Biden Is Projected To Be The President-Elect. Here’s How It All Went Down.
Filed under 2020 Election
What’s Happening In Alaska And North Carolina
Neither the presidential race nor the U.S. Senate race has been called in Alaska or North Carolina. Those states are electorally important, particularly since it seemed before the election that Democrats might win control of the Senate in part by defeating North Carolina incumbent Republican Thom Tillis and had an outside shot of knocking Alaska incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan.
We may not have a resolution in either state for a while. Trump leads by about 1.4 percentage points in North Carolina, Tillis is ahead of Democrat Cal Cunningham by 1.8 points. About 5 percent of the vote in the state is uncounted, and absentee ballots postmarked on Election Day will be counted as long as they are received by Nov. 12. That said, all indications are that Republicans will remain ahead here. Biden campaign officials have indicated they believe Trump is likely to win the state. Tillis has declared victory, although Cunningham has not yet conceded. The Raleigh-based News & Observer has analyzed where the remaining votes are coming from and concluded, “the updated tally is unlikely to change the results of the state’s two biggest races.”
Alaska also will count absentee ballots received through late next week. And because so many absentee ballots have not yet been counted, only about 56 percent of the state’s total vote has been tabulated. Among the votes counted so far, Trump leads by roughly 30 percentage points, Sullivan is ahead by about 31 points over his opponent, Al Gross, who is officially an independent but has aligned with Democrats. That said, the absentee ballots are likely to be Democratic-leaning, so Alaska’s winners may not be officially declared for a while.
Biden doesn’t need either of these states to put him over 270 electoral votes. The Democrats can effectively win the Senate by winning both seats in Georgia (though, as there would be a 50–50 tie, this would require the vice president to cast tie-breaking votes), but it would, of course, be easier for them if they won seats in Alaska and/or North Carolina. It’s likely, however, that they will be shut out in both states at the Senate level.