Trump wins Georgia and North Carolina, moving closer to reclaiming the White House

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump on Wednesday won the battleground state of Georgia, the onetime Republican stronghold that had voted for Democrats four years ago, which along with his win in North Carolina narrowed Kamala Harris' pathways to victory and expanded his routes to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to become the next president.

According to races called by the Associated Press up to 12.30 pm (IST), 248 electoral votes had gone to Republican candidate Trump and 214 to Democratic Party's Harris.

The victory left Harris heavily reliant on the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to have a credible path to the White House. The crowd at Harris' watch party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, began to file out after midnight.

A top Harris ally sent supporters home from her rally, with no plans for the Democratic vice president to speak.

“We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted. That every voice has spoken,” Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign said. “So you won't hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow. She will be back here tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, the Republican former president was set to address supporters early Wednesday from his campaign's watch party in Florida.

Trump also won Florida, a one-time battleground that has shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also notched early wins in reliably Republican states such as Texas, South Carolina and Indiana. Harris won Virginia, a state Trump visited in the final days of the campaign, and took Democratic strongholds like New York, New Mexico and California. Harris also won New Hampshire and an Electoral College vote in Nebraska that was contested by Republicans.

The Trump campaign bet that it would cut into Democrats' traditional strength with Black and Latino voters, with the former president going on male-centric podcasts and making explicit racial appeals to both groups. Nationally, Black and Latino voters appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to back Joe Biden four years ago, and Trump's support among those voters appeared to rise slightly compared to 2020, according to AP VoteCast.

The fate of democracy appeared to be a primary driver for Harris' supporters, a sign that the Democratic nominee's persistent messaging in her campaign's closing days accusing Trump of being a fascist may have broken through, according to the expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. It also found a country mired in negativity and desperate for change. Trump's supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation — two issues that the former Republican president has been hammering since the start of his campaign.

In his recent visits to North Carolina, Trump seized on the heavy damage caused Hurricane Helene, spreading false claims about the federal government's response and using GoFundMe to collect millions in donations for impacted residents. Trump initially trumpeted the Republican nominee for governor, Mark Robinson, and hailed him as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” but distanced himself after a CNN report that alleged Robinson had made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website's message board more than a decade ago.

Robinson, who lost his race Tuesday to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, denied writing the messages and sued CNN for defamation last month.

In another positive sign for the GOP, the party took control of the Senate, with Trump-backed Bernie Moreno flipping a seat in Ohio held by Democrat Sherrod Brown since 2007. They picked up another when Republican Jim Justice won a West Virginia seat that opened up with Sen. Joe Manchin's retirement.

Those casting Election Day ballots mostly encountered a smooth process, with isolated reports of hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors. Federal election security officials said there were minor disruptions throughout the day but there was no evidence of any impact to the election system. Officials determined that bomb threats that were reported in multiple states were all not credible and did not impact the ability of voters to cast their ballots.

Harris, 60, would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as president. She also would be the first sitting vice president to win the White House in 36 years.

Trump, 78, would be the oldest president ever elected. He would also be the first defeated president in 132 years to win another term in the White House, and the first person convicted of a felony to take over the Oval Office.

He survived one assassination attempt by millimeters at a July rally. Secret Service agents foiled a second attempt in September.

Harris, pointing to the warnings of Trump's former aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and blamed Trump for putting women's lives in danger by nominating three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. In the closing hours of the campaign, she tried to strike a more positive tone and went all of Monday without saying her Republican opponent's name.

Voters nationwide also were deciding thousands of other races that will decide everything from control of Congress to state ballot measures on abortion access in response to the Supreme Court's vote in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In Florida, a ballot measure that would have protected abortion rights in the state constitution failed after not meeting the 60% threshold to pass, marking the first time a measure protecting abortion rights failed since Roe was overturned. Earlier Tuesday, Trump refused to say how he voted on the measure and snapped at a reporter, saying, “You should stop talking about that."

In reliably Democratic New York, Colorado and Maryland, voters approved ballot measures aimed at protecting abortion rights in their state constitutions.