MID-HUDSON – Local Hudson Valley Democratic public officials and party leaders are jubilant over the victory by President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
In his first speech since winning the keys to the White House, Biden told well-wishers in Delaware his win with Harris, is a victory for “We the people.”
“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” he said. “It’s time for American to unite and to heal.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins (D, Yonkers) said the incoming team will have a “calming presence” on the country.
“I do believe they know what’s at stake and that their tone and their temperament will help to modulate the temperature even though the president will try to possibly rile his base,” she said.
Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Brett Broge has similar sentiments.
“We are looking forward to the next four years of having a responsible and certainly judicious person at the helm of this country in Joe Biden,” he said.
“How nice would it be to have Nevada or Arizona called, then have Georgia, home of Congressman John Lewis put Biden in the White House and send Trump packing,” said Middletown Mayor Joe DeStefano.
Newburgh City Mayor Torrance Harvey called it a “historical day” and noted 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution that gave women the right to vote. That, he said, is especially significant given that Kamala Harris, an African American, will be the next vice president.
Governor Andrew Cuomo called Biden’s election “a historic day, after the darkness, division and hate of the past four years. America has spoken and rejected more of the same.”
The governor said, “Today we go forward in hope and progress.”
Biden and Harris will be sworn in in January.
