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When news broke that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump in the race for the White House, cities across the US saw wild celebrations from supporters of the Democratic presidential candidate.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city, the state where Biden was born and which sealed his electoral college victory, celebrations broke out outside the convention center where votes were counted.
Donna Widmann, a teacher who helped her students and their families register to vote, told The Guardian that she hadn’t been able to stop crying.
“I remember four years ago, you know, January 21, 2017 when I was inaugurated,” he said, referring to Trump’s installation as the 45th president after his shocking victory over Hillary Clinton. “And just crying, just looking [BARACK]Obama leaves and just cries. I feel like so many emotions have passed in the last four years, man, and it feels really good, like I can’t stop crying. “
Ms. Windmann, holding a sign that said Trump should “take the L,” said she was “excited” that her students and their families knew they made a difference.
Alice Sukhina, who is from Ukraine, said she had volunteered for the Biden campaign. He had not been able to see his family in four years, he said, adding that he had sent them messages saying the wait would end soon.
People celebrate outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Photo: Bryan R Smith / AFP via Getty Images
“I am overwhelmed with happiness,” she said. “I’m so ready to do some really progressive stuff. I’m ready to push the platform of the Democrats to the left. “
Marissa Babnew said she was “completely excited for the first time in a long time” adding: “I have had many close experiences with this pandemic because of my work, and I am finally feeling hopeful.”
In Manhattan, where Trump made his fortune in real estate but remains a highly controversial and deeply divisive figure, crowds flocked to public spaces, including Washington Square Park.
Uptown, in Washington Heights, two friends, both actors, celebrated in Bennett Park, the vision of a key battle in the American Revolutionary War.
“Our long national nightmare is over,” said Paul DeBoy, happily quoting Gerald Ford’s famous message to the nation after Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
Ward Duffy said the cheers in apartment block windows, the banging of pots and pans, and cars honking on the streets represented “a different celebration than this summer’s respectful greetings to frontline workers.” during the coronavirus pandemic.
“This had a visceral explosion of relief and joy,” he said.
Screaming, honking and banging of pots and pans also erupted in Harlem.
Chase Rivera was pedaling a free Citi Bike at full speed past 152nd Street, ringing his bell and screaming loudly, in a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. He skidded to a stop when the Guardian signaled him and, sweating in the late autumn sun, said: “We were on our way to a dictatorship. These are the happiest people I’ve seen in 2020. “
The New York native (25) said he was a laboratory scientist and expected a president who would once again respect science.
“Let’s hear it out of science,” he said. “Biden and Harris have already talked about the coronavirus and we have to deal with it. So I’m very excited about the Green New Deal, and that we will be part of the Paris climate agreement again and take action on the climate crisis. “
Alan Mingo, a Broadway and film actor who has lived in the Sugar Hill part of Harlem for 17 years, had tears in his eyes as he wandered the streets, texting with friends.
“Seeing this euphoria, this elation, it’s incredible,” he said.
He said the eruption in the streets brought him out of his half-dream when the race was called, and that people came across exclaiming that their vote had mattered.
As a black gay man, he said, he saw that Trump had inflicted pain “on black and brown people, not just with his rhetoric, but when he started to separate the children.” [from their parents at the US-Mexico border] that it had echoes of so many bad things in our history ”.
He added that he was very proud that Kamala Harris became vice president, the first woman of color elected to the position.
On the west coast, cheers and the banging of pots and pans echoed through the streets a few blocks from the hospital where the vice president-elect was born.
It was around 8.30 a.m. M. Pacific Time when the Associated Press announced that Biden had obtained the final electoral votes to win the presidency. Oakland woke up to cheers and car honking.
Ms. Harris was born in Oakland in 1964 and grew up in neighboring Berkeley.- Guardian News and Media
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