Democrats officially nominated Joe Biden for president on Tuesday, culminating a comeback that made him their choice to take on President Donald Trump with the blessing of the party’s past and future stars.

Biden received the 2,374 delegate votes necessary for the nomination at a convention that was restyled in the time of Covid-19 into a video tour across the US, substituting for the traditional roll call in a crowded convention hall.

After Delaware cast the final votes from an Amtrak station that Biden used while commuting as a senator, the nominee appeared alongside his wife Jill from the classroom at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware, where she taught English in the early 1990s.

“Well, thank you very very much from the bottom of my heart,” Biden said. “Thank you all. It means the world to me and my family. And I’ll see you on Thursday. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Biden was nominated on the second night of the Democratic national convention, almost six months after he won the South Carolina primary. That proved a turning point that led to a string of victories after setbacks in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Collage of keynote speakers

The Democrats opened the evening with a collage of keynote speakers, each given just enough time to voice support for Biden and urge voters to turn out in droves to defeat Trump.

“Our choice is clear: a steady experienced public servant who can lead us out of this crisis just like he’s done before — or a man who only knows how to deny and distract,” said Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost a race for governor of Georgia in 2018. “America needs Joe Biden.”

As on Monday, Democratic Party stalwarts tore into Trump’s temperament, his stewardship of the economy and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he’s your man,” former President Bill Clinton said in pre-recorded remarks.

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