According to Edison Research, Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris in the battleground state of North Carolina in Tuesday’s US presidential election, bringing him one step closer to completing an unlikely political comeback.
The conclusion remained unknown in six other states that were supposed to decide the winner.
But Trump was demonstrating strength across the country. As of 11:30 p.m. ET (0430 GMT on Wednesday), he had 227 Electoral College votes against Harris’ 165.
To win the president, a contender must receive at least 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College.
Decision Desk HQ predicted Trump would also win Georgia, narrowing her route to victory to the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, albeit she trailed in all three.
According to Edison exit surveys, Trump gained support among Hispanics, who are generally Democratic voters, as well as lower-income households that have felt the sting of price increases since the previous presidential election in 2020.
Trump received 45% of Hispanic votes nationwide, trailing Harris (53%), but up 13 percentage points from 2020.
Voters whose primary concern was the economy voted decisively for Trump, particularly if they believed they were worse off financially than they were four years earlier.
Trump wins North Carolina; Harris’ path to victory narrows
According to exit polls, approximately 31% of respondents claimed the economy was their main issue, and they voted for Trump 79% to 20%. Approximately 45% of voters across the country stated their family’s financial status was worse today than four years ago, and they supported Trump 80% to Harris’s 17%.
U.S. stock futures and the dollar surged, while Treasury yields and bitcoin increased, indicating that investors were reading early findings favorably for Trump. Nonetheless, investors claimed it was too early and the trades lacked conviction.
“Everyone’s trying to turn the few inches of data we have right now into a mile,” said Alex Morris, president and chief information officer of F/M Investments in Washington.
Trump outperforms 2020.
Trump was winning more votes than he had four years earlier in practically every part of the country, from suburban Georgia to rural Pennsylvania.
By 11 p.m. ET, officials had nearly finished counting ballots in more than 1,200 counties, or roughly one-third of the country, and Trump’s share was up about 2 percentage points from 2020, reflecting a broad, if not particularly deep, shift in Americans’ support for the president they deposed four years earlier. He had increased his popularity in suburban counties, rural areas, and even some metropolitan cities, which have traditionally been Democratic strongholds.
Control of both houses of Congress is also up for grabs. Democrats had a slim route to retaining their Senate majority after Republican Jim Justice flipped a West Virginia seat on Tuesday. The House of Representatives seemed like a toss-up.
According to Edison, a ballot measure in Florida that would have secured abortion rights failed to pass by the required 60%, resulting in a six-week ban. Nine additional states have abortion-related initiatives on the ballot.
According to exit polls, nearly three-quarters of voters believe American democracy is under peril, highlighting the country’s divisiveness during a brutally heated race.
Trump used increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric, instilling erroneous suspicions that the election system cannot be trusted. Harris warned that a second Trump administration would jeopardize the foundations of American democracy.
Hours before the polls closed, Trump claimed on his Truth Social site, with no evidence, that there was “a lot of talk about massive CHEATING” in Philadelphia, echoing his bogus claims in 2020 that fraud had occurred in huge, Democratic-dominated cities. In a subsequent post, he claimed there was fraud in Detroit.
“I don’t respond to nonsense,” Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters.
Seth Bluestein, a Philadelphia municipal commissioner, said on X: “There is absolutely no truth to this allegation.”
‘Am I Going to Win?’
Trump voted near his residence in Palm Beach, Florida, before his supporters invaded the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, after claiming the 2020 election was rigged.
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’m gonna be the first one to acknowledge it,” Trump said to the press.
Millions of Americans waited in orderly lines to vote, with only occasional interruptions reported in a few states, including numerous non-credible bomb threats that the FBI said appeared to come from Russian email domains.
Trump was viewing the results at his Mar-a-Lago estate before speaking to supporters at a nearby convention center, according to sources familiar with the plans. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a vocal Trump supporter, has stated that he will watch the results with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
According to one source who attended the meeting, Trump appeared bored by the data conversation. According to the insider, Trump only wanted to know, “Am I going to win?”
Harris, who had already submitted her ballot to California, spent some of Tuesday pushing listeners to vote on the radio. Later, she was scheduled to speak to students at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington where Harris was an undergraduate.
“To go back tonight to Howard University, my beloved alma mater, and be able to hopefully recognize this day for what it is, is really full circle for me,” Harris said during an appearance on the radio.
Tuesday’s vote capped a tumultuous contest marked by unusual occurrences such as two assassination attempts on Trump, President Joe Biden’s surprising resignation, and Harris’ meteoric climb.
No matter who wins, history will be created.
Harris, 60, the first female vice president, would be the first woman, Black woman, and South Asian American to win the presidency. Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to face criminal charges, would also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.
