2020 United States Presidential Election Analysis Using Tableau
One of the most significant events in 2020 is the Presidential Election of the United States as the strongest country in the world, electing its President. It was a battle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the current President at that time. Joe Biden won, not allowing Trump to have his second term as the U.S. President. Despite his loss, Trump is outspoken that he has plans to continue what he has started by running again in the 2024 Presidential Election. This article analyzes which demographics voted for Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election.
Before we look at how each demographic voted, let me briefly introduce how the United States Electoral Voting System works. Each state has different Electoral Points; for example, California has 55 Electoral Points, Texas has 38 Electoral Points, Maryland has 10 Electoral Points, and so on. The state Electoral Points are determined by the number of congressional representatives plus the two state senators. So let us use Texas as an example; Texas has 36 congressional representatives plus the 2 senators. Therefore, Texas has 38 Electoral Points. The presidential candidate must earn the majority of the votes in the state to earn the state’s Electoral Points; for example, in the 2020 election, Donald Trump earned the 38 Electoral Points of Texas 51.8% of the people in Texas voted for him. All 50 states plus the District of Columbia have 538 Electoral Points. The candidate who wins the majority (270 or more) of the overall Electoral Points wins the election.
To analyze the 2020 Presidential Election result, I created a Tableau dashboard that shows whom each demographic voted. The Tableau dashboard can be accessed in my Tableau Public account linked below.
Dashboard Link: 2020 United States Presidential Election Tableau Dashboard
The dashboard has a demographic filter (located on the upper left) which users must use to visualize each demographic. Moreover, the dashboard has the United States map with each state colored red, blue, or grey. If only the selected demographic voted, red means that Donald Trump won the state, and blue means that Joe Biden won. Grey means there is no available data on whom the majority of the selected demographic voted.
Fortunately, these missing data should not affect the analysis as either one of the candidates already earned the majority of the Electoral Points, meaning, even if the other candidate earned all the missing Electoral Points, it would not be enough to overturn the election. For example, in the dashboard below (Filtered by Age: 18–29 Years Old), Joe Biden has 437 Electoral Points, Donald Trump has 57 Electoral Points, and 44 Electoral Points are missing. So even if Donald Trump earned all the missing Electoral Points, it would not be enough for him to win the election.
I analyzed each demographic using the dashboard I created (I suggest trying it yourself) and here are the results I found:
Regarding age, Americans ages 18 to 44 voted for Joe Biden, while Americans ages 45 and above voted for Donald Trump.
Examining voter’s educational attainment, Americans who graduated college voted for Joe Biden. In contrast, Americans who did not graduate college voted for Donald Trump.
Looking at Gender, Males were in favor of Donald Trump while Females were in favor of Joe Biden.
Regarding Marital Status, single Americans voted for Joe Biden while married Americans voted for Donald Trump.
Americans who live in Rural and Small Towns voted for Donald Trump. In contrast, Americans who live in Suburban and Urban voted for Joe Biden.
The majority of the White Americans voted for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump won the votes of Catholics and Protestants.
Regarding Annual Salary, Americans earning less than $50,000 a year voted for Joe Biden. In contrast, Americans who earn $50,000 and above a year voted for Donald Trump.
Lastly, Americans who did not vote in the last 2016 presidential election and those who did early voting voted for Joe Biden. In contrast, Americans who voted on the election day voted for Donald Trump.
The biggest question is, will there be a rematch of Donald Trump versus Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election? If yes, can Donald Trump steal those demographics who voted for Joe Biden during the 2020 election, or can Joe Biden keep his votes? Let us hope for the best! May the best leader win! God bless America!
Acknowledgements
This analysis would not possible without the data provided by Dustin Gibson via Votecast Exit Polls (which can be viewed on the New York Times)
