In Chicago, which voted overwhelmingly Democratic in this year’s presidential race, the reaction to Joe Biden’s victory was swift and loud: horns honking, cheering and hollering and, of course, the clanking of cow bells. As news trickled out that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States, Chicagoans took to the streets — in neighborhoods and at Trump Tower, 401 N. Wabash Ave. 

At Union Park, where a prescheduled rally kicked off at 1 p.m., speakers from a range of labor unions took turns at the mic. Jesse Sharkey, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, addressed a small but enthusiastic crowd of about 800 people. “It’s a beautiful day in more ways than one,” Sharkey said. “Donald Trump, who has been a nightmare on the political scene and in national politics, is gone. He’s been defeated.”

Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots. Biden crossed 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania.