TIME Magazine has named its Person of the Year, or persons in this case.
In a year where the unconventional, unexpected and turbulent prevailed, it turns out just one wasn’t enough. The publication picked President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as its 2020 Person of the Year, making the announcement late Thursday. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was nominated to be on the list after the plot to kidnap her, her staunch support of public health and spars with Donald Trump, but she didn't make the cut to the next round.
Biden ascends to the presidency after a long career in public service, while Harris breaks barriers as the only woman to lead the U.S. presidential line of succession and the first female to serve as president of the U.S. Senate. She's also the first Black woman and first woman of Asian descent to achieve that rank.
Finalists for the title included outgoing President Donald Trump, the movement for racial justice, and a tag-team of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the nation’s frontline workers battling COVID-19. In the end, Biden and Harris won out, just as they did in one of the country's most important presidential elections ever.
In selecting the duo, TIME wrote: "The Democratic ticket was an unlikely partnership: forged in conflict and fused over Zoom, divided by generation, race and gender. They come from different coasts, different ideologies, different Americas."
Biden and Harris "offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket," TIME's Charlotte Alter penned.
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