By Leo Kugel

What has been a whirlwind election cycle is finally coming to a close. Five hundred and thirty two days after beginning his campaign, Joseph R. Biden was declared President-Elect of the United States on Nov. 7.

For his supporters, raucous celebration ensued in the streets. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his backers have continued to cling to baseless claims of voter fraud through lawsuits around the country.

The path to 270 electoral votes, a threshold which he surpassed with the help of battleground Pennsylvania, was anything but smooth for Biden. After deciding not to run in the 2016 election in the wake of a brain tumor that killed his son Beau, Biden made the decision to run in 2020 because he was concerned “for the soul of our nation.” In a crowded Democratic primary field, Biden struggled to separate himself at first because of the perception that he was “too moderate” and lacked the charisma possessed by the likes of Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders. However, just before the Covid pandemic began to wreak havoc on the United States and worldwide, Biden began to pull ahead.

The highly competitive nature of the race did not end there. Trump, Biden’s staunch opponent in the general election, held no punches on the campaign trail. In front of a sparsely masked Arizona crowd in October, Trump remarked that “Biden is the worst candidate to ever run.”

Despite the constant harassment from his Republican counterpart, Biden kept a level head and continued with his messaging, albeit mostly socially distanced from his home in Delaware. It was from his home that he also decided to name Kamala Harris to the ticket as his Vice President. With the win for the Biden campaign, Harris will become the first Black and Asian-American woman to be second-in-command of the U.S .

As Nov.4 approached, concern grew, even with a sizable lead in the polls, if Biden could really pull off a victory on election night. As it turned out, no winner was declared on election night, and for the better part of four days the nation awaited the counting of absentee ballots in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. At 11:23 a.m. on Saturday, the New York Times officially announced Biden’s victory.

In his acceptance speech Saturday night, Biden made it clear that his priorities are two fold - to serve all American citizens and begin the process of healing. With the future of the nation largely in his hands, the world will be watching to see if he can come through on his promises.