Delaware reacts to Joe Biden’s historic 2020 Presidential win
While the US may be divided as a nation, in Delaware, the 46th President’s home town, people were united and elated to see Joe Biden claim a White House victory.
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Only the worst style of grinch would have denied America its moment of joy tonight … and maybe a few Trump supporters.
But in the four years I have loved living in this amazing country, I have never before seen the sort of smiles and happiness and spontaneous outbreaks of plain goodwill that I saw at the Joe Biden victory speech in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.
It was devoid of entitlement or recrimination. Americans simply felt good to be American again. It has, after all, been one hell of a year to be living in the USA.
“We are so excited and it is so very special to share this with my mom tonight,” said Caleigh McDevitt, 21, as she hugged her mother Rebecca Frank.
“It feels great to be American tonight. I hope the world knows that this is the real America.”
Thousands of people lined the Riverside area of Wilmington to hear from Joe Biden and his brand new Vice President, Kamala Harris.
“I feel great for the people of Wilmington and great for the people of Philadelphia who gave him that last push over the line,” said Eric Morgan, juggling his daughter Ava, 5, on his shoulders.
“This is what America is about, right here. We come together in times of need. We don’t have to be at war with each other.”
Wendy said she was “so happy to get our world back again”.
“Thank you, Joe, and thank you, Kamala. We love America! We just love America!”
Tina said she felt inspired for the future.
“I’m glad it turned out the way that it did,” she said.
“America has a long way to go in dealing with COVID and injustice,” her friend Leah said. “Everyone just needs to come together and try to work together and try to solve these issues.”
It would be silly to ignore the feelings tonight of the roughly 70 million or so Americans who voted for Donald Trump. They too expressed their own brand of joy and passion in the past few weeks at rallies across the country in support of their hero.
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But there was a confrontational edge to that emotion that was absent in Wilmington tonight, when for the first time we saw real fervour for Joe Biden.
Even a technical glitch that meant many thousands of people did not hear a word Joe or Kamala said on the big screens didn’t seem to dampen the spirit of optimism.
In the US, Biden’s home state of Delaware likes to talk itself up a big game, despite its population not even reaching the one million mark.
Its favoured nickname is “Delaware, the First State”, referring to the fact that 233 years ago it was the first of the original 13 states to ratify the US Constitution. But due to the fact it is America’s second smallest state, behind only Rhode Island, it’s also known as the Small Wonder.
Tonight, Mr Biden got to be Delaware’s very own Small Wonder when he claimed victory in the election to become the 46th President of the United States of America.