Why Joe Biden Won the 2020 Election
He promised to do things that are popular & praised America
Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election.
While the electoral college total isn’t set in stone and the popular vote will take weeks to fully count, Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States.
But why? Some people thought Joe was too old, too moderate, or too boring.
He did it by doing what most other winning candidates have done in the past. He:
Promised to enact policies that are popular with the American People, and he also,
Praised America, Americans, and tied his own personal story to the story of other everyday Americans
That’s it. That’s what most winning candidates do and that’s exactly what Joe Biden did during both the Democratic Primary election and the 2020 General Election.
Biden’s victory was helped by a number of factors, but chief among them was President Donald Trump’s refusal to follow the normal winning formula. Trump won in 2016 despite being unpopular, divisive, disparaging of many Americans, and hinting at wanting to enact some very unpopular policies. The unique circumstances of Trump’s 2016 race are worth dissecting in light of his 2020 loss, but that’s a topic for another day.
Being our first post, let’s be crystal clear about what we’re trying to do. The purpose of Sixty Percent Strategies is to help elected leaders enact policies that are popular with the American people. To be in a position to do that, we also help campaigns win in the first place. Winning candidates and campaigns tell good stories, they say the right things to the right people, and they avoid stepping on unnecessary rakes.
But unlike most other campaign consultants, messaging groups or political comms agencies, we’re not willing to help just anyone. We plan on working for and with campaigns and causes that are going to do the most good for the country by quickly getting to work on policies that are already broadly popular. If you want to move the Overton Window on an issue and maybe get it accomplished in 15 years, we wish you good luck!
We want the American government at all levels to work well, for leaders to pass policies that are popular, and to reject pulls toward the extremes. Most Americans have at least a few unpopular opinions. If you doubt that, just visit Twitter or Facebook sometime! But there is so much policy that is low-hanging fruit, just ripe to be enacted. Even in a divided, partisan nation, there are things we already agree on; let’s get them done right now.
As the name implies, Sixty Percent Strategies pushes elected leaders, candidates, and advocacy groups to prioritize policies that already poll at greater than 60% approval among the American people.
Sixty Percent Strategies also strongly believes that America is a place to be proud of, a place to always make better, and a place where anyone can belong. To that end, campaigns should praise America and root their candidate or cause in the best chapters in our shared American story.
So why should you stay tuned?
You’ll get insights into how to be a better advocate. You’ll understand how much good a well-run government can do for you and the people you care about. And you’ll get a chance to learn about specific issues that you might not even know are popular across partisan lines.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll subscribe! New posts are published every Wednesday morning, and next week we’re writing about how to make American work better in an era of closely divided government.