U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were jointly named “Person of the Year” Thursday 2020 by Time magazine, chosen from a list of finalists that also included the man Biden beat at the polls: President Donald Trump.
The former Democratic vice president, along with his running mate, a California senator whose election broke racial and gender barriers, “offered restoration and renewal in a single candidacy,” Time magazine said in a text describing the couple and posted online along with their announcement.
“And america bought what they were selling: after the largest (voter) turnout in a century and amassing more than 81 million votes, the most in presidential history, beating Trump by about 7 million votes and turning five disputed states,” the magazine wrote.
Trump, the 45th president of the United States and the 2016 Person of the Year for Time, a designation he received a month after his unexpected election victory, was among the magazine’s three other finalists this year.
The other two candidates were health workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and participants in the racial justice movement that broke out after the death on May 25 of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The Person of the Year is usually an individual, but in the past the distinction has also fallen to several people. The title is given, according to the magazine, to “who has influenced the news or our lives, for better or worse”.
Time magazine began its tradition in 1927. Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg became last year the youngest individual winner of the award.
The magazine also named K-pop group BTS as ‘Artist of the Year’ and basketball star LeBron James as ‘Athlete of the Year’.
