Biden sweeps 3 crucial battleground states, pushing him to victory

• Joe Biden surged to a victory in the 2020 presidential election after beating President Donald Trump in three critical battleground states that Democrats narrowly lost in 2016.
• Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin propelled the Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president to an election win, according to Decision Desk HQ.
• Biden's showing in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin was a marked improvement over the 2016 presidential election among working-class voters and white-collar, suburban voters.

President-elect Joe Biden's stunning victory on Friday was built on key flips of the 2016 electoral map.

Biden captured three battleground states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, that President Donald Trump narrowly won four years ago.

The biggest prize was Pennsylvania, where the former vice president secured 20 electoral votes that pushed him across the finish line. Biden's lead on Friday morning of roughly 6,000 votes made the Keystone State no longer winnable for Trump, according to projections by Insider and Decision Desk HQ.

Biden needed 270 electoral votes to become the president-elect. As of Friday morning, 21 states and Washington, DC, had delivered him 273 electoral votes. Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina have still not been called.

Both candidates had been vying for Northeastern and Midwestern states that would be critical to a win in 2020. Biden — who was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and served for decades as a senator from neighboring Delaware — was able to reverse some of Trump's 2016 gains along the "blue wall," a group of states that Democrats carried from 1992 to 2012.

Biden had an advantage over Trump in polling before the election. But several races were closer than pollsters had anticipated. Election officials continue to count votes, however, so the slim margins may widen.

This is especially true in Pennsylvania, where officials have yet to count thousands of mail-in ballots, most of which are expected to favor Biden. Since Election Day, the Trump campaign has filed a wave of legal challenges to halt ballot counts or contest results, based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and voting irregularities.

Biden's lead over Trump in Wisconsin was 20,034 votes, or 0.6 percentage points, on Friday. The Trump campaign has asked for a recount, which is allowed under state law if a candidate is behind by less than 1 point.

But Biden has surpassed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2016 performance in the state, making it more unlikely to shift to a Trump 2020 win. In Milwaukee County, Biden received 317,251 votes, compared with Clinton's 288,822 votes in 2016.

In Michigan, Biden fought to play up his longstanding support from organized labor and emphasize his ties to the auto industry as vice president. As of Friday, Biden was ahead in the Wolverine State by 145,921 votes, or 2.5 points, powered by strong performances in Detroit and its populous suburbs, along with Ann Arbor, Saginaw, and Grand Rapids.

Trump maintained his edge in other swing states in the region, most notably Iowa and Ohio.

The president defeated Biden in hotly contested states including Florida and Texas, but the wins didn't yield him enough electoral votes for another four years in the White House.