Donald Trump has clinched victory in the 2024 presidential election, sweeping several critical swing states to secure 292 Electoral College votes in a dramatic and historic night for America.
The Republican eliminated his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s chances of making history as the first female president, and will now return to the White House in January 2025 to serve a second term.
Trump cemented his nationwide victory as the announcement of Wisconsin’s results took him over the line to surpass the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
There were jubilant scenes at Trump’s election night party in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the president-elect hailed “the greatest political movement of all time” and ushered in a “golden age for America.”
Trump — who was rejected by a majority of Americans in 2020 during his re-election campaign after winning an unprecedented race in 2016 — flipped nearly every swing state that President Joe Biden won in 2020. Trump will also have a Republicans have also taken control of the Senate.
Trump broke through the so-called “blue wall” of Rust Belt battleground states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He also won in Georgia and North Carolina.
The results of the presidential race in Nevada and Arizona are still yet to be called.
Harris did not make an appearance from her watch party at her Howard University alma mater on Tuesday night, as her supporters were pictured in distress as results began to trickle in.
At 1:47 am, as Trump prepared to speak to supporters in West Palm Beach, and as votes were still being counted in several states that had not yet been decided, Fox News declared Trump’s victory.
“It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before. Nothing like this,” Trump told his supporters from a convention center stage at 2:30 am while surrounded by members of the Trump family and his closest allies.
The candidates spoke by phone on Wednesday, and Harris conceded defeat that evening, returning to Howard University’s campus to tell supporters that “the light of America’s promise will always burn bright, as long as we never give up, and as long as we keep fighting.”
Federal law enforcement agencies and election officials were prepared for disruptions this year after the chaotic aftermath of the 2020 election and Trump’s spurious efforts to overturn the results of a race he lost. Officials attributed non-credible bomb threats in several states to Russian actors. Voters ranked the state of democracy as their number one issue informing their voting decision, according to exit polls.
Trump has also won in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to preliminary results.
Harris, meanwhile, won the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state as well as Washington DC.
Of the swing states that Biden won in 2020, Harris was only projected to win Minnesota.
She also picked up electoral votes in Maine and Nebraska, two states with a unique split electoral vote scenario, rather than the winner-take-all outcome in other states.
Trump’s victory in Georgia reverses Democratic gains in the state after Biden narrowly defeated Trump there in 2020, when he became the first Democratic candidate to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.
His victory in Florida marks his third consecutive win in the state, after Democratic former president Barack Obama carried the state in both 2008 and 2012.
Trump is projected to win four of Nebraska’s five electoral votes in that state’s split electoral vote count. He’s projected to win at least one electoral vote in Maine, as well.
Media outlets made their projections for each state’s winner as election workers counted ballots and preliminary voting data was released.The Independent relies on projections from the Associated Press.
Outlets published their final projections in the early hours of November 6, with the Associated Press calling the race for Trump at 5:34 a.m. Eastern time. However, those determinations are only projections. The results must be certified in each state and then certified by Congress on January 6, 2025.
Experts previously told The Independent that the timeline for calling the race largely depended on two things: How close the election is in individual states and the specific laws of those states regarding counting votes and potential recounts, which all vary.
Senate and House races
Republicans have seized control of the Senate for the first time in four years after flipping two seats and wresting a narrow majority in the upper chamber of Congress from Democrats.
House and Senate races across the country have determined the balance of power in Congress — where Democrats currently hold the narrowest majority in the Senate and Republicans maintain a slim majority in the House.
A Republican trifecta — with clear leadership in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives — could quickly usher through the GOP’s sweeping legislative agenda that has largely been restrained by Democratic lawmakers and Biden’s presidency.
With 48 races left to call in the House, it is still on the table. As it stands, Democratic candidates have secured 186 House seats and Republicans have 201.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, controversial Republican Tim Sheehy from Montana has defeated Democratic incumbent Jon Tester.
Voters in Ohio have ousted Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and elected Republican challenger Bernie Moreno, who previously called the former president a “lunatic” but has since adopted his agenda.
West Virginia’s Republican Governor Jim Justice has won a seat in the Senate, flipping a seat previously held by now-former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who is not seeking re-election.
Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida defeated Democratic opponent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. And in Texas, Republican Ted Cruz fended off a challenge from Democratic candidate Colin Allred.
Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, is the only Independent candidate to hold his Senate seat so far. The Independent has included Sanders in the Democratic count because he caucuses with the party.
In Maryland’s Senate race, Democratic candidate Angela Alsobrooks defeated the state’s former governor Larry Hogan, an anti-Trump Republican.
Alsobrooks is set to become the first Black person the state ever elected to the Senate.
Only 34 of the nation’s 100 seats in the Senate are currently up for election, as senators serve six-year terms with a third being elected every two years. Eighteen of those seats were previously held by Democratic senators, posing a threat to their slim majority.
But all 435 seats in the House are up for election.
Voters in Delaware have elected Democratic candidate Sarah McBride to fill the state’s single House seat, making her the first openly transgender member of Congress in American history.
Results will be refreshed live as they come in. Check back for updates.