Trump projected to win presidency

GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump was projected early Wednesday morning to win the presidency, completing an improbable comeback certain to rattle official Washington.

Trump was declared by the Associated Press the winner of critical, battleground state Pennsylvania over Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris – effectively giving him enough electoral votes to win the presidency. 

Trump is also projected to likely win Arizona and the remaining battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin, breaking through Democrats' so-called Blue Wall on his path to victory.

A nominee needs 270 Electoral College votes, and Trump is projected to win as many as 312. 

Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes was the biggest prize of the night.

"We made history for a reason tonight," Trump said in Florida after Pennsylvania was called for him, "and the reason is that we overcame obstacles nobody thought possible."

The 78-year-old Trump is the first U.S. president since Democrat Grover Cleveland in the late-1800s to lose White House race, which Trump did in 2020, then come back and win again. Cleveland, the country's 22nd and 24th president served from 1885 to 1889, then from 1893 to 1897.

Most poling before Election Day showed Trump and Harris statistically tied in the seven battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Trump showed early signs Tuesday night of recreating is winning electoral map of 2016 with wins in Georgia and North Carolina.   

Trump lost Georgia in 2020 to then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, in what was considered a stunning upset. He won North Carolina in 2020.

Nevada had yet to report any results by Wednesday morning. Other holdout states included Minnesota, Maine, and New Hampshire.

Among the states the Associated Press has projected Harris to have won are New Mexico, Virginia, Oregon, Hawaii, Washington, Colorado, California, New York, Illinois, Delaware, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Among the states the wire service has projected Trump to have won are Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Missouri Ohio, Texas North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky.

The 2024 election has also witnessed a sitting U.S. president, Joe Biden, decline to seek reelection, a development not seen since Lyndon B. Johnson chose not to run in 1968.

Trump survived two assassination attempts throughout the race, sustaining a gunshot wound to the ear in the first attempt. 

Trump campaigned extensively in the traditionally Democratic northeast, especially in his former home state of New York. 

He insisted he could carry the Empire State, pointing to former Rep. Lee Zeldin’s, R-N.Y., nearly successful run for governor in 2022. Despite Trump’s efforts, however, neither New York nor neighboring New Jersey are expected to be competitive.

Polling data ahead of the election has suggested that Trump was on track to win the highest share of the Latino vote of any Republican presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2004. 

Trump has also worked to make inroads in the black community and some data has shown him gaining ground with black males. Women have drifted toward Harris in the Democrats in recent years and a turnout among that bloc could prove pivotal.

"You know, we're cutting into their support among African Americans, among Hispanics, among suburban women, among youth voters," Trump-aligned pollster John McLaughlin said Monday on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "We're definitely building a new coalition that has the possibility to be a majority coalition, but you have to vote."

Also on Monday, the Trump campaign released a memo highlighting low urban and female turnout in the seven main battlegrounds. Rural turnout, typically an indicator for Republican enthusiasm, was much higher compared to 2020.