WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump was on Wednesday morning projected by The Associated Press to have received enough votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency.
The very first sentenced Elected to the Oval Office as a felon, as of 8 a.m. Eastern Time, Trump had won four of the seven crucial swing states in which he and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, spent most of their time campaigning through 2024.
North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all voted for Trump, giving him 277 Electoral College votes compared to 224 for Harris.
Michigan, Nevada and Arizona had not yet declared a winner. But even without them, Trump — who will be not only the country’s 45th but also its 47th president — had more than enough of the 270 votes needed to win the Electoral College.
Trump is still facing election subsidy charges in connection with his actions surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
GOP Senate
Republicans also took control of the US Senate, guaranteeing Trump a relatively sleek path to confirming his judicial and Cabinet appointments in the coming months.
As of Wednesday morning, Republicans had 52 seats in the Senate and Democrats had 42, the AP said.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a longtime centrist Democrat who is considered his party’s weakest senator in 2024, was repressed by Republican Tim Sheehy in a high-profile race that the AP called Wednesday morning.
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives had not yet been declared, but Republicans held a 198-180 lead there as of Wednesday morning.
If they retained control of the chamber, it would create an extraordinary Republican trifecta in Washington that could likely accelerate legislation on taxes, debt, reproductive rights and immigration, among other issues.
Harris is expected to address the nation on Wednesday, her campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond told a crowd gathering for an election watch party on Tuesday evening at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C. had gathered
All results are unofficial until local election officials across the country are announced verify and certify the result in the coming days and weeks.
Trump’s legal problems
Trump’s long presidential campaign was marked by a busy schedule that still included two federal trials ongoingand cases in Georgia and New York. The former president was convicted in May in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to a porn star in the run-up to the 2016 election. His sentencing is scheduled for November 26th.
His long appeal against the government’s 2020 election subversion charges against him finally won a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court when the conservative majority ruled that former presidents should have criminal immunity for core constitutional duties and presumptive immunity for duties on the outskirts of the U.S. Supreme Court Enjoy office, but not for personal actions.
After the election subversion case was sent back to the lower court, US special counsel Jack Smith presented fresh evidence to underscore that Trump personally planned to overturn the 2020 presidential results by acting in concert with his private lawyers. Trump has indicated multiple times that he would oust Smith if elected to another presidency.
Trump’s refusal to surrender the 2020 presidential campaign to President Joe Biden ultimately culminated in his supporters’ violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a speech to his supporters Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Florida, alongside his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump thanked “thousands of friends in this incredible movement, the likes of which no one has ever seen before.”
“Honestly, I think this was the greatest political movement of all time. “There has never been anything like this in this country,” Trump said.
Trump promised to “heal” the country and that his second presidency “will truly be the golden age of America.”
“We have overcome obstacles that no one thought possible,” Trump said.
A roller coaster race
Trump had spent most of his reelection campaign battling President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race over the summer after a disastrous performance in the debate.
That required the Trump team to launch a fresh campaign with a candidate Trump had never run against – Harris.
Harris, who described herself as an outsider, sought to position herself as a fresh generation of leaders and open a fresh chapter for Americans with her policy plans on housing, health care and the economy.
She strongly emphasized her support for reproductive rights and the threat to democracy that a second Trump presidency would pose, citing the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
In the end, Trump’s key campaign themes of immigration and criticism of the economy appeared to have won over voters, and she failed to capture any of the swing state votes that would put her on the path to victory.
As it became clear tardy Tuesday that she had fallen behind in the key states that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, thousands of her supporters who had gathered at Howard University for a watch party left in waves, citing their chances the chances of a victory became ever smaller.
Ashley Murray contributed to this report.
This report will be updated.
Last updated 8:55 a.m. November 6, 2024
