Which states had the closest margins in the 2020 presidential election?

1. The tiny margins that decided the Electoral College

Journalists and election analysts pointed to a small group of states where single‑digit and sub‑1% margins carried outsized electoral weight. NPR summarized that Biden’s path to 270 was “stitched together with narrow margins in a handful of states,” singling out Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin as key narrow wins; across those three and similarly close contests, Biden’s total popular‑vote margin in the Electoral College–deciding states was very small ^{[2] [1]}. CNN produced a ranked list of the closest states by percentage and used that list to flag which states might matter most in future cycles ^[3].

2. Which states were the closest, by reporting

Multiple outlets produced lists and maps showing state margins: 270toWin offers state‑by‑state margin maps for 2020; Politico and The Washington Post tracked the tight battlegrounds as votes were counted; NPR and CNN highlighted Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin among the closest where Biden prevailed ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [2] [3]}. Wikipedia’s summary of the 2020 elections reports the tipping‑point state Wisconsin was won by 0.6% and that across Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin Biden won by fewer than 45,000 votes — a concrete metric used in much contemporary reporting ^[1].

3. How narrow margins translated into the national map

The national popular vote was not close — Biden won by roughly 7 million votes — but the Electoral College amplifies close state outcomes. Council on Foreign Relations and other analysts stressed that Biden’s large national margin coexisted with a handful of extremely competitive states that determined the electoral count; Biden also flipped five states that Trump had won in 2016, but the flips were often narrow ^{[8] [1]}. That divergence explains why a commanding popular‑vote lead can sit atop a map decided by a few thousand votes in certain states ^{[2] [1]}.

4. Why these states were so tight — competing explanations

Reporting offered multiple reasons for the razor edges: demographic shifts, suburban swings, pandemic voting changes, and intense turnout operations on both sides. NPR and The Washington Post documented Biden’s gains in populous counties that flipped states while Trump improved in rural areas; outlets noted that changes in mail‑voting rules during COVID altered turnout patterns that may have tightened margins in key states ^{[2] [7]}. Alternative views in coverage suggested these were continuations of long‑term trends rather than one‑off effects; CNN compared 2020’s pattern to 2012 and 2016 to show both continuity and change ^[3].

5. What journalists warned about interpreting “closest” lists

Coverage cautioned that simple ranking by percentage can obscure electoral significance: a half‑percent loss in a small‑vote state differs in impact from a half‑percent win in a 10‑million‑voter state. CNN explicitly produced a top‑10 list of closest states to help strategists, signaling that closeness by percent is only one lens ^[3]. 270toWin’s interactive margin maps provide the granular view journalists used to contextualize why certain close states mattered electorally ^{[4] [9]}.

6. Limitations of the available reporting and remaining questions

Available sources enumerate the closest states and quantify margins in the decisive trio, but they do not provide a single canonical ranked list in this packet that includes exact percentages for every state; for precise, state‑by‑state percentages one must consult the interactive maps and state vote tallies used by 270toWin, Politico or official state canvass reports ^{[4] [5] [6]}. Scholarly summaries (CFR) and mainstream outlets agree on the core takeaway — a few very narrow state margins decided the Electoral College — but differ slightly in which peripheral states to emphasize ^{[8] [2] [3]}.

Bottom line: reporting across NPR, CNN, The Washington Post, Politico and compilations such as 270toWin converges on the same narrative — Biden’s Electoral College victory depended on extremely close margins in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin (and narrow outcomes in a couple of other battlegrounds), with Wisconsin noted as the 0.6% tipping‑point and the three small margins totaling under 45,000 votes in several accounts ^{[2] [1] [3] [4]}.