November 05, 2024
Mandi Wright/USA TODAY NETWORK
Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris to become the second president to win nonconsecutive terms. He appears here in a file photo from Sept. 27, 2024.
Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania, picking up 19 electoral votes and paving the way to a victory in Tuesday's presidential election.
Just after 2 a.m., the Associated Press called Pennsylvania for Trump with about 95% of the vote counted. Trump held an advantage of 51% compared with Harris' 48.1%. In Philadelphia, where 98% of the vote has been counted, Harris led the Democratic stronghold with 78.3% of the vote compared with Trump's 20.26%. Outstanding mail-in votes remain to be counted in Philadelphia and its collar counties, but Trump's margin in the state is expected to be too great for Harris to overcome.
MORE: Democrat Andy Kim defeats Republican Curtis Bashaw for U.S Senate seat in N.J. formerly held by Bob Menendez | Dave McCormick has slight lead over Bob Casey, but the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania is too close to call
With his win in Pennsylvania, Trump stood a few electoral votes short of 270 to win his second term as president four years after losing to Joe Biden. At 5:34 a.m., the Associated Press called Wisconsin for Trump and declared him the 47th president of the United States. He will be the first president elected to serve nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892.
Pennsylvania has now backed the eventual president in 11 of the last 13 elections after it was one of only five states that backed Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
Harris underperformed in Pennsylvania compared with 2020, when Biden won 50% of the vote to Trump's 48.8%. Nationwide, Trump held a nearly 5 million lead in votes early Wednesday morning and claimed to win the popular vote — which has not officially been called — for the first time in his three presidential runs.
Trump spoke just before 2:30 a.m. at his Mar-a-Lago campaign headquarters in Florida, declaring victory and forecasting a "golden age" for the country after his supporters greeted him with chants of "U.S.A." By the end of election night, Republicans also flipped control of the Senate and the House remained up for grabs.
"This was a movement like nobody's ever seen before," Trump said of his "Make America Great Again" coalition. "And frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time."
Trump added, "We're going to help our country heal."
Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, said the vice president would not plan to speak publicly until later Wednesday.
The outcome of Tuesday's race was widely expected to hinge on results in the swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and North Carolina. Trump has been declared the winner in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin, with the remaining swing states still too close to call. Both candidates and their running mates – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for Harris and Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, for Trump – campaigned heavily in Pennsylvania and other battleground states during the closing weeks of the race.
Earlier on election night, around 8:30 p.m., the Associated Press called New Jersey for Harris, giving her the state's 14 electoral votes. As of 1 a.m., with about 90% of New Jersey's vote counted, Harris held 51.4% compared with Trump's 46.6%. Harris' performance in New Jersey is trending behind President Joe Biden's total in 2020, when he took the state with 57.3% of the vote. Democrats have won New Jersey in every presidential race since 1992.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday and results will be updated in the charts below as they become available. All results are unofficial until certified by election officials.
Before polls closed in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump had claimed on his Truth Social platform that "massive cheating" was occurring in Philadelphia. City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, a Republican, shot down Trump's claims in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"There is absolutely no truth to this allegation," Bluestein said. "It is yet another example of disinformation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure. We have been in regular contact with the (Republican National Committee). We have been responsive to every report of irregularities at the polls to ensure Philadelphians can vote safely and securely."
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner also said there was "no factual basis whatsoever" to Trump's claims, citing conversations with law enforcement and election officials.
Bomb threats were reported on Election Day at a number of polling locations in swing states, including in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia. None of the threats turned out to be credible, but they caused deadlines to be extended at some polling sites in the Atlanta metro area.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro did not share details about a state police investigation into the hoax threats. He assured voters that all results would be counted.
“Every legal, eligible vote will be counted and counted accurately, and the will of the people in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be respected,” Shapiro said.
Democrats entered the election energized by their pivot to Harris from Biden, who exited the race in July after a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Harris revamped the party's message to reach different pockets of voters in her bid to become the first woman elected president. The former prosecutor and U.S. senator from California campaigned on delivering relief to middle-class Americans struggling with the rising costs of housing, child care, groceries and health care. Harris also emphasized combating political extremism and defending abortion at the national level to stop the tide of states where access to such care has been restricted since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Trump campaigned on a platform targeting illegal immigration, vowing to strengthen the southern border and crack down on undocumented migrants living in the United States. The former president's "America First" agenda includes an economic policy that would raise tariffs on foreign goods with the intent of boosting U.S. manufacturing and energy production. Trump also wants to reassess the nation's longstanding foreign policy commitments to NATO and its role mediating conflicts in the Middle East.
National exit polls in Tuesday's election showed a country deeply concerned about the future of American democracy and the state of the U.S. economy. An NBC News exit poll found that 35% of voters said democracy mattered most to their decision, followed by the economy 31%, abortion at 14% and immigration at 11%. About three-quarters of Americans said they feel negatively about how things are going in the country, with 43% saying they're dissatisfied and 29% saying they feel angry.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in October found that Americans ranked immigration, the economy and threats to democracy as the top issues for voters.
