Biden supporters celebrate victory with a dance party in downtown SLO
Residents and visitors in San Luis Obispo took to the streets Saturday to celebrate the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States.
The Associated Press declared Biden the victor in the race for his native Pennsylvania at 8:25 a.m. That got him and running mate Kamala Harris the state’s 20 electoral votes, which pushed him over the 270 electoral-vote threshold needed to prevail.
As the news spread, cars drove through downtown San Luis Obispo honking their horns while a crowd gathered on Garden Street for an impromptu dance party between Linnaea’s Cafe and Hotel Cerro.
The Tribune spoke with citizens, mostly Biden supporters, about the election’s outcome and what it meant to them.
“Hallelujah!” Elisabeth Demongeot of San Luis Obispo exclaimed.
“We are so excited and we need change. ... We need to get along with people. We need to have some good news and truth,” Demongeot said.
San Luis Obispo resident Ted Shearer said, “Biden is the perfect person to just slow it down. All the anger and all the hatred, you know. Get the soul of our nation back.”
Eric and Cait Johnson, also of San Luis Obispo, are just glad that the election is over.
“I think it’s going to bring a lot of good things to our community, to our nation and the world, Cait Johnson said. “It’s nice to have things back on track.”
Supporters of President Trump were subdued and didn’t want to go on record with The Tribune.
“It should have been a fair election,” one woman said, while another added, “You don’t want to hear what I have to say,” laughing.
Michael Divio, a former Cal Poly student visiting from Roseville, said, “I’m happy it’s kind of coming to the end now.”
“I do wish it had been a cleaner battle from both sides. Excited to kind of see the country move forward on from it and get the drama out of the heads of everyone,” Divio said.
Visiting from Huntington Beach, Jack and Tracy Souders said they feel like they can breathe a big sigh of relief.
“We have friends from England that were texting this morning (asking us) to send pictures of people dancing in the streets, so I did,” Tracy Souders said.
So far, President-elect Biden has received 290 electoral college votes and 74,916,088 popular votes to President Donald J. Trump’s 214 electoral college votes and 70,619,985 popular votes.
Biden has received the most popular votes of any president in United States history, according to the Associated Press.
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 2:08 PM.