The presidential election of 2020 proved to be historic, from the unprecedented number of voters who cast ballots to the way they voted to the chaotic court-case aftermath — and Western Pennsylvania held a front-row seat.
When the counting was finished, including tens of millions of ballots by mail, former Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump by swinging Pennsylvania back to the Democrats while also picking up four other states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona — that Trump won in 2016.
Like with most things in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic changed everything.
Rather than having a clear picture of the winner on election night, the outcome remained in limbo for days before states could complete counting mail-in ballots. Pennsylvania was called for Biden on the Saturday following Election Day — four days later — and it pushed him over the 270 Electoral College threshold.
Out of precaution because of the coronavirus, Pennsylvania moved its Primary Day from April to June and opened mail-in ballots to all voters.
Biden, Trump and their surrogates visited Western Pennsylvania numerous times in the months leading up to the election, stopping at steel mills, bakeries, airports, train stations and places in between to rally their base.
The visits often were unconventional — sometimes they were small to adhere to pandemic safety restrictions; sometimes they happened despite the restrictions. Some candidates and supporters wore masks; some didn’t.
Western Pennsylvania saw several automobile parades, with large numbers of vehicles driving through towns and people honking in support of their candidate. The confluence of Pittsburgh rivers even saw a boat rally on the Fourth of July.
Political signs from yard signs to billboards also told the story. Supporters littered their yards with Biden or Trump signs. Trump supporters made pilgrimages to the “Trump House” in Unity, while some Biden supporters were small blue dots in deep-red Trump counties.
Congressional and state races also were bitterly contested. Republican candidates aligned themselves with Trump, hoping to tap into his energetic base. Democratic candidates danced between progressive policies while still repeating the mantra of creating blue-collar jobs.
And after the votes were counted, they were contested. Trump and his allies filed lawsuit after lawsuit in various swing states, including Pennsylvania, to question the legality of mail-in ballots and tried to sway electors to cast their votes for him.
In the end, Scranton-born Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, but the fervor of Trump supporters, as vocal in Western Pennsylvania as anywhere in the country, is not likely not diminish even with Trump out of office.
Here’s a look back at the election in 2020.
Jan. 16
President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial began with Chief Justice John Roberts sworn in. He immediately administered the oath to the full Senate to ensure “impartial justice” as jurors for only the third such proceeding in American history.
Jan. 24
Trump vowed to stand with antiabortion activists as he became the first sitting president to speak at the March for Life, an annual gathering that is one of the movement’s highest-profile and most-symbolic events.
Feb. 4
AP
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., tears her copy of President Donald Trump’s s State of the Union address after he delivered it to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Standing before a Congress and nation sharply divided by impeachment, Trump used his State of the Union address to extol a “Great American Comeback” on his watch.
Feb. 5
Trump won impeachment acquittal in the Senate, bringing to a close only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history. The partisan votes split the country, tested civic norms and fed the tumultuous 2020 race for the White House.
Pennsylvania’s Republican congressmen rejoiced following Trump’s acquittal.
Upon the final gavel, Trump barreled ahead in his reelection fight with a united Republican Party behind him.
Feb. 9
AP
Protesters holds a Q sign waits in line with others to enter a campaign rally with President Donald Trump in Wilkes-Barre.
What started as an online obsession for the far-right fringe grew beyond its origins in a dark corner of the internet. QAnon crept into the mainstream political arena.
Feb. 11
Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire’s presidential primary, scoring the first clear victory in the Democratic Party’s chaotic 2020 nomination fight.
Feb. 22
Sanders scored a victory in Nevada’s presidential caucuses, cementing his status as the Democrats’ front-runner amid escalating tensions over whether he’s too liberal to defeat Trump.
Feb. 29
Joe Biden scored a victory in South Carolina’s Democratic primary, riding a wave of African American support and ending progressive rival Sanders’ winning streak. This proved to be the turning point of the primary season, as Biden rode mostly widespread support in the months ahead.
March 3
Super Tuesday was the biggest day on the primary calendar and reshaped the Democratic race, as it cemented Biden as the all-but-presumptive presidential candidate. He won 10 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia — to claim the front-runner status, and he never looked back.
March 13
AP
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, adjusts the microphone to speak during a news conference on the coronavirus with President Donald Trump at the White House.
Schools across Pennsylvania were ordered close for at least 10 days amid efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus, state officials said.
Trump announced he was declaring coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, as Washington struggled with providing Americans with relief and officials raced to slow the spread of the outbreak.
March 17
AP
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus March 12 in Wilmington, Del.
Biden swept to victory in Florida, Illinois and Arizona and pulled away with a Democratic presidential primary.
March 25
Pennsylvania lawmakers voted to delay the state’s primary election by five weeks to June 2, potentially past the spike of the state’s spreading coronavirus cases.
Many Pennsylvanians planned to vote by mail in the postponed spring primary. State officials said applications to vote by mail topped 129,000. Locally, Allegheny County received applications from 9,374 registered voters. Westmoreland County received more than 4,000 applications.
April 1
An expanded stay-at-home order declared that all Pennsylvanians must stay home unless they absolutely must go out, a move that state officials made in an effort to stanch the spread of the coronavirus.
June 1
An election day unlike any other, featuring unprecedented technology, was set to take place in one day. The Allegheny County elections staff made the point that they are prepared.
Police and National Guard troops forcefully clear protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., so Trump could walk from the White House to the St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo op outside the historic church.
June 2 — primary election day
Jonna Miller | Tribune-Review
Voters enter Youngwood Volunteer Fire Department at 7 a.m. to cast their votes in the primary election.
The result of the highest-profile contest on the ballot was a foregone conclusion: Trump and Biden both won their Pennsylvania primary.
June 6
Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, setting him up for a bruising challenge to Trump that would play out against the unprecedented backdrop of a summer filled with the pandemic, economic collapse and civil unrest.
July 4
A boat parade of Trump supporters began with more than 30 watercraft along the Monongahela River near the Hot Metal Bridge, then curved around Point State Park and onto the Allegheny River. More boats joined as the day went on.
Rapper Kanye West posted a message on Twitter saying he is joining the presidential race. “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future,” he wrote. “I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION”
Aug. 11
Biden named California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, making history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket and acknowledging the vital role Black voters would play in November.
Aug. 18
Democrats formally nominated Biden as their 2020 presidential nominee, as party officials and activists gave the former vice president their overwhelming support during his party’s all-virtual national convention — another first.
Aug. 21
Biden aimed to rally American voters remotely during his televised address, capping off the convention’s four days of speeches equating voting for Biden as a vote to save democracy.
In an attempt at a prebuttal to Biden’s scheduled remarks, Trump boarded Air Force One and headed to northeastern Pennsylvania to host an in-person rally outside Mariotti Building Products — a short drive from Biden’s childhood home.
Aug. 24
The Republican Party formally nominated Trump for a second term, one of the first acts of a GOP convention that had been dramatically scaled down because of the coronavirus.
Aug. 27
Facing a national moment fraught with racial turmoil and a deadly pandemic, Trump accepted his party’s renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage, boasting of helping African Americans and defying his own administration’s pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd.
Known far and wide as the “Trump House Lady,” Leslie Baum Rossi of Unity was among the invited guests for Trump’s acceptance speech.
Aug. 31
Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review
Supporters cheer outside an event where democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was speaking in the Hazelwood Green development site.
Using the repurposed site of a former Pittsburgh steel mill as a backdrop, Biden gave his first major campaign speech following the convention. At the limited-access event, Biden called Trump a “toxic presence” and forcefully condemned the violence at recent protests while also blaming Trump for fomenting the divide that’s sparking it.
Sept. 3
Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review
Supporters of President Trump await his arrival at the hangar area of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport on in Latrobe.
Trump glided into a Trump Country crowd in Westmoreland County to rave reviews. The crowd of several thousand at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe erupted into screams of “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!” as Trump exited Air Force One into the twilight evening, vowing that “61 days from now, we’re going to win the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
Sept. 8
Nate Smallwood | Tribune-Review
Demonstrators rallied outside Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s home in the Point Breeze neighborhood.
Trump responded to viral videos showing apparent clashes in Pittsburgh between protesters and the public over the weekend, using Twitter to take aim at Biden while calling the demonstrators “anarchists” and “thugs.”
Sept. 11
Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive for the 9/11 Memorial Service at the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County.
Trump remembered the 40 passengers and crew members of United Airlines Flight 93 as “intrepid heroes” in an address at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County during a ceremony marking the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review
Former Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden arrive at the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County.
Biden visited the Wall of Names in the afternoon and met with a few families of those on United Flight 93.
Sept. 17
The state Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 Democratic majority, granted the Democratic Party’s request to order a three-day extension of Pennsylvania’s Election Day deadline to count mail-in ballots.
Sept. 18
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died at her home in Washington. She was 87.
Sept. 22
Nate Smallwood | Tribune-Review
President Trump arrives at Atlantic Aviation in Moon Township for a campaign rally.
Trump stepped off Air Force One to the cheers of thousands of people packed outside a private hangar at Pittsburgh International Airport. After a quick nod to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Trump told the crowd at Atlantic Aviation in Moon Township: “Forty-two days from now, we’re going to win in Pennsylvania.”
Sept. 16
The Cathedral of Learning was among a variety of Pittsburgh-area landmarks the United Steelworkers union targeted with projections. The union endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket. Taking a cue from Batman, USW used a giant projector as part of its get-out-the-vote campaign.
Sept. 29
The first debate between Trump and Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry — and personal — jabs that sometimes overshadowed the sharply different visions each man has for a nation facing historic crises.
Sept. 30
AP
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden greets people at Di Salvo’s restaurant.
Biden picked up endorsements from two unions that represent 950,000 workers. Fresh from the spectacle of the previous night’s presidential debate in Cleveland, Biden and his wife, Jill, headed for friendly territory in Pittsburgh.
After the stop in Pittsburgh, Biden arrived via Amtrak train in Greensburg for a brief, private event.
Oct. 1
Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump were beginning a “quarantine process” as they await coronavirus test results after a top aide he spent substantial time with tested positive for covid-19.
Oct. 2
Trump experienced “mild symptoms” of covid-19 after revealing that he and the first lady have tested positive for the coronavirus, a stunning announcement just a month before the election.
Oct. 6
Biden made a plea for national unity and bipartisan cooperation in a speech casting the 2020 election as a “battle for the soul of the nation,” with the Civil War’s most famous battlefield as his backdrop. “There’s no more fitting place than here today in Gettysburg to talk about the cost of division, about how much it has cost America in the past, about how much it is costing us now, and why I believe in this moment we must come together,” Biden said to a small, socially distanced crowd.
Oct. 10
With the backdrop of a union facility in Erie, Biden blistered Trump as only pretending to care about the working-class voters who helped flip the Rust Belt to the Republican column four years ago.
Oct. 11
Jeff Himler | Tribune-Review
Supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden and those who favor President Donald Trump engage in a war of words and campaign signs.
There were slivers of undecided and moderate-leaning voters who will choose to “hold their nose” and vote Trump over Biden or vice versa. They were among those with the potential to tip the outcome in battleground states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Hundreds of people made their way to the Heights Plaza in Harrison for a caravan and rally in support of Trump.
Oct. 13
Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at John Murtha Johnstown Cambria County Airport in Johnstown.
Chants of “four more years” greeted Trump as he emerged from Air Force One at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport, just days after declaring himself cured of covid-19.
Oct. 16
Deb Erdley | Tribune-Review
Tables laden with Trump regalia line the walls inside the Trump campaign field office along Route 22 in Murrysville.
The battle for the crucial suburban vote in the election played out along an unlikely seven-mile stretch of Route 22 through Murrysville and neighboring communities through competing campaign offices and billboards.
Oct. 22
Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review
Eric Trump greets supporters during a brief stop at Oakmont Bakery.
Eric Trump made a surprise visit to Oakmont Bakery, where he passed out cookies decorated with his father’s face to dozens of supporters. Oakmont Bakery hosted its traditional presidential Cookie Poll.
Pool via AP
President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden participate in the final presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn.
After the first presidential debate was panned, the second and final debate was far more civil.
Oct. 23
Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review
Vice President Mike Pence gives a thumbs up during a rally at the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin.
Vice President Mike Pence affirmed his confidence in West Mifflin that he believes Trump will again clinch victory in Pennsylvania. “Well, hello, Pennsylvania!” Pence told about 300 to 400 supporters seated outside Lynx FBO’s hangar at Allegheny County Airport, prompting the crowd to start chanting “Four more years!”
Oct. 24
Ben Schmitt | Tribune-Revi
Sen. Bernie Sanders stumps for Democratic presidential candidated Joe Biden at the Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Rankin.
The ongoing love affair between Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters was evident as Sanders stumped for former Biden during a drive-in rally at the Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Rankin.
A caravan of about 140 cars, trucks and SUVs adorned with decorations touting support for the Biden-Harris ticket paraded around the Alle-Kiski Valley, then parked at Harrison Hills Park for a rally.
Oct. 25
The race for Pennsylvania Attorney General featured incumbent Josh Shapiro, who called himself “the people’s lawyer,” and Heather Heidelbaugh, his Republican challenger, who referred to herself as “a lawyer’s lawyer.”
Oct. 26
Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review
Tricia Cunningham sits for a portrait with her dog at her Washington Township home.
As the general election loomed, all eyes were on Pennsylvania. Eight Southwestern Pennsylvania voters went above and beyond in their support for their candidate of choice.
There was a shift in recent years for Pennsylvania Democrats to switch their registration to Republican. Although Democrats still hold a voter registration edge statewide, Republicans have done a better job recruiting party members since they helped elect Trump in 2016.
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court by a deeply divided Senate, Republicans overpowering Democrats to install Trump’s nominee days before the election and secure a conservative court majority.
Oct. 27
While there was a Libertarian Party candidate this year on the ballot, third-party candidates again found it difficult to gain much traction with voters.
Oct. 28
Natasha Lindstrom | Tribune-Review
Ivanka Trump touched on a wide range of issues to the audience of mostly white women, many of whom brought their children to the campaign event at Betsy’s Barn on Cheeseman’s Farm in Lawrence County.
Ivanka Trump stumped for her father on a Lawrence County farm. She expressed her confidence in the nation’s ability to contain and control covid-19.
Oct. 30
Deb Erdley | Tribune-Review
Two billboards along Route 31 on the outskirts of Somerset.
There were pulsing blue dots in the middle of screaming red Trump Country this year. Somerset County was the reddest of Western Pennsylvania’s rural counties. But a group of local women, their voices amplified by social media, joined forces and the landscape began to change.
Black voters were a key voting block for Democrats, but many of those voters felt that neither party had done a good enough job of trying to win their votes or trust.
For some people, their voting precinct was someone’s basement. Two women in southwestern Westmoreland County have opened the doors of their homes twice a year for decades to the voters in their communities.
Teake Zuidema
Dutch artist Arjen van Lith poses by a huge Trump Head he made and that is dumped in the garbage in Bloomfield.
A Dutch artist and writer living in Shadyside designed and created 7-foot gold replica of Trump’s head.
Oct. 31
AP
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport.
Trump doubled down on attacks on Biden as he offered closing arguments for his reelection campaign to a pumped-up crowd of supporters at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport.
In the battle for the House’s 17th Congressional District, Democrat U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb was pitted against Trump-backed Republican challenger Sean Parnell.
Nov. 1
It was hard to say whether covid-19 made an impact on voters’ decisions in Pennsylvania — at least for those who are definitively conservative or liberal. But polls showed the overall consistency on stark political division. Almost every topic showed a rift along party lines.
Nov. 2
Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review
Lady Gaga performs during a drive-in rally for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Pittsburgh’s North Shore on the eve of Election Day.
Biden delivered a pro-labor message in three Western Pennsylvania campaign stops on the eve of Election Day.
Nov. 3
Rob Amen | Tribune-Review
As polls opened at 7 a.m. there were about 200 people in line at Plum High School.
The candidates were done campaigning. Local candidates made their pitches. Now it was the voters’ turn to speak.
Pennsylvania voters turned out in large numbers for an election that produced few of the glitches some had feared, leaving in their wake a mountain of ballots that would have to be counted in the coming days amid intense national scrutiny.
Nov. 4
America woke up without a winner of the presidential election.
Trump’s campaign put into action the legal strategy the president had signaled for weeks: attacking the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean his defeat. The campaign filed suits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
As predicted, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania prove crucial in determining who wins the White House. It was unclear when or how quickly a winner would be determined.
Lamb declared victory as incomplete results showed the Democratic incumbent take a whisker-close lead over Parnell for the 17th Congressional District seat.
Nov. 5
For 40 hours, Trump fumed in private and tweeted his grievances in all caps. When he at last emerged, it was to stand behind the presidential seal in the White House and deliver a diatribe most notable for his litany of false statements about the election.
Biden was closing quickly in Pennsylvania, pulling to within about 22,000 votes of Trump.
Nov. 6
Nearly 8 in 10 mail-in ballots counted in Allegheny County went for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, results show.
Experts said legal challenges playing out in Pennsylvania likely will have no impact on the outcome of the presidential race. Instead, they suggested attorneys for Trump are trying to sow doubt in the public over the integrity of the election.
Nov. 7
Ben Schmitt| Tribune-Review
Celebrants take to the streets of Squirrel Hill after Joe Biden is declared the winner of the presidential election.
With Biden eclipsing 270 electoral votes, people celebrated his victory by singing, chanting and drumming in the streets of Pittsburgh. People took to the streets in Squirrel Hill, Regent Square and the South Side as motorists honked their horns and music blared.
A timeline shows how Pennsylvania broke for Biden.
Westmoreland County Democrats celebrated Biden’s victory, while Trump supporters protested in Harrisburg.
Biden rebuilt the Pennsylvania section of the “blue wall.”
AP
From left, Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Harris, President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden on stage together.
In an address to the nation, the soon-to-be 46th president of the United States offered himself as a leader who “seeks not to divide but to unify” a country gripped by a historic pandemic and a confluence of economic and social turmoil.
“I sought this office to restore the soul of America,” Biden said in a prime-time victory speech not far from his Delaware home, “and to make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home.”
Nov. 17
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Republican monitors observing vote counting in Philadelphia were given sufficient access under state law to view the proceedings.
In a 5-2 decision, the court overturned a lower court decision that ordered monitors with Trump’s campaign be allowed within 6 feet of tables where ballots were being tallied.
Nov 21
Jeff Himler| Tribune-Review
Donald Trump supporter Janet Pringle of Dawson wears a patriotic outift and drapes herself in a U.S. flag while taking part in a 1776 Rally For Election Integrity in Greensburg.
A rally for those who don’t accept Biden as the election winner briefly spilled onto Greensburg’s Main Street as Trump supporters confronted motorists who drove by.
A federal judge ruled that Pennsylvania officials can certify election results that show Biden winning the state by more than 80,000 vote.
Sen. Pat Toomey, the Republican from Pennsylvania, recognized the decision and called on Trump to “accept the outcome of the election.”
Nov. 23
The General Services Administration ascertained that Biden is the “apparent winner” of the election, which cleared the way for the start of the transition from Trump’s administration and allowed Biden to coordinate with federal agencies on plans for taking over on Jan. 20.
Nov. 25
Trump doubled down on unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania in a phone call from the Oval Office, broadcast to a state Senate Republican postmortem hearing on the election.
Dec. 11
The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit backed by Trump to overturn Biden’s victory, ending an attempt to get legal issues rejected by state and federal judges before the nation’s highest court.
Dec. 14
In a ceremony often considered as little more than a formality, Pennsylvania’s College of Electors certified their 20 votes for Biden.
The Electoral College gave Biden a solid majority of its votes, confirming his victory in state-by-state voting that took on added importance this year because of Trump’s refusal to concede.
Dec. 15
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect, saying the Electoral College “has spoken.”
Frank Carnevale is a Tribune-Review assistant digital content editor. You can contact Frank at 412-380-8511, fcarnevale@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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