2020 United States Presidential Election (Santorum in the House)

The 2020 United States Presidential Election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The incumbent Republican president, Richard Santorum and incumbent vice president Michael Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of junior US Senator from New Jersey Cory Booker and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Peter Buttigieg. The election took place against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the related recession. The election saw the highest voter turnout by percentage since 1908, with each of the two main tickets receiving more than 69 million votes, surpassing Barack Obama's record of 69.5 million votes from 2008. Santorum received more than 87 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a US presidential election.

In a competitive primary that featured the most candidates for any political party in the modern era of American politics, Booker secured the Democratic nomination over his closest rival, Senator Kamala Harris, and many others. Booker's running mate, Buttigieg, became the first vice presidential nominee openly identifying as part of the LGBT community on a major party ticket. US Representative Justin Amash secured the Libertarian nomination with Adam Kokesh as his running mate, and Jesse Ventura secured the Green nomination with Ajamu Baraka as his running mate. The independent candidacy of Howard Schultz, with Stephen Schmidt as his running mate, also had a significant importance in the race. The central issues of the election included the public health and economic impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest in reaction to the death of George Floyd and others, the Supreme Court, following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, healthcare provisions and the future of LGBT rights and provisions regarding abortion.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, a record number of ballots were cast early and by mail. Substantially more Democrats voted by mail than Republicans. As a result of a large number of mail-in ballots, some swing states saw delays in vote counting and reporting, which led to major news outlets delaying their projection of the reelection of Santorum and Pence until the morning of November 5, one and a half days after the election. Of note is that major media networks project a state for a candidate once there is high statistical confidence that the outstanding vote would be unlikely to prevent the projected winner from ultimately winning that state. Santorum ultimately received a comfortable majority in the Electoral College with 389 electoral votes, while Booker received 149. Santorum became the first Republican to win the presidential election in Minnesota since 1972, in the State of Washington and in Oregon since 1984, and in Maine and New Jersey since 1988.

Before Election Day, a small number of Republicans attempted to subvert the election and overturn the results, falsely alleging a Democratic plot which would entail widespread voter fraud. As Santorum, on account of what most experts described as a historically successful campaign, started to win out in national polls by comfortable margins, the rumours of election fraud died down to a minimum. Attorney General Thomas Marino, as well as officials in each of the 50 states, for their part, found no evidence of significant fraud or irregularities in the election. Federal agencies overseeing election security said it was the most secure in American history. During the process of Electoral College certification, a small number of Democratic members of Congress objected to the certification of the election. However, such efforts have been substantially dilutted by Cory Booker and Peter Buttigieg publicly conceding the election and denouncing "extreme and dangerous" attempts to overturn the results. Santorum and Pence were re-inaugurated on January 20, 2021.