Presidential election:

After a much anticipated presidential election season, former Vice President Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the election by the Associated Press. President-elect Biden is projected to win 306 electoral votes compared to President Trump’s 232 electoral votes. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris also makes history as the first Asian-American, African-American and female vice president in the history of the United States.

State Senate election:

Democrat activist Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender state senator in history. She is currently the National Press Secretary of the Human Rights Campaign. In 2013, McBride advocated for the passage of Delaware’s gender identity non-discrimination act that was signed into law months later. Senator-elect McBride will represent the state of Delaware and is set to be sworn into office in January of next year.

House of Representative Race:

As the election season comes to an end, Democrats are projected to keep control of the House of Representatives. ‘The Squad,’ a group of four progressive congresswomen of color, won re-election. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are set to return to the US Congress. Over the past two years, they supported bills that addressed climate change, healthcare for all and other progressive stances while enduring racist remarks from President Trump.

U.S. Congress:

History was made as a record-high number of women got elected to Congress. The 117th U.S. Congress will have 134 women legislators, including 48 women of color. This breaks the previous record of 127 set in January of 2019.

COVID-19 Updates:

On Nov. 8, the US surpassed ten million COVID-19 cases. The United States has exceeded 100,000 cases per day for seven consecutive days. Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, announced on Monday their early data shows that their COVID vaccine is 90 percent effective. President-elect Biden is expected to name his Coronavirus task force on Monday. Earlier today, Moderna also released early data showing its vaccine to be 94.5 percent effective. In Iowa, 95 counties have reported a 14-day positivity rate of above 15 percent. ICCSD has announced the transition of a hybrid model to a 100 percent off-site learning model.

Biden Administration:

President-elect Biden is expected to enact a series of executive actions that would undo many of Trump’s foreign policies. Biden is likely to repeal Trump’s Ban on travel from Muslim-majority counties and would restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows undocumented immigrants that immigrated to the United States as children to remain in the country. The Biden Administration is also expected to rejoin the Paris climate accord, an international agreement to combat climate change, and rejoin the World Health Organization.