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The presidential election of 2020, shaped by a deadly pandemic and an evolving conflict over race and policing, reproduced the divisions of 2016 but with subtle shifts in the electoral map that put the Democrats in a favourable position.
Young people opted strongly for Joe Biden, as did minority groups, although Donald Trump made inroads among Black and Latino people. Male voters, who gave Mr. Trump his victory in 2016, turned slightly more often to the Democrats this time, as did voters in the suburbs. Women also voted slightly more often for Mr. Biden than they did for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and college-educated women gave him a resounding 30-point margin over Mr. Trump.
But the urban-rural divide in America persists, as does the gulf between the highly educated and those without a college degree. The richest and poorest vote Democratic, while those in between vote Republican.
Trump and Biden supporters seem to inhabit different realities: Whether one sees the economy as booming or faltering, or COVID-19 as a real or exaggerated threat, is closely linked to political affiliation. After a campaign that remains tense even in the counting phase, uniting a quarrelsome populace will pose a challenge for Mr. Biden, should he prevail.
“We have a divided country, everybody knows it,” said Jack Citrin, a professor of political science at the University of California Berkeley. “How to overcome that? Nobody really knows.”
Turnout was very high at more than 66.5 per cent of eligible voters, according to preliminary results, the highest rate in decades and a jump from 60.1 percent in 2016. Many pundits assumed that a higher turnout would favour the Democrats, but Mr. Trump also turned out millions of additional voters, a sign that his appeal remained stronger than many believed. The Democrats failed to take outright control of the Senate, with both races in Georgia looking as though they are headed for a runoff, and lost seats in the House of Representatives.
Mr. Trump made inroads into some important Democratic constituencies, particularly Black and Latino voters. His victory in Florida, for example, was helped by support from Hispanic voters, primarily those of Cuban and Venezuelan ancestry. In Texas, Democrats' hopes of turning the state blue were stopped in part by a surge of Latino support for Mr. Trump.