The former president flexed his muscles across the country, from rural areas to urban centers, where he improved in 2020.
Republicans won a majority in the U.S. Senate after knocking off Democratic seats in West Virginia and Ohio. Neither party appears to have an advantage in the battle for control of the House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a slim majority.
Trump’s 50-50 odds of regaining the White House on Election Day represent a marked shift from January 6, 2021, when many pundits declared his political career over. On that day, a group of his supporters attacked Congress in an attempt to violently overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump gained more support among Latinos, traditionally Democratic voters and among low-income families who have felt the pain of rising prices keenly since the last presidential election in 2020, according to Edison exit polls. Voted for Trump by a margin of 79% to 20%. About 45% of voters nationwide say their families’ financial situation is worse today than four years ago, and they support Trump 80% to 17%.
Late Tuesday, global investors increasingly priced in a Trump victory. U.S. stock futures and the U.S. dollar were higher, U.S. Treasury yields climbed and Bitcoin rose — all of which analysts and investors flagged as trades that favor a Trump victory.
A large watch party was being held for Harris at Howard University, where supporters were leaving in droves and the vice president was not expected to address the crowd Tuesday night.
Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond spoke briefly to the crowd and said Harris would not speak. “We still have votes to count,” he said. “We still have some states that haven’t been called yet.”
Trump performs better than 2020
Trump is winning a larger share of the vote in nearly every corner of the country than he was four years ago.
By 12:30 p.m. ET, officials had nearly finished counting votes in more than 1,600 counties, or about half the country, and Trump’s approval rating was up about 2 percentage points from 2020, reflecting a shift in American public opinion. widespread, if not particularly profound, transformation.
He’s boosted support in suburban counties, rural areas and even some big cities that are historically bastions of Democratic support; in high-income counties and low-income counties; and in places where unemployment is relatively high and where unemployment is now at historically low levels.
Harris had been counting on huge gains among urban and suburban voters, but her support there trailed far behind President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Exit polls showed that nearly three-quarters of voters said America’s democracy was under threat, underscoring how deeply polarized the country is that divisions will only grow worse in a tight race.
Trump has used increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric while stoking unfounded concerns that the electoral system cannot be trusted. Harris warned that a second Trump term would threaten the foundation of American democracy.
Hours before polls closed, Trump claimed on his Truth social network, without evidence, that there was “a lot of talk about massive fraud” in Philadelphia, echoing his 2020 comments about the Democratic-led election in Philadelphia. Echoing false claims of fraud occurring in major cities. In a subsequent post, he also claimed there was fraud in Detroit.
“I’m not going to respond to nonsense,” Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters.
Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein responded on X saying, “There is absolutely no factual basis for this allegation.”
A dizzying battle
Trump earlier voted near his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’ll be the first to admit it,” Trump told reporters.
Tesla CEO Musk, a well-known supporter of Trump, watched the results with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
As millions of Americans queued up to vote in an orderly manner, only sporadic disruptions were reported in a handful of states, including some that the FBI said were not credible bomb threats that appeared to come from Russian emails domain.
Tuesday’s vote capped a dizzying campaign sparked by unprecedented events, including two assassination attempts on Trump, Biden’s abrupt exit and Harris’ meteoric rise.
Whoever wins will make history.
Harris, 60, the first female vice president, would be the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency. The 78-year-old Trump is the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted. He will also become the first president in more than a century to win non-consecutive terms.
(Institutional investment)
