Trump declared presidential race winner in unlikely political comeback

In a speech delivered Wednesday afternoon at Howard University, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation hours after officially conceding the election in a phone call to President-elect Donald Trump. During her speech, Harris thanked the crowds and urged them to accept the election results, confirming that the Biden administration will engage in a peaceful transfer of power. 

“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” Harris said. “The fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people.” 

Harris also addressed the young people watching, offering some validation to feelings of disappointment and sadness. Still, She invited her supporters to continue to work towards a future of unity. 

“The light of America’s promise will always burn bright, as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting,” Harris said.  

The speech comes after former President Trump won his return to the White House in an Election Day that saw the Republican candidate edge out Vice President Harris in several key swing states.

The Associated Press called the battleground Wisconsin for Trump at 5:35 a.m., giving Trump 277 electoral votes necessary to defeat Harris who had accumulated only 224 votes.

Three hours before, Trump entered a ballroom filled with enthusiastic supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center to his campaign anthem, “I’m Proud to be an American.”

As Trump began his speech, he called his following and likely return to the White House the “greatest political movement.” A sentiment his crowd appreciated as they showered him with cheers.

Trump bragged about winning the Senate and keeping the Republican majority in the House, the latter having not yet been confirmed as more than 50 races are too close to call. 

He soon began thanking the states that secured him his victory, and also mentioned Speaker of the House Mike Johnson — who garnered attention when Trump mentioned a secret the two had together — and his wife, Melania Trump.

Trump’s pick to be Vice President, J.D. Vance, was thanked next, and given the mic.

Vance thanked Trump, mentioning their readiness to reform the economy. Vance also conjured the persistent Republican image as underdogs, saying, “We just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America.”

Elon Musk, a figure who bought himself into the political sphere, also took the stage at Trump’s side. Trump dotted on Musk’s technical and business prowess (from SpaceX to StarLink), even calling him a “super genius.”

After mentioning several other key figures in his campaing (like Dana White and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), Trump continued with his speech, thanking his voters and beginning to list his promises about the economy, immigration and war.

After summarizing his policies, Trump reminisced on the two assassination attempts during his campaign run, claiming, “Many people have told me God spared me for a reason.”

During this evocation of his campaign, Trump also mentioned he had run his last rally on this past Tuesday, which which both ominously quells and stokes worries about Trump potentially extending his presidential window beyond the constitutional limit.

“We have to put America first for sometime,” Trump said before signing off at 2:52 a.m. EST. Trump closed his speech with “God bless you and God bless America.”

While walking out to the “Y.M.C.A.,” his claims about winning the election were unfounded, as The Associated Press had yet to call the race but his victory would come only three hours later.

Trump wins Georgia, North Carolina

At 12:47 am EST on Wednesday, former president Trump came one step closer to winning the White House after having Georgia called in his favor. This comes just over an hour after North Carolina was called in Trump’s favor, too.

While Harris still has a path to the presidency — the most likely one is winning the Rust Belt states — Trump’s path is made much easier. Including the historically Republican Alaska, Trump has to find 21 votes or win two of the remaining swing states. Whereas Harris needs to essentially sweep the remaining battleground states.

Trump is currently favored by The New York Times in all the reporting swing states, meaning as tabulators continue into the early hours of the morning, Harris needs to outperform Biden in the key Democratic areas, something she has been struggling to do.

Trump leads in swing states, Harris' hope dwindles

With 48 out of 50 states beginning to close their polls in the 2024 presidential election, the electoral map is beginning to shape up. As of 11 p.m. EST, The states called so far have been the expected ones: Harris took New York, Illinois and Massachusetts, and Trump took Texas, Florida and Ohio. 

As predicted, the race is coming down to the seven swing states.

Pennsylvania: The state many predicted the race to come down to is not yielding any early results. At 70% reported, the state is solidly a tossup, but is currently favoring Trump, as he leads by a 3-point margin.

Georgia: At a 93% reported rate, the state hasn’t been officially called, but The New York Times believes the state is leaning towards — and will very likely be called for — Trump. However, the margin for the state is just over 100,000 votes.

North Carolina: The New York Times and The Associated Press have called the state for Trump.

Wisconsin: The only other swing state with 60% of the vote tallied, it too is showing a lean towards Trump.

Arizona, Michigan and Nevada: These states are not reporting in high enough numbers to be able to determine any real lean. However, the early numbers are, again, favoring Trump.

The 2024 election path for Trump is beginning to look more like a red carpet, while Harris’ path narrows. However, this could be a so-called “red-mirage” as early ballots begin to be counted, or Trump’s lead could be solid and stay true through the night.

Trump takes the much of the Midwest, approaches 200 electoral votes

At 10 p.m. EST, 41 states’ polls have closed completely with five others beginning to close. The Midwest has fully closed, with many states being called, and now Trump — with 198 electoral votes — continues to lead Harris, who has 99 electoral votes. 

Trump has won the states with the second and third amounts of electoral votes, but California — the state with the most — has yet to be called. The Democrats are expecting Harris to win California and most of the West Coast, which will likely swing the electoral total towards Harris.

The Sun Belt states are beginning to swing towards Trump, with The New York Times predicting Georgia and North Carolina are leaning towards the former president. 

Harris is taking an early lead in the Rust Belt, but Pennsylvania — the swing state with the most electoral votes — is still a complete tossup.

Harris closes electoral gap; Georgia leans towards Trump

At 9 p.m. EST, 31 states’ polls have closed completely, and the first polls in 10 other states are being closed. Trump — with 120 called electoral votes — leads Harris — who has 99 electoral votes — with half the states called. 

Both The Associated Press and The New York Times called Florida for Trump. He’s won his home state in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, gaining 30 electoral votes on the road to 270. 

Trump now leads a majority of swing states, but only Georgia has reported more than 50% of votes. Again, the margins of any of the swing states are too close to tell, but further reporting numbers are indicating a repeat of the slim margins that the 2020 election came down to.

Trump takes expected early lead in the 2024 presidential election

At 8 p.m. Eastern time, 11 states’ polls have closed completely, and the first polls in 19 other states are being closed. Trump — with 95 called electoral votes — leads Harris — who has 35 electoral votes — with 14 states called. 

Both The Associated Press and The New York Times called Florida for Trump. He’s won his home state in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, gaining 30 electoral votes on the road to 270. 

A majority of swing states have also begun closing their polls, with Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania beginning to report their voting totals. Harris has an early lead in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, but overall, the margins are too close and not enough votes have been reported to have any inkling as to which way the election will go.

The 2024 presidential election begins split

The tumultuous path to November 5th veered through controversy, celebration and confusion, as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump made their cases to be the 47th president of the United States of America. 

Today’s first ballots were cast by a group of six voters in the small town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire at midnight, continuing their tradition of being first to tally. The result reported by The New York Times is indicative of the country wide election: an even split between Harris and Trump.

Although Dixville Notch’s six votes were the first of the day, they added to the more than 84 million early votes — which is more than half of the vote total from 2020 — already cast through early voting measures, a figure reported by The Associated Press. Despite an effort by Republicans to get its base to support the early vote, the early voting numbers still favor Democratic candidates which can — and likely will — result in an effect called a “red mirage.”

This effect is caused by Republicans voting during election day and having those be counted first while the backlog of early votes, that tend to be for Democrats, have yet to be counted. While The New York Times says these effects will not be as extreme, they could still pop up in several swing states including Pennsylvania, where state law prevents the tabulation of votes until Election Day.

While anything can happen as election day comes to an end, polls have shown that the election will come down to the seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The polls for these states have shown nominal or no leads for either candidate, with Pennsylvania seeing the most attention since it has the most electoral votes between all the states and both candidates finished their campaign trail there.

Despite the swing states receiving most of the attention, tensions are rising everywhere in the nation as the polls begin to close and results begin to be disseminated.

The swing states: what to expect

According to The New York Times, here’s when to expect results for the seven critical swing states.

Pennsylvania — 19 Electoral Votes: The polls in Pennsylvania close at 8 pm Eastern time, but several counties are extending that window due to issues with ballot scanning machines and delayed openings, according to The New York Times. Although there were fewer absentee ballots cast in 2024 than 2020, the result of the election could come well into Wednesday or later as state law prohibits the counting of absentee ballots until election day. 

Georgia — 16 Electoral Votes: The surprise state of the last election, Georgia’s demographic (specifically around Atlanta) has been shifting blue. The state “counts fast” according to The New York Times, but the slim margins of the state —- Biden won Georgia by less than 15 thousand votes — could mean the state could remain undecided for days. However, either candidate could run away with the vote by the early hours of Wednesday.

North Carolina — 16 Electoral Votes: The historically red North Carolina has come into question the past few elections, with it taking 10 days to call the election in 2020. This is another case of watching the voting gap and seeing what we have in store: close margins mean waiting for the final count. However, the state counts fast and we should see 99% of the votes tallied by midnight. (A quick note on voting access: Hurricane Helene affected voting sites in a couple dozen western counties and they have been given accommodations to allow them to vote).

Michigan — 15 Electoral Votes: The rust belt state updated its laws to allow for swift counting and early counting. This could mean we could have a  better understanding of which way the state will sway earlier. Michigan was one of the earliest swing states to be called last year, which happened at 6 p.m. EST on Wednesday following the election.

Arizona — 11 Electoral Votes: The final unofficial vote count could — and likely will — take days, according to The New York Times. This wait time is caused by the state’s long ballot length (meaning each ballot will take longer to tabulate) and officials are required to count and report dropped off ballots before they process them. 

Wisconsin — 10 Electoral Votes: Wisconsin will likely finish most counting by Wednesday. The state releases the absentee voting numbers in large batches after being counted in large central facilities. While the state counts relatively fast, there have been issues like the Milwaukee Election Commission recounting some 31,000 absentee ballots after issues with tabulators.  

Nevada — 6 Electoral Votes: Nevada could also take days — especially if the vote margin is close. Since the state allows ballots to arrive up to four days after the election and voters have until Nov. 12 to correct mistakes to their ballots, any margin with a few percent will be at risk of being changed. Although Nevada has the fewest number of electoral votes, it is also a state that could push either candidate over the edge.