Trump projected winner
· CastanetElection Day is here. Voters are gearing up to head to the polls to cast their ballots for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in one of the nation’s most historic presidential races. They'll also be determining which party will control the House and Senate.
Here’s the latest:
Trump projected elected
Fox News and Decision Desk HQ have projected Donald Trump will win the U.S. presidency.
Trump is now speaking to supporters at campaign headquarters in Florida, declaring victory and thanking supporters.
He promised that he would “not rest until we have delivered the strong safe and prosperous America.”
“Every single day,” Trump said, “I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.”
Trump made sure to recognize GOP wins in down ballot races in his speech in the early morning Wednesday.
“The number of victories in the senate was absolutely incredible,” Trump said.
Republicans have so far won 51 seats, giving them a majority. But Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada have not been called, and it’s possible Republicans could pick up more seats.
Trump also said he expected Republicans to hold the House and complimented House Speaker Mike Johnson. The House, however, is still up for grabs.
There are over 70 House races across the country that have not been called, and neither party has a convincing edge in the tally of House races.
Trump wins Pennsylvania
Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania, putting him just four electoral votes shy of defeating Kamala Harris to win the White House.
A win in Alaska or any of the outstanding battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada — would send the Republican former president back to the Oval Office.
Pennsylvania, a part of the once-reliable Democratic stronghold known as the “blue wall” with Michigan and Wisconsin, was carried by Trump when he first won the White House in 2016 and then flipped back to Democrats in 2020.
Trump also flipped Georgia, which had voted for Democrats four years ago, and retained the closely contested state of North Carolina.
Trump’s gains sharply curtailed Harris’ path to victory.
The crowd at Harris’ watch party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, began to file out after midnight after a top Harris ally sent supporters home, with no plans for the Democratic vice president to speak.
“We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted. That every voice has spoken,” Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign said. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow. She will be back here tomorrow.”
Trump was set to address supporters early Wednesday from his campaign’s watch party in Florida.
Harris takes New Hampshire
Vice President Kamala Harris has won New Hampshire, continuing the state’s two-decade-long streak of awarding its four electoral votes to Democrats.
New Hampshire has backed Democrats in seven of the last eight presidential elections.
Trump nearing victory with Georgia win
The New York Times is now projecting Donald Trump has a 95% chance of winning the presidency.
Multiple U.S. outlets have called Georgia for Trump, narrowing Kamala Harris’ path dramatically and returning its 16 electoral votes to the Republican column
Joe Biden narrowly carried Georgia in 2020, but Republicans have won every other Georgia presidential vote since 1996.
Harris must now win Pennsylvania, a state she trails Trump by 3% in but remains too close to call.
Harris is also trailing in battlegrounds Michigan and Wisconsin.
The race for the House is on
With Senate control going to the Republicans, the race for the House is being played out district-by-district in dozens of competitive elections.
For Republicans, it’s a chance to gain full control of Congress as they try to sweep into power. For Democrats, a House majority will give them an important check on the GOP’s power and force compromise in Washington.
House races are being decided across the country, from hard-fought races in New York to elections in California where it could still take days to determine a winner.
Republicans take Senate majority
Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate late Tuesday after flipping Democratic held seats, holding onto GOP incumbents and wresting away the majority for the first time in four years.
Harris takes Hawaii
Vice President Kamala Harris won Hawaii and the state's four electoral votes on Wednesday. It's the 10th straight presidential election in which Hawaii has selected the Democratic Party candidate. The state last picked a Republican for the nation's top office 40 years ago, when Ronald Reagan emerged victorious in 1984.
Hawaii is a solidly blue state, with Democrats controlling all statewide elected offices and the state's two U.S. House seats. Democrats have also long controlled more than three-quarters of the seats in both the state House and Senate.
Republicans one seat away from Senate majority
Republicans were one seat away from seizing the Senate majority late Tuesday after firebrand Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas defeated Democrat Colin Allred, pushing the GOP closer to wresting control of the chamber.
While Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in almost 30 years, Allred, a Dallas-area congressman and former NFL linebacker, positioned himself as a moderate and leaned into his support for reproductive rights amid Texas’ abortion ban, which is one of the strictest in the nation.
Cruz's victory came after Democratic efforts to salvage their Senate majority slipped further out of reach when Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio lost his reelection to Republican Bernie Moreno, a wealthy Trump-era newcomer.
Brown’s loss to Moreno, an immigrant from Bogota, Colombia, who built a fortune as a luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur, puts the Democrats on the edge of losing Senate control. A three-term senator, he is the first incumbent to lose reelection.
The Ohio race between Brown and Moreno, who was backed by Donald Trump, is the most expensive of the cycle, at some $400 million.
Harris wins New Mexico, Virginia
Kamala Harris won New Mexico on Tuesday, adding five electoral votes to Democrats' tally. The Democratic Party's influence in New Mexico has only grown over the last two decades, with former President George W. Bush being the last Republican to win the state in 2004.
With a Virginia win, Harris added 13 electoral votes to her tally. Harris’ victory marks the third time Donald Trump has lost the Old Dominion state. The Democratic nominee for president has won Virginia in every election since 2008.
Harris’ Howard night energy turns from festive to fretting as race calls roll in
The mood at Harris’ election night party at Howard University shifted from electric to anxious as race calls began rolling in. The musical performances and triumphant speeches on display earlier in the evening have been replaced by occasional DJ mixes and broadcast race calls.
Anxious faces and hushed talk spread through the crowd as the night stretched on and the tightness of the race became apparent.
The still-packed crowd periodically went quiet as attendees watched returns come in on a giant projection of CNN. Rallygoers cheered and waved American flags as solidly blue states like Harris’ native California were called in her favour.
Harris’ campaign chair stressed patience and resolve in a message to all campaign staff obtained by The Associated Press, arguing that the “closeness of the race is exactly what we prepared for” and predicting the race won’t “come into focus until the early morning hours.”
The message from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon was meant for an audience beyond campaign staff, too, as nervous Democrats nationwide watch the race between Harris and Trump narrow to a handful of key battleground states.
“As we have known all along, this is a razor thin race,” wrote O’Malley Dillon, citing turnout in Philadelphia and early vote totals in suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania; outstanding votes in Detroit; and uncounted vote in Dane and Milwaukee counties in Wisconsin, two Democratic strongholds.
While the longtime Democratic operative noted forthcoming counting in Nevada and Arizona, the memo highlighted how central the so-called “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are to Harris’ path to victory.
“We’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight,” she wrote, adding later, “This is what we’ve been built for, so let’s finish up what we have in front of us tonight, get some sleep, and get ready to close out strong tomorrow.”
North Carolina win gives Trump options toward 270 threshold
By winning North Carolina, Trump maintains options to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold.
Trump can reach the magic number by carrying Georgia and Pennsylvania or by carrying Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. He also can win by carrying Wisconsin and Arizona, as well as other combinations involving Nevada.
But that would require him to crack the blue wall of northern states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump blitzed North Carolina in the final days of the campaign, stopping in four cities over four days and finishing his North Carolina campaign in Raleigh on Monday.
Trump wins North Carolina, Harris wins Oregon
Donald Trump won the battleground state of North Carolina on Tuesday, fending off a challenge from Kamala Harris, who was looking to flip the state and expand her pathways to 270 electoral votes.
Trump had made stops to the state in each of the last three days of the campaign to deprive Harris of the pick-up.
Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told staff in a memo that the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin was now the Democrat’s “clearest path” to victory.
Harris won Oregon, adding eight electoral votes to her tally. Oregon has one more electoral vote this cycle than it did in the previous presidential election after gaining a congressional seat following the 2020 census. The Democratic nominee for president has won Oregon since 1988.
Harris wins California, Washington. Trump takes Idaho.
Kamala Harris won California on Tuesday, giving her the largest prize in the presidential election — 54 electoral votes. The outcome in the heavily Democratic state where Harris previously served as a U.S. senator and attorney general was expected.
A Republican candidate hasn't won a presidential contest in the nation's most populous state since 1988, and the GOP hasn't seriously contested California in a presidential election since 2000. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in California by about 2-to-1, and the party holds every statewide office and dominates the Legislature and congressional delegation.
Harris also won Washington's 12 electoral votes, besting former President Donald Trump in a state where he is not popular. Washington has not gone for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. President Joe Biden carried Washington in 2020 with 58 per cent of the vote to Trump's less than 39 per cent.
Trump won Idaho for the third consecutive election, adding four electoral votes to his tally. Idaho is deeply red, and the Republican presidential nominee has carried the state with more than 60 per cent of the vote for the last several elections. The last time a Democratic presidential nominee won Idaho was 60 years ago, when Lyndon Johnson beat Republican Barry Goldwater by a narrow margin of just over 5,300 votes.
Trump leading in battlegrounds
While it is too soon to call the race, Donald Trump is now favoured to win the election as he leads multiple battleground states.
The New York Times estimated at 7:50 p.m. that Trump has a 87% chance of winning the presidency.
He is leading in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin—key battleground states—although those races are too close to call.
Trump wins Iowa and Kansas. Harris takes D.C.
Former President Donald Trump won Iowa on Tuesday, claiming the state's six electoral votes. Formerly considered a swing state, Iowa has proved to be a clear example of Trump's appeal among Republican voters and his staying power in the GOP.
Trump won Kansas and its six electoral votes on Tuesday. Republican candidates have carried Kansas in every presidential election since 1964, and it was the third election in a row that Trump has won the state.
Vice President Kamala Harris won the District of Columbia on Tuesday, securing the capital's three electoral votes. Harris’ win in D.C. is no surprise – the District is a longtime Democratic stronghold whose government repeatedly feuded with Trump when he was the president.
Kamala Harris wins Colorado
Kamala Harris won Colorado on Tuesday, picking up the state's 10 electoral votes. Colorado was once a purple state, flipping between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, but it has shifted blue in the past two decades.
The last Republican presidential candidate to snag Colorado's electoral votes was George W. Bush in 2004. Since then, it's backed Democratic presidential candidates, with Joe Biden winning it handily in 2020. Colorado gained its 10th electoral vote after the 2020 census, attributed to population growth around Denver.
Historic change as 2 Black women elected to Senate
Only three Black women have held Senate seats in the nation’s history, but that is about to change.
Democrats Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland have won Senate seats, and they will be the first Black women to serve together in the Senate.
The other Black women who have served as senators are Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Laphonza Butler of California and current Vice President Kamala Harris of California.
Ohio key to Democratic hopes of holding Senate
Ohio is sending its electoral college votes to Donald Trump, but the state is also key to Democrats’ bid to keep control of the Senate and win the House.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, the only Democrat to win a nonjudicial statewide race in Ohio in over 10 years, is running for a fourth term by appealing to working-class voters and making access to abortion a top priority.
He is being challenged by Republican Bernie Moreno, a wealthy businessman backed by Donald Trump.
The state could have big consequences for the House as well. Democrats are defending a trio of House seats that are seen as competitive.
No surprises as polls close. Eyes now turn to Eastern battlegrounds
There has been little surprise in results so far with polls across most of the country having closed.
Trump won Republican-leaning states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, while Harris won a swath of New England and the Northeast including New Jersey and New York.
Meanwhile, attention is gravitating toward the Eastern battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Democrats send out the famous people
Democrats deployed celebrities to keep their voters fired up while they wait in long lines to cast their ballots.
Paul Rudd handed out water to students at Temple University in Philadelphia. Jennifer Garner, Josh Gad, Mark Cuban and Demi Lovato communicated with voters via FaceTime in various battleground states.
Republicans have also encouraged their voters to stay in line, even after polls close.
“Hi, Republicans. We’re doing really well,” Donald Trump said in a social media video. “If you’re in line, stay in line.”
Hours extended at nine precincts in eastern Arizona county
A judge has ordered polling places to remain open two extra hours in nine precincts in an eastern Arizona county after a rocky start to Election Day that included malfunctioning equipment and a lack of printed ballots.
Apache County Superior Court Judge Michael Latham agreed to keep the polls open at the request of the Navajo Nation, which filed a lawsuit asking for extended hours due to the problems.
Meanwhile, bomb threats to polling places at schools in neighboring Navajo County prompted some to close momentarily and one to evacuate and send students home for the day.
Authorities said they received email bomb threats at four locations in Navajo County, including at least three polling sites. They determined the threats were not credible.
Donald Trump wins Missouri
Republican Donald Trump won the reliably conservative state of Missouri on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Kamala Harris.
Missouri voters overwhelmingly favoured Trump over Democrats in the 2016 and 2020 elections, and he was favoured to win again this year. In the past decade, the GOP has become increasingly dominant in Missouri, and Republicans now hold all statewide political offices. Republicans also hold large majorities in both legislative chambers.
No surprises as polls close, eyes now turn to Eastern battlegrounds
There has been little surprise in results so far with polls across most of the country having closed.
Trump won Republican-leaning states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, while Harris won a swath of New England and the Northeast including New Jersey and New York.
Meanwhile, attention is gravitating toward the Eastern battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania officials urge patience when it comes to a lengthy vote-counting process
State officials are preaching calm and patience in the counting of votes in the face of large voter turnout across the state and a spate of disruptive bomb threats at polling locations and government buildings.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said at a Tuesday night news conference that every legal, eligible vote will be counted. He says that takes time and that the state’s goal is to do it right and accurately.
Al Schmidt, the state’s top elections official, said in-person turnout numbers will not be available Tuesday night. He said the state’s counties could not even begin processing and opening the millions of returned mail ballots until 7 a.m. EST Tuesday and that the last of them would not have been received until 8 p.m. EST.
Trump wins Texas
Former President Donald Trump won Texas for the third consecutive election on Tuesday, adding 40 electoral votes to his tally. Texas gained two more electoral votes this cycle after the 2020 census. The Republican nominee for president has won Texas for nearly 50 years since Democrat Jimmy Carter carried the state in 1976.
Trump wins Wyoming, Ohio, Louisiana, South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska. Harris takes New York.
Former President Donald Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris in deep-red Wyoming to win the least-populated state's three electoral votes on Tuesday. One of the most Republican states by almost any measure, Wyoming gave Trump his widest margins of victory in any state in the 2020 and 2016 elections.
Trump won Louisiana on Tuesday for the third consecutive presidential election, increasing his electoral vote tally by eight.
Trump won South Dakota's three electoral votes for president Tuesday. The Republican nominee had been expected to prevail comfortably in a state where GOP voters outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1. No Democratic nominee has carried South Dakota since President Lyndon Johnson won in 1964.
Trump won North Dakota's three electoral votes on Tuesday. His victory continues a decadeslong streak of Republican presidential wins in the conservative state known for its agriculture and energy production. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was Johnson in 1964.
Republican Donald Trump won the statewide popular vote in Nebraska for the third consecutive election on Tuesday, receiving two electoral college votes. Nebraska is one of two states that divide electoral votes with two votes going to the statewide winner and one apiece to the winner of each congressional district.
Trump carried Ohio for a third time on Tuesday, defeating Harris to capture the state's 17 electoral votes. Support for the former president helped turn Ohio from a presidential bellwether to reliably Republican in recent years.
Harris won New York's presidential contest on Tuesday, picking up the state's 28 electoral votes. New York has now voted for the Democrat in every presidential contest since giving Ronald Reagan the nod in his landslide 1984 election.
Florida rejects abortion measure, shifts further right
Florida voters rejected an abortion rights amendment and will keep in place Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 6-week ban as the initiative fails to reach the required 60% threshold. The measure faced an uphill battle in the deeply red state where Trump, a Florida resident, said during the campaign that he would vote against it.
In comparison to 2020, nearly all of Florida has moved right during this presidential election cycle.
Miami-Dade County saw the greatest increase, with an 18 percentage point shift right. It was enough to move the county from the Democrats’ column in 2020 to the Republicans’ this year.
Harris wins Illinois, Delaware and New Jersey. Trump takes Arkansas.
Vice President Kamala Harris won Illinois on Tuesday, claiming the state's 19 electoral votes for Democrats. The reliably blue state, the home of former President Barack Obama, has supported Democratic presidential candidates since 199
Harris won Delaware's presidential contest Tuesday, easily defeating Republican Donald Trump. Harris' victory in solid-blue Delaware was a foregone conclusion, given the stranglehold Democrats have held on the state's three electoral votes for decades.
Harris won New Jersey's 14 electoral votes on Tuesday. Harris' victory over Republican Donald Trump continues Democrats' dominance in the state, which has gone with the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1988.
Trump secured Arkansas' six electoral votes on Tuesday, winning the heavily Republican state for the third presidential election in a row. Trump had the backing of the state's top Republican figures, including Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders, who had served as Trump's White House press secretary, endorsed the former president's bid and campaigned for him.
What to watch as polls are closing in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Michigan
Pennsylvania: Many of the earliest results will include mailed ballots, which have tended to favor Democratic candidates in the past. The state reported almost twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans voted in advance this year. But any early advantage could change later as more Election Day votes are counted.
Michigan: Polls are about to close across most of Michigan. In the past, initial returns sometimes favored Republicans because Democratic-dominated Wayne County, the state’s largest and home to Detroit, was slow to report mailed votes. But this year, counties may process mailed ballots earlier. That’s expected to make the count go faster.
Maryland: The first results will include early in-person and absentee votes, which could mean an early lift for Democrat Angela Alsobrooks since those votes typically have favored Democrats in the past. That margin could shrink if Election Day votes arrive with a greater makeup of Republicans. Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan is trying to become Maryland’s first GOP U.S. senator in over 30 years.
Harris wins Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland
Vice President Kamala Harris won Massachusetts on Tuesday, continuing a decades-long streak of victories for Democratic presidential candidates in the Bay State. The last time Massachusetts backed a Republican candidate was in 1984 when voters cast their ballots for Ronald Reagan.
Harris won Connecticut on Tuesday, extending the state's long trend of supporting Democratic presidential candidates and adding seven electoral votes to her tally. This year marked the ninth consecutive presidential election in which Connecticut voters favored the Democratic candidate.
Harris won Maryland and its 10 electoral votes on Tuesday. Maryland is a heavily Democratic state that is home to many federal workers next to the nation’s capital.
Harris won Rhode Island on Tuesday, giving her four electoral votes and continuing the Democrats' dominance in the state. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won Rhode Island was in 1984, when former President Ronald Reagan defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Trump takes South Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi
Former President Donald Trump won Tennessee on Tuesday, keeping the firmly Republican state and its 11 electoral votes in his win column. Trump won Tennessee by about 23 percentage points in 2020 and by 26 points in 2016.
Trump won Oklahoma and its seven electoral votes on Tuesday, defeating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. A Democrat has not won the presidential race in Oklahoma since 1964, and Trump was heavily favored to win.
Trump won Alabama for the third consecutive election on Tuesday, adding nine electoral votes to the Republican's tally. Democrats have not won Alabama since 1976, when Jimmy Carter carried the state.
Trump won Mississippi on Tuesday, claiming the state's six electoral votes and continuing a long winning streak for Republicans. The last Democratic presidential nominee to win Mississippi was Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Trump won South Carolina on Tuesday, earning its nine electoral votes for the third straight election
Donald Trump won Florida on Tuesday for the third consecutive election, earning the state's 30 electoral votes. Once a crucial battleground state, Florida has been drifting toward the Republican Party in recent years. A Democratic presidential nominee has not won the state since Barack Obama carried it in 2012
Crucial races in Ohio and North Carolina
Polls are closing in Ohio and North Carolina, states that could have major implications for who ends up controlling Congress.
Democrats in Ohio are defending a crucial Senate seat, currently held by Sen. Sherrod Brown, as well as three battleground House seats.
Republicans are also trying to make gains in North Carolina, where redistricting has tipped three House seats in their favor.
They could also pick up a fourth House seat in the state if Republican Laurie Buckhout can unseat incumbent Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat.
Trump adviser projects confidence
Senior Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski is projecting confidence as polls begin to close.
“He feels great,” he said of Trump, speaking at the former president’s watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida. “We are ready, when the election is called, to begin the transition to put this country back on track.”
Trump’s campaign sees its easiest path to the nomination running through Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
“Donald Trump has momentum,” he argued.
As for the persistent gender gap in polls, he says, “Women do not vote only on their gender … It’s a fallacy.”
Trump wins West Virginia
Former President Donald Trump won West Virginia for the third straight presidential election cycle on Tuesday. The victory adds four electoral votes to the former president's count. West Virginia has one fewer electoral vote this cycle after losing a congressional seat following the 2020 census. The state is one of only two where Trump won every county in 2016 and 2020.
Trump wins Kentucky and Indiana. Harris takes Vermont.
Former President Donald Trump won Kentucky for the third consecutive election on Tuesday, adding eight electoral votes to his tally.
The Republican nominee for president has won Kentucky in every election since Democrat Bill Clinton carried the Bluegrass State in 1996.
Trump also won the presidential election in Indiana on Tuesday. The reliably conservative state, where Republicans have held the governor's office for 20 years, gave Trump its 11 electoral votes.
Harris, meanwhile, won the Democratic stronghold of Vermont on Tuesday. The small state has voted in favor of Democratic candidates in the previous eight presidential elections
What to watch as polls are closing
Florida: First polls are about to close in much of Florida, which reports votes quickly. The first votes released will be early in-person and mailed votes. Those have tended to favor Democrats in the past, but it’s not clear that trend will hold this year. Florida adds Election Day votes soon after and counts few votes after election night, so races tend to wrap up quickly.
Georgia: Polls are about to close in the battleground state of Georgia. The first votes reported have historically included at least some cast before Election Day. We don’t know if the advance vote this year will favor Democrats as it has in the past. Voters don’t register by party in Georgia.
Polls are closing soon in 6 states
At 4 p.m. PST, polls will close in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia, though some areas of Indiana and Kentucky closed at 6 p.m.
At 4:30 p.m. PST, polls will close in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia.