America's hour of reckoning as Trump becomes president for second time
World
It was the second time that Trump defeated a woman rival in presidential election
WASHINGTON (Dunya News) – Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump won the race to the White House grabbing 277 electoral votes in the US election 2024 held on Nov 5 (Tuesday).
According to the US media, Trump became the 47th president of the United States in a tight competition with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris who won 226 votes.
It was the second time that Trump defeated a woman rival in presidential election. In 2016, he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton to reach the White House.
Any candidate winning 270 out of 538 electoral votes will become the US president.
Trump has secured victory in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.Trump secured 19 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, 16 in Georgia, 16 in North Carolina and 15 in Michigan. While former president clinched 11 votes in Arizona.
Earlier, Trump was leading in six out of the seven swing states. He is ahead in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia.
VOTE COUNT CONTINUES
The initial results of the 2024 US presidential election have been announced by CNN and the Associated Press. According to their projections, Vice President Kamala Harris, representing the Democratic Party, has secured Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has claimed victories in Florida, Ohio, Texas, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Indiana.
Vermont contributes three electoral votes to Harris's tally. On the other hand, Kentucky and Indiana add a total of 19 electoral votes to Trump's count - eight from Kentucky and eleven from Indiana.
In the previous election in 2020, Joe Biden won Vermont, while Trump emerged victorious in both Kentucky and Indiana.
The massive early voting turnout before Tuesday - slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier — was driven partly by Republican voters, who cast early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.
The early voting period faced minimal problems, even in western North Carolina, which was hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads. That appeared to continue on Tuesday, with the North Carolina Board of Elections reporting no voting issues.
Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were still searching for the person responsible.
The absence of any significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC, which is now under his sway, from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.
Senate
The Republicans have gained simple majority in the Senate after winning 51 seats out of 100, whereas The Democrats trail with 42 seats .
KAMALA HARRIS' HISTORIC VICTORY IN CALIFORNIA
Kamala Harris has won her home state of California, Edison Research projects, gaining its 54 electoral votes - the most of any state.
California has voted overwhelmingly Democratic in presidential elections since the 1990s. Joe Biden defeated Trump in the state by 30 percentage points in 2020.
The outcome in the heavily Democratic state where Harris previously served as a U.S. senator and attorney general was expected.
A Republican candidate hasn’t won a presidential contest in the nation’s most populous state since 1988, and the GOP hasn’t seriously contested California in a presidential election since 2000.
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in California by about 2-to-1, and the party holds every statewide office and dominates the Legislature and congressional delegation.
VIRGINIA
Harris won Virginia adding 13 electoral votes to her tally. Harris’ victory marks the third time Donald Trump has lost the Old Dominion state. The Democratic nominee for president has won Virginia in every election since 2008.
WASHINGTON
Vice President Kamala Harris won Washington’s 12 electoral votes on Tuesday, beating former President Donald Trump in a state where he is not popular.
Washington has not gone for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. President Joe Biden carried Washington in 2020 with 58% of the vote to Trump’s less than 39%.
Trump has described modern-day Washington as a crime-ridden dystopia, and Republican allies in Congress have threatened to strip D.C. of its limited autonomy.
COLORADO
Kamala Harris won Colorado on Tuesday, picking up the state’s 10 electoral votes. Colorado was once a purple state, flipping between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, but it has shifted blue in the past two decades.
The last Republican presidential candidate to snag Colorado’s electoral votes was George W. Bush in 2004. Since then, it’s backed Democratic presidential candidates, with Joe Biden winning it handily in 2020. Colorado gained its 10th electoral vote after the 2020 census, attributed to population growth around Denver.
NEW MEXICO
Kamala Harris won New Mexico on Tuesday, adding five electoral votes to Democrats’ tally. The Democratic Party’s influence in New Mexico has only grown over the last two decades, with former President George W. Bush being the last Republican to win the state in 2004.
Harris never made any campaign stops in the state, but support in New Mexico’s more populous areas outweighed voters in conservative pockets as second-term Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of the state’s congressional delegation campaigned on the vice president’s behalf.
HAWAII
Harris won Hawaii and the state’s four electoral votes on Wednesday. It’s the 10th straight presidential election in which Hawaii has selected the Democratic Party candidate.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Kamala Harris won the District of Columbia on Tuesday, securing the capital’s three electoral votes. Harris’ win in D.C. is no surprise – the District is a longtime Democratic stronghold whose government repeatedly feuded with Republican Donald Trump when he was the president.
MAINE and NEBRASKA
Voters in Maine’s 1st Congressional District, which is comprised of wealthy coastal communities, delivered an electoral vote to Democrat Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
Harris won the vote in the state’s more liberal district. The rural, conservative 2nd District voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Harris also won the electoral vote tied to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District on Wednesday. The sitting vice president defeated Republican and former President Donald Trump in the district centered on Nebraska’s largest city of Omaha and its surrounding suburbs.
The district has earned the nickname of Nebraska’s “blue dot” after having supported two other Democrats for president in the last 16 years – former President Barack Obama in 2008 and President Joe Biden in 2020. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that split their Electoral College votes based on the popular votes in individual congressional districts.
TRUMP'S VICTORY IN NORTH CAROLINA
Trump the winner, he was leading by over 130,000 votes with nearly 90% of the expected votes counted. Compared to the 2020 election, voter turnout was up in many areas that Trump was carrying, but down in many areas that Harris was winning. Trump beat Biden in North Carolina in 2020 by less than 2 percentage points.
KANSAS
Former President Donald Trump won Kansas and its six electoral votes on Tuesday. Republican candidates have carried Kansas in every presidential election since 1964, and it was the third election in a row that Trump has won the state.
Kansas City-area suburbs that once were reliable GOP strongholds started leaning more Democratic after Trump was elected president in 2016, but Trump has retained his strong popularity in much of the state and particularly in rural areas.
IOWA
Former President Donald Trump won Iowa on Tuesday, claiming the state’s six electoral votes. Formerly considered a swing state, Iowa has proved to be a clear example of Trump’s appeal among Republican voters and his staying power in the GOP.
A majority of Iowans backed Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but chose Trump decisively in 2016 and again in 2020.
IDAHO
Trump won Idaho for the third consecutive election on Tuesday, adding four electoral votes to his tally. Idaho is deeply red, and the Republican presidential nominee has carried the state with more than 60% of the vote for the last several elections.
OHIO
Republican Trump carried Ohio for a third time on Tuesday, defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to capture the state’s 17 electoral votes.
SWING STATE, GEORGIA
Former President Donald Trump won the swing state of Georgia on Wednesday, returning its 16 electoral votes to the Republican column.
LOUISIANA
Former President Donald Trump won Louisiana on Tuesday for the third consecutive presidential election, increasing his electoral vote tally by eight.
In addition to voter support, Trump has various powerful political allies in and from the Bayou State, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Gov. Jeff Landry.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Former President Donald Trump won South Carolina on Tuesday, earning its nine electoral votes for the third straight election. Trump won four electoral votes in Montana, three in South Dakota and Wyoming as well.
UTAH
Donald Trump won Utah and its six electoral votes on Tuesday. The Mountain West state is a rare Republican stronghold that has in past elections only half-heartedly supported Trump, whose brash style and comments about immigrants do not sit right with some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is a developing story and being updated...
