Daniel Negreanu, to the surprise of no one, cast his ballot for Joe Biden in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The open liberal explained why he chose the former vice president over current president Donald J. Trump in a brief video on Twitter.
Negreanu, a Canadian-born poker pro, became a U.S. citizen in 2016, just in time to vote in his first election. He proudly voted for Hillary Clinton four years ago, and his main goal in doing so, he said at the time, was to do his part in preventing Trump from gaining power.
Despite his efforts, Trump upset Clinton to win the presidency. The 45th President of the United States is now up for his one re-election bid and is facing stiff competition from Joe Biden.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden currently holds a 10.8 percentage point lead nationally. Of course, national polls don't mean much as Clinton learned in 2016. Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million but won the presidency due to receiving the most Electoral College votes (votes awarded to the winner of each individual state).
So, Biden's national lead guarantees him exactly nothing other than the likelihood that he'll win the popular vote, like Clinton. In some states, dubbed "swing states," individual votes truly count as those states can swing the election one way or the other. Negreanu lives in one of those swing states — Nevada — so his vote matters.
Why Negreanu voted for Biden
Negreanu has been busy lately preparing for his upcoming heads-up grudge match against Doug Polk. But he took some time away from the felt on Monday to cast his ballot for Biden. On the way to his polling place in Las Vegas, he recorded a video explaining why he chose the former VP as his candidate.
"For me, what really sticks out about Joe Biden to me is his humility, decency, compassion, all wrapped up into a sweet man, which is a stark contrast to what we currently have in the White House today," Negreanu said in the video. "And I want to see this country united."
The GGPoker ambassador continued, explaining that he's tired of the 24/7 political news cycle that is obsessed with Donald Trump's every move. He wants America to return to "normalcy," and believes Biden is the candidate who can make that happen.
Biden served as a Democratic U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 until 2009 when he was chosen as Barack Obama's VP. Many Democrats felt he was the best choice to replace Obama in 2016, but he decided not to run partially due to the sadness in losing his son Beau in 2015 to a brain tumor.
At age 77 (will be 78 next month), Joe Biden decided to give it another shot and won the Democratic primaries, beating out his toughest challenger, Bernie Sanders.
Negreanu also praised Biden's committal to "listen to the scientists" when it comes to COVID-19. Over the past few months, the six-time WSOP bracelet winner has been highly critical of Trump's handling of the pandemic.
"That's the kind of leader I want," Negreanu continued saying of Biden's coronavirus plan. "I'm looking for a leader who understands he's not an expert in everything, so you have to listen and delegate to the experts, and I think Biden has the right kind of humility and experience to do just that."
Featured image source: Poker.org
