50 Fun Facts About 2020 US Presidential Election

Outside what kind of Philadelphia business did Rudy Giuliani hold a November 2020 press conference on the election?

A landscaping company, Four Seasons Total Landscaping, hosted the event across the street from a crematorium. Many guessed the campaign had meant to book the upscale Four Seasons Hotel.

What landed on Mike Pence's head during the 2020 vice presidential debate and inspired a popular Halloween costume?

A fly settled on the vice president's white hair, and 'the fly' was tweeted and retweeted over 700,000 times. Joe Biden's campaign answered with a photo of him holding a fly swatter.

Which runner-up in the 2020 Democratic primaries became a meme for wearing mittens at Joe Biden's inauguration?

Bernie Sanders wore mittens made by Vermont schoolteacher Jen Ellis, who then received thousands of requests for a pair. The photo was edited into historical pictures and countless jokes.

Which rapper ran for president in 2020 under the banner of his own newly formed 'Birthday Party'?

Kanye West picked the name because 'when we win, it's everybody's birthday'. He missed most states' ballot deadlines and conceded the morning after Election Day with roughly 70,000 votes.

Which line did Joe Biden snap at Donald Trump amid constant interruptions in their first 2020 presidential debate?

'Will you shut up, man?' followed repeated interruptions of Biden's answers, in a debate where the agreed speaking times were rarely kept. The two men met on a debate stage only once more that year.

A September 2020 newspaper investigation reported that Donald Trump paid how much federal income tax in 2016?

$750 was all Donald Trump paid in 2016, and he paid another $750 in 2017, his first year in office. The report drew on more than two decades of his tax-return data.

Which 22-year-old poet recited 'The Hill We Climb' at Joe Biden's presidential inauguration?

Amanda Gorman became the youngest poet ever to read at a presidential inauguration. Soon afterwards her two forthcoming books stood at the top of Amazon's bestseller list.

Which slogan, coined by Roger Stone in 2016, became the rallying cry of protests against the 2020 election result?

Stop the Steal was created in anticipation of election losses that could be portrayed as fraud. Facebook later said it would remove content containing the phrase from its platforms.

Which state's 2020 Democratic caucuses descended into chaos when a new app for reporting results failed?

Iowa needed three days to publish even a preliminary statewide count, and the state party chair resigned. The app, built by a firm called Shadow Inc., had been reporting only partial data.

Which pop star sang the national anthem at Joe Biden's presidential inauguration in a custom Schiaparelli gown?

Lady Gaga shared the bill with Jennifer Lopez, who sang 'This Land Is Your Land', and Garth Brooks, who performed 'Amazing Grace' and asked the public to join in the final verse.

Which senator was elected America's first female vice president in 2020 after abandoning her own presidential run?

Kamala Harris was also the first African-American and first Asian-American vice president. A decade earlier she had become the first woman elected attorney general of California.

Joe Biden commuted by Amtrak to Washington for 36 years while serving as a senator for which state?

Delaware sent Biden to the Senate from 1973 to 2009, and the daily rail journeys earned him the nickname 'Amtrak Joe'. As a senator he pushed for more funding for the railway.

Which state's 20 electoral votes put Joe Biden over the top when networks called the 2020 election on November 7?

Pennsylvania took Biden past the 270 electoral votes he needed, roughly three and a half days after polls closed. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and the Associated Press all made the call.

Which state did Fox News call for Joe Biden on election night 2020, ahead of its rivals, infuriating Donald Trump?

Arizona was projected for Biden by Fox News at 11:20 p.m. Eastern, while several other outlets judged it too close to call. No Democrat had carried the state since 1996.

Before Joe Biden in 2020, who was the last Democratic presidential nominee to carry the state of Georgia?

Bill Clinton carried Georgia in 1992, and no Democrat managed it again for 28 years. Biden's winning margin there was just 11,779 votes, or 0.23%.

Which Georgia secretary of state was asked by Donald Trump in a recorded phone call to 'find 11,780 votes'?

Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, held firm through the hour-long call. The figure Trump wanted was exactly one more vote than Joe Biden's winning margin in the state.

At which hospital was Donald Trump treated for COVID-19 in October 2020, a month before the presidential election?

Walter Reed kept the president for three nights. During his stay he briefly left the building to wave at supporters from the back seat of an SUV, then went back inside.

Which judge was confirmed to the Supreme Court just eight days before the 2020 presidential election?

Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed 52–48, only 30 days after her nomination. She filled the seat left empty by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg that September.

Donald Trump's first impeachment arose from pressing which country to investigate Joe Biden before the 2020 election?

Ukraine was waiting on withheld American military aid when its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was asked to announce the inquiry. The Senate acquitted Trump nine months before polling day.

On which date, now shorthand for the event itself, did Trump supporters storm the US Capitol over the 2020 election?

January 6 was the day Congress met in joint session to count the Electoral College votes. The building was cleared by mid-evening and the count was completed by the next morning.

Which former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was the first openly gay candidate to win a presidential primary or caucus?

Pete Buttigieg took the opening contest of 2020 by a margin of just two delegates. He later joined Joe Biden's Cabinet as secretary of transportation.

Which 2020 Democratic candidate, a former Harvard law professor, was known for the catchphrase 'I have a plan for that'?

Elizabeth Warren's campaign store sold merchandise printed with the phrase. She left the race after Super Tuesday, when she came third in her home state of Massachusetts.

Which entrepreneur's 2020 Democratic campaign promised every American adult a 'Freedom Dividend' of $1,000 a month?

Andrew Yang argued the payments would cushion workers displaced by automation. He also ran on the slogan 'Make America Think Harder', shortened to MATH.

Which billionaire spent over $1 billion of his own money on a 2020 Democratic campaign that won only American Samoa?

Mike Bloomberg, mayor of America's largest city for twelve years, skipped the first four states to stake everything on Super Tuesday. He quit the next day and endorsed Joe Biden.

Which bestselling self-help author warned of a 'dark psychic force' during a 2019 Democratic presidential debate?

Marianne Williamson rose to fame as Oprah Winfrey's spiritual adviser. Her debate line, aimed at Donald Trump, set off a spike in online searches for her name.

Which House Majority Whip endorsed Joe Biden three days before he won the 2020 South Carolina primary?

Jim Clyburn's backing came after Biden had lost the first three contests. The win that followed, in every county of the state, was Biden's first ever in a presidential primary.

Joe Biden won the 2020 Democratic nomination despite finishing fifth in which state's primary?

New Hampshire gave Biden fifth place and not a single delegate, even though he had been one of the leading contenders nationally.

Which Libertarian nominee finished third in the 2020 presidential election with about 1.9 million votes?

Jo Jorgensen was the first woman to head the Libertarian ticket. She was also the only woman in 2020 on enough state ballots to reach 270 electoral votes.

Which former Massachusetts governor won one delegate challenging Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primaries?

Bill Weld was the first Republican to win a delegate against a sitting president since Pat Buchanan in 1992. Four years earlier he had been the Libertarian nominee for vice president.

Which city's 2017 white nationalist rally did Joe Biden condemn in the video that launched his 2020 campaign?

Charlottesville, and Donald Trump's remark that there were 'very fine people' on both sides, was the reason Biden gave for entering the race in April 2019.

Which Wisconsin city was due to host the 2020 Democratic convention before the pandemic made it largely virtual?

Milwaukee's convention was pushed back from July to August and moved out of the Fiserv Forum arena. The city ended up as a broadcast headquarters while most speakers appeared remotely.

Where did Donald Trump accept the 2020 Republican nomination after plans for Charlotte and Jacksonville fell through?

The White House South Lawn was the stage for the speech on the convention's final night. Plans for a full-scale convention in Jacksonville had been abandoned about a month earlier.

Which Fox News anchor moderated the chaotic first 2020 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden?

Chris Wallace chastised Trump several times for interrupting. The next scheduled debate, due about two weeks later, was cancelled after Trump caught COVID-19 and refused to appear remotely.

Which far-right group did Donald Trump tell to 'stand back and stand by' during the first 2020 presidential debate?

Proud Boys merchandise bearing the phrase appeared online after the debate and was banned from Amazon. Trump had been pressed to condemn white supremacist groups.

What new measure was introduced for the final 2020 presidential debate after interruptions marred the first?

Muted microphones silenced each candidate during the other's opening two-minute answer to every question. Once both had spoken, the microphones stayed on for open discussion.

What nickname described Donald Trump's early 2020 election-night leads that faded as mail-in ballots were counted?

Red mirage describes in-person votes, counted first, leaning Republican while later-counted postal ballots lean Democratic. In Wisconsin one batch of absentee ballots erased a 31,000-vote Trump lead.

Which Joe Biden slogan from the 2020 campaign later became the name of his flagship spending plan?

Build Back Better first appeared in Biden's campaign in July 2020. Once in office he put the same three words on a legislative framework he proposed to Congress.

Joe Biden's 2020 win came on his third run for president; which controversy ended his first campaign in 1987?

A plagiarism scandal broke when reports showed Biden had lifted parts of a speech by Neil Kinnock, leader of Britain's Labour Party. He withdrew from the race within the month.

Donald Trump was the first president to lose a re-election bid since which man was beaten in 1992?

George H. W. Bush had been the tenth sitting president to be denied a second term; Donald Trump became the eleventh.

Which nickname did Donald Trump give Joe Biden in tweets and at rallies throughout the 2020 campaign?

Sleepy Joe had a rival: in August 2020 Trump asked a crowd of about 300 police officers at his New Jersey golf club whether 'Slow Joe' would be the better nickname.

Which voting machine company won $787.5 million from Fox News over false claims about the 2020 election?

Dominion settled in April 2023, shortly before its defamation case was due to go to trial. Unfounded rumours had claimed its machines deleted millions of Trump votes or gave them to Joe Biden.

Which brand of marker was at the centre of a 2020 claim that ballots in Maricopa County had been spoiled?

Sharpie ink was said to bleed through the ballot paper and cancel votes, which county officials denied. The county recorder dismissed the rumour, nicknamed Sharpiegate, as 'hoo-hah'.

Which attorney general said in December 2020 that investigators had found no fraud able to change the election result?

William Barr's statement cut against the president's own claims of a rigged vote. Two weeks later Donald Trump announced on Twitter that his attorney general was resigning.

Which cybersecurity chief was fired by tweet after his agency called the 2020 election America's most secure ever?

Chris Krebs had led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency since 2018. Donald Trump's tweet dismissing him called the agency's statement 'highly inaccurate'.

Which state filed the Supreme Court lawsuit seeking to throw out the 2020 election results in four other states?

Texas was turned away within days, the court ruling that it had no standing to challenge how another state ran its election. Ken Paxton filed the case after other attorneys general declined.

Which Nebraska city anchors the congressional district that gave Joe Biden a single electoral vote in 2020?

Omaha's district could go its own way because Nebraska, like Maine, awards some electoral votes by congressional district. Barack Obama had picked off the same single vote in 2008.

After the 2020 election, on what charge did the House of Representatives impeach Donald Trump for a second time?

Incitement of insurrection was the only article the House adopted, making Trump the only president to be impeached twice. The Senate voted 57–43 to convict, ten short of the two-thirds needed.

Donald Trump skipped Joe Biden's inauguration, the first outgoing president to stay away since which man in 1869?

Andrew Johnson refused to attend the swearing-in of Ulysses S. Grant. Only three presidents had done the same before him: John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren.

Which city hosted Donald Trump's June 2020 rally that TikTok users claimed to have pranked with fake bookings?

Tulsa's fire department counted about 6,200 people in an arena that holds around 19,000. Days earlier the campaign manager had said ticket requests had passed a million.

Which pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church won a Senate runoff in Georgia two months after the 2020 election?

Raphael Warnock took over Martin Luther King Jr.'s former congregation in 2005. His win, with Jon Ossoff's the same day, gave Democrats a 50–50 Senate run on the vice president's tie-breaking vote.