#USElection2020: Joe Biden breaks Obama’s popular vote record

Joe Biden has broken former President Barack Obama’s record for total votes set in the historic 2008 election, according to foreign media reports.

Former vice president Joe Biden now has received more votes than Barack Obama did in 2008, breaking the record for most votes ever received by a US presidential candidate.

Biden has received 69,544,968 votes across the country. Obama ended the 2008 election with 69,498,516.

Meanwhile, President Trump has 67,120,277 votes as of Wednesday morning, surpassing the 62,984,828 votes he got when he captured the presidency in 2016.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden opened up narrow leads in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday morning, according to Edison Research, as the two Midwestern battleground states that the Republican president won in 2016 continued to count mail-in ballots that surged amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Read More: US presidency still undecided; Biden opens leads in key Midwestern states

In the nationwide popular vote, Biden on Wednesday was comfortably ahead of Trump, with 2.6 million more votes. Trump won the 2016 election over Democrat Hillary Clinton after winning crucial battleground states even though she drew about 3 million more votes nationwide.

Biden, 77, said in the early hours he was confident of winning once the votes are counted, and urged patience.

“We feel good about where we are,” Biden said in his home state of Delaware. “We believe we’re on track to win this election.”