According to multiple news outlets, Former President Donald Trump has won the presidential election and is now the 47th president of the United States. He is the second president to be elected to two nonconsecutive terms, (Grover Cleveland) and the first convicted of a felony.
At 78, Trump will be the oldest president to assume public office.
Trump is currently leading with 74 million votes (50.4% of the popular vote) while Harris trails with 71 million votes (48%). As of now, voter turnout in this election is down with over 148 million votes compared to 2020 which saw 158 million votes.
The election marks a landslide win in what pre-election polls such as 538 predicted would be a close race. Although it will take days for a final vote count, Trump was still on track to win the popular vote after securing the 270 votes he needed to win the electoral college.
The race came down to seven battleground states which both campaigns made repeated efforts to reach in the days leading up to the election. The key battleground states included Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with Trump being the frontrunner in all, marking a significant turn around from 2020 when current president Joe Biden won many of those states.
Trump held four rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Meanwhile, Harris spent Monday in Pennsylvania, campaigning in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat marks the second time in eight years that a woman has been the nominee for the Democratic party and lost the election.
In a speech on Wednesday, Harris conceded the election saying, “The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for, but hear me when I say… 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 had an outpouring of support in addition to the endorsements she received throughout her campaign. Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis, an activist of LGBTQ+ rights encouraged Harris supporters to continue to “fight against tyranny, one day at a time.”
“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart told viewers “to continue to fight and continue to work day in and day out to create a better society for our children, for this world, for this country that we know is possible.
In a key exit poll by NBC News, ten key states were polled.
Trump led among white voters – the biggest single demographic – while Harris led with black voters, her largest demographic by percentage.
Although Harris managed to capture the majority of the Hispanic population, Trump has had a significant increase in support from Hispanic voters, up 10 points since 2020.
In the lead up to the election, the Trump campaign and pro-Trump political groups spent $95 million on ads, more than 41%of which were anti-trans. This was in addition to anti-immigration ad campaigns which cost $117 million.
Prior to the election, a Chicago Council Survey found that 69% of Republicans said immigration would be a significant factor when they decide whom to vote for in this year’s presidential election, compared to 41% of Independents and 26% of Democrats.
Key issues that were also on the ballot included constitutional amendments to protect or expand abortion rights which passed in seven of the ten states that they appeared on the ballot with Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota becoming the first states to uphold the ban.
Republicans also gained three seats for control in the Senate after winning key races in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, and winning an uncharacteristic close race in Nebraska. House control remains uncalled.
There were also many foreign leaders who offered their congratulations including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the head of the Committee on International Affairs in Russia’s State parliament, Leonid Slutsky.
This comes after several bomb threats attributed to Russia which disrupted voting and closed polling in multiple states including Georgia, which resulted in the temporary closure of polling locations.
In his victory speech, Trump said, “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate. We’re going to help our country heal, help our country heal.”
