Biden White House Transition

Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as the United States of America's 46th president on Jan. 20, 2021. This series, started before his inauguration, covers the efforts of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to build their administration.

Pennsylvania Makes It Official: Biden Won

By Barbara Sprunt

Published November 24, 2020 at 12:58 PM EST

An election worker talks with a colleague during ballot counting Nov. 6 in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania certified its election results on Tuesday.

One of the most closely watched and contested electoral battles of the 2020 election is now official: Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes belong to President-elect Joe Biden.

Biden won Pennsylvania, his birthplace, by more than 80,000 votes. The commonwealth certified its election results Tuesday, with Gov. Tom Wolf signing off on its electors.

Pennsylvania's certification comes a day after the Michigan Board of State Canvassers certified its own election results.

Today @PAStateDept certified the results of the November 3 election in Pennsylvania for president and vice president of the United States.

As required by federal law, I’ve signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) November 24, 2020

Both states, which make up part of the so-called blue wall that Biden was able to rebuild this cycle, were the focus of legal attempts by President Trump's campaign to overturn the Democrat's apparent victory.

On Saturday, a federal judge effectively put a nail in the coffin of the Trump campaign's legal efforts by dismissing a lawsuit challenging the results in Pennsylvania; the lawsuit alleged that election officials in Democratic-leaning counties allowed voters to fix errors on their mail-in ballots.

Shortly afterward, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., urged President Trump to accept the election's outcome and move forward with the transition process.

"President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania," Toomey said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Biden senior adviser Bob Bauer said Trump did "everything he could to disenfranchise voters and stop the results from being certified in Pennsylvania."

"Trump did not succeed in Pennsylvania and he will not succeed anywhere else. Trump's lawsuits will continue to fail, as they have in over 30 cases since election day, states will continue to certify their results, and Joe Biden will be sworn in as President on January 20, 2021," Bauer's statement said.