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Biden cruises to home-state victory over Trump in Delaware

Randall Chase | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 8 months AGO
by Randall Chase
| November 3, 2020 5:12 PM

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden scored a home-state victory over Republican President Donald Trump on Tuesday in Delaware.

Biden’s win was not unexpected. Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans in Delaware. They also constituted the entire congressional delegation and controlled all branches of state government going into the election.

The victory gives Biden Delaware’s three electoral votes.

While Biden spent much of this year campaigning virtually from his Greenville home because of the coronavirus, Trump never visited the state. In 2016, Trump lost in Delaware to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Biden first ran for president in 1987 but dropped out before the first contests of the 1988 primary campaign amid reports of plagiarism in political speeches and while he was in law school at Syracuse University. Jesse Jackson went on to win Delaware’s Democratic caucus that year.

Biden also sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out of the race after finishing fifth in the Iowa caucus with only 1% of the vote. He nevertheless remained on the Democratic primary ballot in Delaware and garnered almost 3% of the vote, well behind former President Barack Obama and runner-up Hillary Clinton.

This year, however, marked a milestone for Biden, who was finally able to notch a presidential election victory in his home state.

Before going up against Trump on Tuesday, he won the state’s July presidential primary over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Sanders and Warren both suspended their campaigns months before the primary, but their names remained on the ballot because they did not officially withdraw as candidates in Delaware by the deadline.

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Find AP’s full election coverage at APNews.com/Election2020.

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