Americans were waking up Wednesday morning to a future with former President Donald Trump headed back to the White House after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in a hard-fought race for the right to lead the nation.
Weeks of polling had showed the candidates competing in a razor-close election, but in the end Trump won over enough pivotal states with his focus on inflation and immigration.
The nominees each claimed their respective strongholds, with Harris winning much of the West Coast and Northeast and Trump clinching victories in the South. But Trump picked up North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the Badger State pushed him over the threshold of 270 electoral votes to win the race.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
It was also a good night for other Republicans. GOP candidates picked up several pivotal Senate seats across the country, including in West Virginia and Ohio, reclaiming the upper chamber.
Keep up with the USA TODAY Network’s live coverage of the presidential election and downballot fights.
How Kamala Harris lost the election
An appearance on ABC’s “The View” last month provided a friendly forum for Harris to introduce herself to Americans unfamiliar with her story. But Harris struggled to explain what she would do differently than President Joe Biden. “Not a thing that comes to mind,” the incumbent vice president told the hosts.
Following Trump’s victory over Harris, that television moment underscored a fatal flaw of Harris’ campaign that doomed her election bid – an inability to separate herself from an unpopular president whose approval ratings have hovered around 40% for most of his four years in the White House. Read more details on why her pitch as a “new generation of leadership” failed to win over the nation.
− Joey Garrison
What key states did Trump win on Election Day?
Trump won the first swing state called on election night, North Carolina. He also notched victories in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The former president also picked up Republican strongholds across the country on Tuesday, from Texas to Montana and South Carolina. He won a few states that used to be swing states but have trended further to the right in recent years, including Ohio and Florida.
Did Kamala Harris concede?
Vice President Kamala Harris canceled a planned speech at an election night party but had not yet conceded defeatearly Wednesday. Trump capturedmore than the required 270 electoral votes, and his tally could increase as more votes are counted.
On Tuesday night, Harris had been expected to address her election night party at Howard University in Washington, D.C., a historically Black college where she was an undergraduate. It did not hapen.
“We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue, overnight, to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken,” Harris’ campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said Tuesday night. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow.”
It was not immediately clear early Wednesday when Harris would speak.
− Kim Hjelmgaard and Francesca Chambers
What states did Harris win on Election Day?
Harris picked up Democratic strongholds across the country, from California to New York and Illinois. She also easily notched several New England states such as Vermont and Massachusetts, as well as the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election 2024 live updates: Results, reaction from Donald Trump’s election triumph
