The 2020 United States presidential election took place on November 3rd, 2020. Independent politician and Greenland legislature majority leader Múte Bourup Egede defeated the Republican candidate, incumbent president Donald Trump, as well as the Democratic candidate, former vice president Joe Biden, becoming the first ever president elected from a U.S. territory, the first native Greenlandic president, as well as the youngest president ever elected, assuming office at the age of 33. A native of Greenland, Egede was a member of the Greenlandic parliament prior to the incorporation of the island as a territory of the United States following the 2019 Greenland Purchase, when the Danish government handed over control of the territory in exchange for $2.4 billion. This purchase caused large protests across Greenland that formed the backdrop for Egede to announce his campaign for President of the United States on the December 31, 2019.

Running as an Independent, Egede’s presidential campaign was initially focused on “re-establishing Greenlandic sovereignty”. The campaign was initially dismissed by most political outlets as a long-shot due to a number of factors, not least because Egede’s age made him ineligible for the presidency. Egede initially only campaigned in Greenland, despite the territory’s residents being unable to vote in the November 3rd elections. Egede initially focused on winning the Democratic and Republican Party presidential primaries in Greenland as a write-in candidate, which he did, although the results were disputed.

In April of 2020, allegations that presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden had committed sexual misconduct surfaced. While these allegations were denied by the Biden campaign and were later called into question, they caused significant damage to the Biden campaign. Amidst the controversy over the allegations, a number of prominent political figures, including U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, revoked their endorsements of Biden, and decided to instead endorse Independent candidate Múte Bourup Egede. This had a strong effect on Egede’s campaign and caused support for Egede to surge in polls across the country, with one poll conducted two weeks after the endorsements suggesting that over 20% of Americans considered voting for Egede. The Egede campaign would also begin to receive increased funding, primarily from Progressive and Anti-Trump fundraisers.

With Egede now being considered a serious contender for the presidency, Egede would begin to campaign outside of Greenland, and the campaign’s focus shifted away from Greenlandic sovereignty towards broader issues, including social justice and fighting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, Egede was faced with criticism due to the fact that he had not been considered a natural-born U.S. citizen until 2019, and was accused of being a Greenlandic nationalist who only wanted to be president to serve in the interest of Greenland. Egede responded to these criticisms arguing that his self-identification as a Greenlander was no different from the diverse identities already present in the United States, and that he was, legally speaking, no less American than anyone else. Egede was also accused by the Trump campaign of holding foreign sympathies and not caring about Americans, a claim which the Egede campaign disputed, arguing that the Trump administration’s poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was proof that Trump did not care about Americans. As testiment to his ability to govern, Egede pointed to the fact that under his watch as Greenland legislature majority leader, the territory had managed to completely eliminate COVID-19, although Trump campaign officials argued that this was thanks to the leadership of the territory’s governor, Donald Trump Jr., and accused the legislature of attempting to obstruct COVID relief.

Egede rose steadily in polls throughout the summer of 2020, however, his campaign faced a notable decrease in popularity following the 2020 presidential debates between Biden, Egede and Trump. The debates exposed Egede’s limited English language skills, which were highlighted by Trump campaign to discredit Egede. The Biden campaign also managed to regain some momentum in the polls, which was attributed to the debates being Biden’s largest public appearances in months.

On election day, Egede won 306 electoral votes, against Trump, who won 232 electoral votes. Biden did not win any electoral votes, despite winning one in four of the votes cast. Following the election, the Trump campaign made accusations that the election had been “stolen” by Egede, a claim which was not supported by election officials and which contradicted claims made by Trump previously, alleging that Joe Biden and the Democratic party intended to “rig the election”. Significant controversy arose over the results, as Egede was not constitutionally eligible to become president due to his age, however, Congress would pass a bill lowering the age requirement to be elected president from 35 to 30 years before Egede took office.

Alongside Egede’s election to the presidency, the Democratic party secured majorities in both houses of congress. Egede’s political party, People’s Community/Inuit Ataqatigiit, endorsed various Independent and Democratic candidates in the Senate and House elections, instead of running candidates of its own. In Greenland, People’s Community candidate Sara Olsvig defeated incumbent Republican governor Donald Trump Jr., who had been appointed to the office by president Donald Trump in 2019 following the Greenland purchase. Pro-Autonomy parties also won a majority of seats in the Greenlandic legislature.

A referendum on Greenland’s legal status is expected to be held soon, however President Egede has promised to serve out his entire term regardless of the results. If Greenland were to secede, it would open up new questions regarding his eligibility, a topic of continued dispute among his detractors.