The 2020 election took place against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in December 2019 in China and by March 2020 had spread across much of the world. In late May, the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer (which a bystander captured on video) sparked a mass protest movement against police brutality and racial injustice.
In the presidential race, Former Vice President Joe Biden emerged from a crowded Democratic primary field to face incumbent President Donald Trump in the general election. Trump drew criticism over his handling of the pandemic and combative response to the protests, while Biden promised to heal the nation and soothe bitter partisan divisions.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, a record number of Americans cast their ballots early, with millions of people voting by mail. This led to delays in vote counting and reporting, and major news outlets hesitated to call the result of the election until several days after it took place. More than 158 million Americans—some 66 percent of U.S. adult citizens, according to Pew Research—voted. Biden received more than 81 million votes, capturing the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots and winning the electoral college 306 to 232.
Even before Election Day, Trump refused to commit to accepting the election results if he lost and claimed (without evidence) that mail-in balloting would result in widespread election fraud. After the election, he mounted legal challenges in dozens of states, almost all of which were dismissed by the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Amid Trump’s continued insistence that the election had been stolen from him, some Republican senators and representatives indicated that they intended to challenge the electoral results from several states. On January 6, 2021, the day the results were scheduled to be reported to Congress, thousands of Trump’s supporters gathered at a rally near the White House in Washington, D.C. They then headed to the U.S. Capitol, where they overwhelmed Capitol Police and stormed the building.
The House of Representatives impeached Trump for his role in the insurrection, including his speech to his assembled supporters before they stormed the Capitol, which they claimed was “inciting violence against the Government of the United States.” Acquitted by the Senate, Trump left Washington on the morning of January 20, 2021, hours before Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn in. He was the first outgoing U.S. president not to participate in his successor’s inauguration for political reasons since Andrew Johnson in 1869, and only the fourth in history.