NEW YORK, BERKELEY, Calif.: Stephanie Hill, a young Joe Biden supporter in New York City, celebrated major networks announcing his win of the U.S. presidency on Saturday with cheering strangers in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, marking the end of four “difficult” years for liberals.
Biden supporters banged pots, honked horns and cheered loudly in many cities after the long awaited news.
For Hill and many Democrats, however, joy was tempered by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic after an agonizing election that dragged on for days and saw a larger number of votes cast for President Donald Trump than they had hoped.
“I think it’s more clear now than ever that we’re divided,” said Hill, 29, a film producer.
Democrat Biden prevailed after slowly overtaking the Republican president in key battleground state Pennsylvania in a nail-biting race that kept Americans on edge and sparked dueling demonstrations in some U.S. cities.
In Philadelphia, where late counted votes helped push the state in Biden’s favor, activists that gathered for the past few days outside the city’s Convention Center called for doubling down on working to advance a progressive agenda.
“It’s a time for joy, but also a time to recommit,” said Marshall Roy, 34, from South Philadelphia. “We also know the work is not over,” Roy, who works in the fitness industry, said on Friday.
The high-anxiety campaign that culminated in the past few days of hand-wringing across both sides of the political aisle pushed many progressive Americans to seek distraction away from their TV screens and the minute-by-minute coverage of the election.
Rachel Richardson, a 41-year-old native of Berkeley, a liberal enclave in California, took her two daughters camping on Tuesday to try and avoid election stress but found it impossible to escape.
Despite having no access to the internet, she ended up getting her election news from a fellow hiker at the campground.
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