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EFE |
Biden and Trump achieved on Tuesday night the majority of delegates needed to win the primaries 239 days before the electoral contest on November 5. They did so simultaneously, after prevailing in Georgia, Mississippi, and the state of Washington.
Therefore, it will be one of the longest campaigns in the modern history of the United States, comparable to those of the years 2000 and 2004.
In the year 2000, Democrat Al Gore, then vice president, and Republican George W. Bush, who was governor of Texas, were left without rivals in the primaries after the Super Tuesday in March, although they still did not have enough delegates to be considered mathematically candidates.
Four years later, in 2004, Democrat John Kerry also sealed his candidacy after Super Tuesday to face Bush, who was running for re-election.
But the political climate has changed a lot in these two decades, and the tension of an almost eight-month electoral campaign between Trump and Biden is unprecedented.
Both candidates also have high rejection rates, and it will be the voters who have a negative view of both Biden and Trump who end up deciding the contest.
Biden has a rejection of 58%, while Trump's is 57%, according to a January survey by Gallup.
More: Trump lashes out at Biden on social media after securing the Republican nomination
Faced with the prospect of a long, raw, and tight campaign, Biden began last Friday in Pennsylvania a tour of several of the key states that will decide the November elections.
This Wednesday he will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a rally and to inaugurate the headquarters of his campaign in that city, while tomorrow he will travel to Michigan, where his important Arab community turned its back on him in the late February primaries, as a sign of protest for his support of Israel.
These three states gave Trump the victory in the 2016 elections against Hillary Clinton, but Biden recovered them for the Democrats in 2020 to take the White House.
All this after delivering last Thursday before Congress a very combative State of the Union speech with Trump and the Republicans: "My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6 (...) This is the moment to tell the truth and bury the lies. Here is a simple truth: You cannot love your country only when you win," he said in reference to the attack on the Capitol in 2021.
"This may have been the worst State of the Union speech ever delivered, the angriest and least combative. Joe Biden is running away from his management and lies like crazy to try to escape responsibility for the horrible devastation that he and his party have created," Trump responded after that appearance.
For Trump, the joy of having mathematically secured the Republican candidacy has not come alone.
This Wednesday morning, the judge in charge of instructing his criminal case for electoral interference in Georgia decided to file six of the 41 charges in the case, considering that the prosecutor, Fani Willis, has provided a "fatal lack of details."
Trump celebrated the judicial decision, but in an email in which he asked for financial contributions, he warned his followers that although "the corrupt war that Fani Willis is waging is crumbling, the numerous witch hunts are still in full swing."
Trump's legal problems will be another permanent element of political instability in the coming months in the United States, in which a judicial decision can fill the future of the country with uncertainty.