Trump Moves Closer to Taking Back the White House by Winning Georgia and North Carolina

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump on Wednesday won the battleground state of Georgia, once a Republican stronghold that voted Democratic four years ago; This, along with her victory in North Carolina, narrowed Kamala Harris’ paths to victory and widened her paths to achieving it. 270 electoral votes were needed to become the next president.

The victory left Harris heavily dependent on the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to find a reliable path to the White House. The crowd at the watch party at Howard University in Washington, Harris’ alma mater, began to disperse after midnight.

A top ally of Harris sent her supporters home from her rally with no plan for the Democratic vice president’s speech.

“We will continue to fight throughout the night to make sure every vote is counted. “Everyone’s saying that,” said Cedric Richmond, co-chairman of the Harris campaign. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from him tomorrow. He’ll be back here tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, the Republican former president was scheduled to address supporters at his campaign viewing party in Florida earlier Wednesday.

Trump also won Florida, a one-time battleground state that had shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also scored early victories in reliably Republican states like Texas, South Carolina and Indiana. Harris won Virginia, a state Trump visited in the final days of the campaign, and captured Democratic strongholds such as New York, New Mexico and California. Harris also won the Electoral College vote in Nebraska, which Republicans contested.

Trump’s campaign argued that this would diminish Democrats’ traditional strength with Black and Latino voters, with the former president releasing male-centered podcasts and making overtly racist appeals to both groups. Nationally, Black and Latino voters appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to support Joe Biden four years ago, and Trump’s support among those voters is up slightly from 2020, according to AP VoteCast.

The fate of democracy appeared to be the primary driver for Harris’ supporters, according to the sweeping poll of more than 110,000 voters nationwide; It was a sign that the Democratic candidate’s persistent messaging accusing Trump of being a fascist in the closing days of his campaign may have succeeded. . It also resulted in a country mired in negativity and desperate for change. Trump’s supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation; two issues the former Republican president has focused on since the start of his campaign.

During his recent visits to North Carolina, Trump assessed the severe damage caused by Hurricane Helene, spread false claims about the federal government’s response, and used GoFundMe to raise millions in donations for affected residents. Trump initially praised Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, hailing him as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” but distanced himself after a CNN report alleging that Robinson had made explicit racist and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board. ten years ago.

Robinson, who lost his race to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein on Tuesday, has denied writing the messages and filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN last month.

In another positive sign for the GOP, the party took control of the Senate after Trump-backed Bernie Moreno unseated the seat in Ohio that Democrat Sherrod Brown had held since 2007. Republican Jim Justice picked up another seat when he won the open seat in West Virginia. It’s about Senator Joe Manchin’s retirement.

Those who cast ballots on Election Day experienced a mostly smooth process; There were regular reports of isolated disruptions, including long queues, technical issues and ballot printing errors. Federal election security officials said there were minor disruptions throughout the day but there was no evidence of any impact on the election system. Authorities determined that none of the bomb threats reported in multiple states were credible and did not affect voters’ ability to vote.

Harris, 60, will be the first black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as president. He will also be the first vice president to win the White House in 36 years.

At 78, Trump will be the oldest president ever elected. He will also be the first defeated president to win another term in the White House in 132 years and the first convicted felon to head the Oval Office.

He survived an assassination attempt at a July rally by millimeters. Secret Service agents foiled a second attempt in September.

Harris pointed to warnings from Trump’s former aides, calling Trump a “fascist” and criticizing Trump for Roe v. Wade nominated three of the judges who overturned his case and accused them of endangering women’s lives. He tried to strike a more positive tone in the closing hours of the campaign and went throughout Monday without mentioning his Republican opponent by name.

Voters across the country are also considering whether the Supreme Court will decide Roe v. in 2022. In response to the decision to overturn the Wade case, Congress was also deciding thousands of other races that would decide everything from control to state ballot measures on abortion access.

In Florida, a ballot measure protecting abortion rights in the state constitution failed because it failed to pass the 60% threshold; This marks the first time a measure protecting abortion rights has failed since Roe was overturned. Earlier Tuesday, Trump refused to say how he voted for the measure and lashed out at a reporter, saying, “You’ve got to stop talking about this.”

In reliably democratic New York, Colorado and Maryland, voters approved ballot measures to protect abortion rights in their state constitutions.