriating the Trump campaign — and AP later followed, the New York Times calculates that the president still has a shot. The next release from a key Phoenix county where Trump was cutting into Biden’s lead, however, is not expected until Thursday evening.
Trump supporters rallied outside the county’s election office earlier tonight, with some of them carrying guns, according to Reuters. In stark contrast to other states, where Team Trump wanted counting halted, they demanded that the tabulations continue.
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump demand that all votes be counted outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 4. © Reuters
1:50 a.m. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen has posted a message on her Facebook page, offering her people three assurances:
1) That her government will closely monitor the Taiwan Strait situation and maintain domestic political and economic stability.
2) That Taiwan will continue close exchanges with U.S. Republicans and Democrats alike.
3) That she has confidence that “supporting Taiwan” is the mainstream consensus in the U.S.
1:30 a.m. In Thailand, the chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries is hopeful that a Biden win would ease tensions between the U.S. and China — with knock-on benefits for his country, the region and the world economy.
FTI Chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree tells Nikkei Asia that although the trade war will not end immediately, “we still believe that the trade and investment outlook would be better and world trade would get back to normal, which is good for every country.” But he says Thailand would be closely watching Biden’s policies on the environment and human rights, wary that these issues could become nontariff trade barriers that “disrupt Thai exports in the future.”
12:45 a.m. The next update on Georgia is likely to come when the secretary of state there briefs the press at 10:30 a.m., according to a CNN correspondent, who notes there were about 90,000 outstanding ballots at last count.
12:30 a.m. In Indonesia, Trump’s premature victory claim in the early hours of Wednesday gave some a feeling of deja vu.
Trump’s speech “is actually not too surprising for Indonesia because Prabowo had done that, too,” Kompas TV executive producer Aiman Witjaksono said earlier on a talk show, referring to Prabowo Subianto’s claims and accusations of fraud after two bitterly fought races he lost to President Joko Widodo.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s former ambassador to the U.S., Dino Patti Djalal, is hopeful that bilateral relations would improve under a Biden administration.
“Biden is an international relations expert” Djalal notes, citing his experience as a senator and vice president. “That is different from Trump, who had dealt with businesses all the time before he became the president.”
12:15 a.m. As “Election Day” drags into yet another day, tentative reactions from around Asia continue to trickle in.
India’s foreign secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, tells Germany’s DW News that his country’s ties with the U.S. can withstand any election outcome.
“Our relations with the United States are really based on bipartisan support — you see it in Congress, you see it at the public levels,” he said. He acknowledged that Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi developed a “special” rapport, but stressed Modi had a good relationship with former President Barack Obama and that Biden clearly “values a strong India-U.S. strategic partnership.”
Wednesday, Nov. 4
11:40 p.m. Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, Kathy Boockvar, has told U.S. media that the swing state is on track to finish counting its remaining ballots by Thursday local time.
11:20 p.m. Tensions flared in New York earlier tonight, after protesters took to the streets to demand that all ballots be counted. Demonstrators also chanted Black Lives Matter slogans, and sporadic clashes with police resulted in arrests.
10:20 p.m. Speaking to media, Biden said he was confident of winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“Democracy is the heartbeat of this nation,” he said. “When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.
“Every vote must be counted. No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever.”
10:06 p.m. Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, is also calling for the electoral rules to be followed.
