Donald Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election on Wednesday morning in the U.S., as he claimed victory in Pennsylvania, according to a projection by the Associated Press at 2:24 a.m.
“This is a movement like no one has ever seen before,” Trump told cheering supporters. “We’re going to help our country heal — we have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly.”
Trump thanked the crowd for “the honor of being elected your 47th president — and your 45th president,” and proclaimed a new “golden age” for the country.
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump said.
Fox News was the first to call the election for Trump, shortly before 2 a.m. ET. NBC called Pennsylvania for Trump a few minutes later, which would indicate Trump has won the election.
“Donald Trump is within a hair’s breadth of being reelected president,” said Jake Tapper, on CNN, shortly after his network also called Pennsylvania.
Kamala Harris‘ campaign sent her supporters home, informing them that Harris would not speak until Wednesday morning.
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Trump was also declared the winner of Georgia and North Carolina by the A.P., and was winning in other states including Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The Republican Party also took control of the Senate, having flipped seats in Ohio and West Virginia, according to the A.P.’s projections.
At Howard University in Washington, Harris’ supporters were gathered for what they hoped would be a victory party. Shortly before 1 a.m., they were told to go home.
“We still have votes to count,” Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of the campaign, told the crowd. “We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted.”
Late on Tuesday, Harris campaign continued to hold on to hope that she would prevail in the “blue wall” states — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — once all the votes are counted, giving her the victory. But in counties where all the votes had been tabulated, her margins lagged behind Joe Biden’s margins four years ago.
Fox News called the race in Pennsylvania for Trump at around 1:20 a.m.
Earlier in the evening, Trump was projected the winner in Iowa, defying a late Des Moines Register poll that showed Kamala Harris with a narrow lead there. He also won with a wide margin in Florida, which offered the first signal of a good night for the former president. The A.P. also called Texas, Ohio, Arkansas, and several other traditionally red states for Trump. Harris was projected to win Virginia, California, New York, and other blue states.
In Ohio, Bernie Moreno unseated Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Jim Justice was elected to the Senate from West Virginia, taking the seat held by Democrat Joe Manchin, who retired. Republican Deb Fischer also narrowly held off a challenge from Dan Osborn, an independent, in Nebraska.
On cable news, pundits were beginning to analyze the conditions that may have contributed to a second Trump term, including inflation and illegal immigration.
“You gotta remember — this is a 63% wrong track country,” said James Carville, the Democratic pundit, on Amazon Prime. “That’s the toughest sledding there is.”
Analysts also pointed to Trump’s improving performance among Latino voters compared to his race against Biden. The gender gap was also a key topic of discussion, with exit poll results showing Trump performed strongly among men.
“He won bros in North Carolina by 21 points,” said John Dickerson on CBS.
Before the votes began to be tallied, there were reports of heavy turnout and bomb threats at various polling places.
“Turnout is off the charts,” reported Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state. Both Harris and Trump spent a portion of the day calling in to radio stations in swing states urging voters to get to the polls.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump sent out an alarm about fraud in Philadelphia on Truth Social.
“A lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia. Law Enforcement coming!!!” he wrote. “Philadelphia and Detroit! Heavy Law Enforcement is there!!!”
Bomb threats were called in to some polling locations in the Atlanta area, causing some to temporarily close. In Fulton County, five polling locations were expected to be held open a little beyond 7 p.m.
Trump voted in Florida on Tuesday morning, saying he felt “very confident” about the outcome.
“We went in with a very big lead today, and it looks like Republicans have shown up in force,” he said.
Ballot counting could take several days, particularly in Arizona and Nevada.
“Let the process run its course,” said former President Obama on X. “It takes time to count every ballot.”