Joe Biden Named a Finalist for Time's 2020 Person of the Year

President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday was named a finalist for TIME Magazine's 2020 Person of the Year. The shortlist of candidates was announced Thursday morning during NBC's Today show, with Biden's name joining fellow candidates President Donald Trump, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and frontline healthcare workers, and the movement for racial justice.

Confirming Biden as a candidate for the honor, TIME's Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsentha noted Biden's "historic win" in the 2020 presidential election, in which he won "more popular votes than any president in history." Biden is one of only 11 candidates in U.S. history to defeat an incumbent president. He is currently projected to secure 306 electoral college votes and is set to be sworn in on Jan. 20 as the oldest president in the nation's history. Felsentha also recognized the former vice president's "very different message than we've seen the last four years emphasizing empathy and unity.

The magazine has selected a Person of the Year since 1927 and notes that the honor typically goes to "an individual but sometimes multiple people who greatly impacted the country and world during the calendar year." Young environmental activist Greta Thunberg was named Person of the Year in 2019, and Trump received the honor in 2016. The 2020 Person of the Year will be announced Thursday night during the first-ever TIME Person of the Year broadcast special on NBC at 10 p.m. ET.