2024 election: Trump surges to the presidency, GOP takes the Senate, House undecided
Donald Trump is on the cusp of a landslide victory and a return to the White House.
Former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris after pivotal victories in four swing states.
In Congress, Republicans retook the Senate, though it could take days to know the outcome for the House of Representatives.
CNN, ABC News, and NBC News, all called the race for Trump at around 5:30 a.m., following a Fox News call hours earlier.
Victory in Wisconsin gave him the final Electoral College votes he needed.
Trump captured the swing states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania before reaching Wisconsin.
Taken together, the results spelled a crushing defeat for Harris.
As of Wednesday morning, Trump was also leading in the remaining three battleground states: Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan.
Investors rallied around the “Trump trade” early Wednesday as results came in.
Stock futures were up ahead of the open, with Tesla and Trump’s social-media company making strong gains.
Bitcoin surged to a record high above $75,000 before dipping slightly. The US dollar gained against other major currencies.
Jubilation from Trump, silence from Harris
Harris did not address her supporters at a watch party at Howard University in Washington, DC, on Tuesday night. She was expected to speak sometime Wednesday.
Trump spoke to a crowd of jubilant supporters at an election night event at his resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he said. He went down a list of issues he hammered during his campaign, including border security and strengthening the economy.
GOP vice-presidential nominee JD Vance called Trump’s electoral performance “the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America.”
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, described Trump’s electoral performance as the “greatest political comeback” in US history.
Trump also praised Elon Musk, one of his biggest backers this election. “We have a new star, a star is born,” Trump said. “Elon. He’s an amazing guy.”
Business and world leaders congratulated Trump
Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor and a key Harris surrogate, congratulated Trump on winning the election.
“You won fair and square,” Cuban wrote, before any network had called the race. “Congrats to @elonmusk as well. #Godspeed.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Trump on his “impressive” victory early on Wednesday, saying his country will “rely on continued strong bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States.”
Trump has been notably more skeptical of US support for Ukraine than President Joe Biden.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel and a longtime Trump ally, also issued a statement saying his victory “offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America.”
Other world leaders followed suit, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, the UK’s Keir Starmer, and India’s Narendra Modi.
Republicans have retaken the US Senate, but the House remains in play
Republicans are projected to win at least 52 seats in the US Senate, putting an end to four years of Democratic rule.
It comes after Republicans won Senate seats in Ohio, West Virginia, and Florida.
Republican Sen. Deb Fischer also held off a stronger-than-expected challenge from independent candidate Dan Osborn in Nebraska.
In Montana, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester was facing a hard fight from his GOP challenger.
It remains far from clear who will control the House of Representatives.
Democrats picked up two GOP-held seats in New York’s 19th and 22nd congressional districts.
Republicans, meanwhile, flipped Pennsylvania’s 8th district, North Carolina’s 6th, 13th and 14th districts, and Michigan’s 7th district.
It could take days to know who controls the House, with several competitive races taking place in California, which historically takes a long time to count ballots.
Voters in line to cast ballots in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on November 1, 2024.
Trump and Elon Musk were seen chatting at the Mar-a-Lago election night watch party
Billionaire Elon Musk posted a photo of himself huddled with Trump over a table at Mar-a-Lago, where the former president is hosting his election watch party.
Musk has emerged as a key, if not the key, advocate for Trump’s campaign.
He has dumped millions into a super PAC supporting the former president, joined him at rallies, and campaigned loudly for him on X. The Tesla CEO has been tweeting as results roll in and celebrating Trump’s performance.
🇺🇸🇺🇸The future is gonna be so 🔥 🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/x56cqb6oT5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2024
States are voting on ballot measures, with abortion rights being defeated for the first time since Dobbs
Reproductive rights were a key issue this election, with voters deciding on issues around abortions in 10 states, including the battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada.
Referendums to enshrine the right to abortion passed in New York, Maryland, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, and Nevada. The measure also passed in Missouri, overturning what had been a near-total ban in the first state to outlaw the procedure. Voters in suburban areas turned out to pass the measure in large numbers, propelling it to its anticipated victory.
In Florida, the effort to enshrine a constitutional right to abortion failed. Yet the referendum faced a heavier lift in the Sunshine State than is typical — it needed to garner 60% of votes rather than a mere majority, as is the case in other states.
The Florida abortion referendum’s expected failure is particularly notable, given that abortion-rights advocates have racked up a string of unbroken victories in states around the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. As a result, Florida’s ban on almost all abortions after six weeks will remain in place — one of the most restrictive policies in the country.
South Dakota’s effort to protect abortion rights also failed, meaning its ban remains in place with no exceptions apart from when it would avert a woman’s death. Nebraska, meanwhile, rejected a measure to expand abortion rights and instead enshrined the state’s current 12-week abortion ban.
History made: Two Black women elected to the Senate, and Trump won Miami-Dade
Tuesday’s election also saw some historic results.
In just one election, Democrats have doubled the number of Black women who have won election to the US Senate.
Prince George’s County executive Angela Alsobrooks and Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester were both projected to defeat their Republican opponents in Maryland and Delaware, respectively. It will be the highest number of Black women to serve in the upper chamber at the same time.
Democratic Maryland Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks was projected to win in Maryland’s Senate race.
Only three Black women have served in the Senate: former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Sen. Laphonza Butler.
Meanwhile, Trump made history in Florida. He’s the first GOP presidential candidate to win Miami-Dade County since 1988, and his win there illustrates the phenomenal rightward swing of the Sunshine State.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade by 30 percentage points; in 2020, Biden won it by 7 percentage points. Trump is projected to win the county by double-digit margins, the Associated Press reported, with 95% of the vote counted.
There’s a significant Latino population in the county, and the key demographic group has started to move toward Republicans. Harris’ campaign didn’t spend a lot of money in Florida, considering the state, once a battleground, out of reach.
