The Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, reacts on stage with former first lady Melania Trump during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning was projected by The Associated Press to have captured enough votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency.
The first-ever convicted felon elected to the Oval Office, Trump by 8 a.m. Eastern had won four of the vital seven swing states in which he and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, spent most of their time campaigning through 2024.
North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all voted for Trump, giving him 277 Electoral College votes compared to 224 for Harris.
Still without a victor declared were Michigan, Nevada and Arizona. But even without them, Trump — who will be the nation’s 47th president as well as having been its 45th — had more than enough of the 270 votes required to win the Electoral College.
Trump still faces charges of election subversion related to his actions in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
GOP Senate
Republicans also took control of the U.S. Senate, guaranteeing Trump a relatively smooth path in confirming his appointments to the courts and the Cabinet in the coming months.
As of Wednesday morning, Republicans had nabbed 52 seats in the Senate and Democrats had 42, the AP said.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a longtime centrist Democrat viewed as his party’s most vulnerable senator in 2024, was ousted by Republican Tim Sheehy in a high-profile race called by the AP on Wednesday morning.
Control of the U.S. House had not yet been called but Republicans were leading there on Wednesday morning, 198-180.
If they were to maintain control of the chamber, that would set up an extraordinary Republican trifecta in Washington that likely could expedite legislation including on taxes, the debt, reproductive rights and immigration.
Harris is expected to address the nation on Wednesday, her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, told a crowd that had gathered Tuesday night for an election watch party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C.
All results are unofficial until local election officials across the country verify and certify the outcome in the coming days and weeks.
Trump legal problems
Trump’s long presidential campaign was punctuated by a busy legal schedule that included two federal cases, still ongoing, and cases in Georgia and New York. The former president was convicted in New York in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26.
His long appeal of the government’s 2020 election subversion charges against him eventually received a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court when the conservative majority ruled that former presidents enjoy criminal immunity for core constitutional duties, and presumed immunity for duties on the office’s outer perimeter, but none for personal actions.
After the election subversion case was returned to the lower court, U.S. special counsel Jack Smith presented new evidence to underscore that Trump schemed to overturn 2020 presidential results in a personal capacity, acting alongside his private lawyers. Trump has indicated numerous times that, if elected to another presidency, he would oust Smith.
Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 presidential contest to President Joe Biden eventually culminated in his supporters’ violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Speaking to his supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier on Wednesday, alongside his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump thanked “thousands of friends in this incredible movement like nobody’s ever seen before.”
“Frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country,” Trump said.
Trump promised to “heal” the country and that his second presidency “will truly be the golden age of America.”
“We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,” Trump said.
A roller coaster race
Trump had spent most of his reelection campaigning against President Joe Biden, who bowed out of the race in the summer after a disastrous debate performance.
That required the Trump team to pivot to a new campaign with a candidate Trump had never gone up against — Harris.
Harris, who touted herself as the underdog, tried to position herself as a new generation of leadership and through her policy plans on housing, health care and the economy, offering a new chapter for Americans.
She heavily ran on her support of reproductive rights and the threat to democracy that a second Trump presidency would bring, citing the immunity ruling from the Supreme Court.
In the end, Trump’s core campaign issues of immigration and criticisms of the economy appeared to have swayed voters, and she fell short of claiming any of the swing state votes that offered her a path toward victory.
As it became clear late Tuesday that she was falling behind in support in key states that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, thousands of her supporters who gathered at Howard University for a watch party left in waves as her chances for victory continued to narrow.
Ashley Murray contributed to this report.
This report will be updated.