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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Amy Sedghi (now); Chris Stein, Sam Levin and Léonie Chao-Fong (earlier)

US election 2024 live: Donald Trump says ‘we made history’ as he closes in on victory with win in Pennsylvania

Donald Trump Israel Katz United States Pedro Sánchez European Union Benjamin Netanyahu Ed Davey Luís Montenegro Hamas NATO

Portugal's PM congratulates Trump, says he 'looks forwards to working closely' with him

Portugal’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, has also shared a congratualtory post on X and tagged Donald Trump.

Montenegro said he looked “forward to working closely” with Trump “within the spirit of the longstanding and solid relationship between Portugal and the United States, bilaterally and at Nato and multilateral level”.

Spain's Sánchez congratulates Trump

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has congratulated Donald Trump on a presumed US election victory.

In a post on X, Sánchez wrote:

We will work on our strategic bilateral relations and on a strong transatlantic partnership.”

Greek PM congratulates Trump, 'looks forward' to 'deepening strategic partnership' between two countries

Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, says Athens “looks forward to further deepening the strategic partnership between our two countries,” in a post on X congratulating Donald Trump on his election victory.

At a time of regional turmoil, the centre right leader highlighted the need to continue working closely on geopolitical issues.

Nato-member Greece has increasingly emphasised its role as a “pillar of stability” in the eastern Mediterranean – a role that in turn has been highlighted by the Middle East conflict.

Hours before ballot boxes opened in the US, Mitsotakis said that while the presidential elections were of “particular importance for the entire international community” it was “absolutely necessary for Europe to come of age geopolitically. The time has come for Europe to re-energize itself by launching policies that go off the beaten track”.

The comments have been interpreted as speaking to the nervousness many in Europe will feel about a Trump comeback.

Updated

The video team have shared the below clips of Donald Trump supporters gathered at a watch party in Florida earlier erupting in celebration as Fox News called the 2024 race.

The Associated Press, which the Guardian relies on for projections, has not yet called the election overall.

Israeli government figures welcome a Trump victory while Hamas say he will be tested on promise to end Gaza war

Israel’s president Isaac Herzog has described Donald Trump as a “champion of peace” as senior figures in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government welcomed the prospect of the return of the former president to the White House.

In a post to social media Herzog said:

Congratulations to president Donald Trump on your historic return to the White House. You are a true and dear friend of Israel, and a champion of peace and cooperation in our region.

I look forward to working with you to strengthen the ironclad bond between our peoples, to build a future of peace and security for the Middle East, and to uphold our shared values.

Earlier, the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu himself offered congratulations, saying a Trump victory “offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America”.

Israel’s newly appointed defense minister, Israel Katz, said he believed that a Trump presidency will “bring back the hostages” and defeat Iran, posting:

Congratulations to president-elect Donald Trump on his historic victory. Together we’ll strengthen the US-Israel alliance, bring back the hostages, and stand firm to defeat the axis of evil led by Iran.

Two far-right members of the Netanyahu cabinet, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir both used social media messages to invoke blessings from God on Trump, Israel and America. The two of them head parties which are for the exansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on the land of the occupied West Bank.

Qatar’s Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, also offered congratulations to Trump, saying:

I wish you all the best during your term and look forward to working together again to strengthen our strategic relationship and partnership, and to advancing our shared efforts in promoting security and stability both in the region and globally.”

Qatar has been one of the nations working most closely with the US and Egypt in attempts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages seized from Israel on 7 October 2023, many of whom are thought to have been killed.

Hamas, which launched the 7 October attack last year, leading to Israel’s sustained military assault on Gaza, has also reacted to the US election.

Reuters reports senior official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump would be tested on his statements that he can stop the war within hours as US president, and told the news agency: “We urge Trump to learn from Biden’s mistakes.”

Charles Michel president of the European Council, which represents the leaders of the 27 EU member states has congratulated Donald Trump.

Irish PM congratulates Trump and says 'people of the US have spoken'

The prime minister of Ireland, which is the European HQ to some of the US’s most important companies, has congratulated Donald Trump.

“The people of the United States have spoken and Ireland will work to deepen and strengthen the historic and unbreakable bonds between our people and our nations in the years ahead,” said Simon Harris.

Ireland’s relationship with the US is one of its most important economically and politically given its role over the peace deal in Northern Ireland.

Foreign investment from the US is the backbone of the country’s economy with US multinationals including tech companies Google, Microsoft and Intel, employing 300,000 people in Ireland and contributing 50% of the country’s corporate tax.

Here’s a video of Donald Trump speaking on stage in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier where he pledgedto bring a “golden age” to the United States.

The leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrats party has called a likely Donald Trump election victory “a dark, dark day for people around the globe” and described the Republican as a “destructive demagogue”.

Ed Davey, who leads the third largest political party in the UK parliament, wrote on X:

This is a dark, dark day for people around the globe. The world’s largest economy and most powerful military will be led by a dangerous, destructive demagogue.”

In a statement recently released by the party, Davey added:

The next president of the United States is a man who actively undermines the rule of law, human rights, international trade, climate action and global security.

Millions of Americans – especially women and minorities – will be incredibly fearful about what comes next. We stand with them.

Families across the UK will also be worrying about the damage Trump will do to our economy and our national security, given his record of starting trade wars, undermining Nato and emboldening tyrants like Putin.

Fixing the UK’s broken relationship with the EU is even more urgent than before. We must strengthen trade and defence cooperation across Europe to help protect ourselves from the damage Trump will do.

Now more than ever, we must stand up for the core liberal values of equality, democracy, human rights and the rule of law – at home and around the world.”

European Commission president congratulates Trump, urges him to work on 'transatlantic partnership'

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has congratulated Donald Trump and urged him to work with her on a “transatlantic partnership”.

Von der Leyen said the EU and US were “more than just allies”, but shared a deep bond “rooted in our shared history, commitment to freedom and democracy, and common goals of security and opportunity for all”.

She said:

Let us work together on a transatlantic partnership that continues to deliver for our citizens. Millions of jobs and billions in trade and investment on each side of the Atlantic depend on the dynamism and stability of our economic relationship.”

Behind the scenes von der Leyen’s team has been preparing for a Trump victory for months, including by drawing up lists of US imports to Europe to target with tariffs, if Trump imposes punitive duties on European goods to the US.

Trump wins bellwether county in Michigan

Donald Trump has won Michigan’s Saginaw county, a bellwether that bodes well for his chances of flipping the Great Lakes state Joe Biden won four years ago.

Trump is leading with 84.2% of the votes counted, picking up 50.9% support to Kamala Harris’s 47.7%. In 2020, Biden beat Trump by winning 49.4% of the vote compared to the Republican’s 49.1%. The county supported Trump in 2016, when he won Michigan overall.

The Associated Press has not yet called Michigan, but Trump currently has a lead of just under five percentage points over Harris.

Nato's Rutte congratulates Trump, says his leadership will 'be key' to keeping 'alliance strong'

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte has congratulated Donald Trump and said he showed “strong US leadership” in his first term in office that strengthened the alliance.

In a statement Rutte said he looked forward to working with Trump “to advance peace through strength through Nato”.

Rutte, who took office last month, referred to the challenges facing the alliance without a direct reference to the war in Ukraine.

He said:

We face a growing number of challenges globally, from a more aggressive Russia, to terrorism, to strategic competition with China, as well the increasing alignment of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

The veteran Dutch politician, reputed for knowing how to handle Trump, praised the US president-elect, while seeking to convince him of the value of the alliance.

Updated

India's Modi offers 'hearty congratulations to my friend Donald Trump'

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi joined the ranks of world leaders congratulating Donald Trump on his presumed victory. In a post on X, Modi offered “hearty congratulations to my friend Donald Trump”, alongside several photos of the two men tightly embracing each other and holding hands.

Modi, who has been Indian prime minister for a decade, was seen to have a close relationship with Trump during his first term in office, and Trump has repeatedly referred to “my friend Modi”.

As it looked like Trump was claiming victory on Wednesday, Modi said he was “looking forward to collaboration” between the US and India and added:

Together, let’s work for the betterment of our people and to promote global peace, stability and prosperity.”

At the Republican watch party in Las Vegas, the crowd is giddy.

The bar at the Ahern hotel is packed with excited, bleary-eyed supporters. In a city known for its flair and theatrics, many supporters are dressed up in their most flamboyant Maga gear. A man wearing a rubber Trump mask and a star-paneled cape draws laughs and cheers.

Sari Utschen, 57, was wearing a homemade dress that was embroidered with the word “Trump” down the front in huge block letters, and string of LED lights draped like a scarf.

“I feel relieved. I feel joyous,” she said.

Utschen said she used to vote with Democrats in the 80s and 90s, but finds that the party has gone too far to the left in recent years. “I’ve been red-pilled,” she said, laughing. Over the past four years, she said: “I felt like we were being bamboozled under Biden. Nothing made sense.”

Updated

Arizona voters approve protecting abortion in state constitution

Arizonans have approved a constitutional amendment that will protect abortion access up until fetal viability, or around 21 weeks of pregnancy, the Associated Press reports.

The procedure is currently available until about 15 weeks of pregnancy. Its passage came after Arizona’s supreme court allowed the enforcement of a near-total ban on the procedure enacted in 1864, before the legislature repealed it.

Nebraska voters reject abortion rights measure

Voters in Nebraska have voted down a measure that would have enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution, the Associated Press reports.

The measure would have protected the right to have an abortion until fetal viability, or later.

Voters in the state instead approved a competing measure that writes the state’s existing ban on the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy into the state constitution, and allows for the passage of stricter bans.

Abortion rights measure wins in Nevada, fails in South Dakota

Voters in Nevada have approved a ballot question that will set the stage to further protect abortion rights in the state, though a similar effort in South Dakota failed, the Associated Press reports.

The measure in red state South Dakota would have restored the protections of Roe v Wade, which was overturned by the supreme court two years ago. It was rejected by 61% of voters, with 39% voting in favor.

Nevada’s measure was a bit more complicated. It will enshrine a right to abortion in the swing state’s constitution, but voters must approve it again in 2026. Abortions are already accessible in the state up until 24 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions to protect the life or health of a mother.

Starmer congratulates Trump on 'historic election victory'

British prime minister Keir Starmer congratulated Donald Trump on his apparent victory in the US election.

“Congratulations President-elect Trump on your historic election victory. I look forward to working with you in the years ahead. As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise. From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come,” he said.

Hungary's Orbán welcomes 'beautiful victory' in US election

Hungarian prime minister and Donald Trump ally Viktor Orbán has welcomed the US election results.

“Good Morning Hungary! On the road to a beautiful victory, it’s in the bag,” he said on his Facebook page earlier on Wednesday

Orbán, one of Trump’s most loyal allies in the EU, will host leaders from across the continent in Budapest at the European Political Community summit on Thursday. For weeks European diplomats have speculated that Orbán would invite Trump to address the gathering by video link.

Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro – one of Donald Trump’s biggest fans internationally – has hailed “the resurgence of a true warrior” after what he called his ally’s “epic victory” in the US election.

“Against all oposition [sic] from globalists and the deep state, @realDonaldTrump will return to the Presidency of the United States of America to complete his mission: restore the greatness of his nation, protect the interests of his people, and work toward a world that is freer, more peaceful, and more secure,” Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter/X.

The former Brazilian president claimed the apparent result of the election marked “not only your return to the White House but also the triumph of the people’s will over the arrogant designs of an elite who disdain our values, beliefs, and traditions”.

“This triumph is historic—a milestone that rekindles the flame of freedom, sovereignty, and true democracy,” added Bolsonarno, who will hope Trump’s win helps revive his own political fortunes despite the fact that the Brazilian is banned from seeking office until 2030. “Its impact will resonate across the globe, fueling not only the strength of the United States but also empowering the rise of the right and conservative movements in countless other nations ... Perhaps we will have a renewed opportunity to make Brazil a true land of freedom, where it is the Brazilian people — not politicians and bureaucrats — who are the masters of their destiny.”

The populist president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, also tweeted his congratulations to Trump. “May God bless and guide you,” he wrote alongside a photo of the pair.

Updated

Netanyahu congratulates Trump

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also congratulated Donald Trump, sharing a photo of him and his wife Sara with the ex-president, who appears to also be the next president:

Macron congratulates Trump, says 'ready to work together'

French president Emmanuel Macron has tweeted his congratulations to Donald Trump, who appears poised to be the next US president. Here’s what he said, in French:

Throughout the presidential campaign, and in his victory speech tonight, Donald Trump bragged that the Republican party was expanding its coalition into racial groups that typically vote for Democrats.

“They came from all quarters, union, non-union, African American, Hispanic, American, Asian American, Arab American, Muslim American. We had everybody. And it was beautiful. It was a historic realignment, uniting citizens of all backgrounds around a common core of common sense,” he said onstage just now.

And it may in fact be true, at least partially. While all the ballots have not been counted yet, early data indicates Trump may have made inroads among some groups, such as Latinos, that voted for Joe Biden four years ago.

Trump’s walking off stage now, surrounded by a number of family members and Republican bigwigs, including House speaker Mike Johnson and his running mate, JD Vance.

The Village People’s YMCA is playing. Trump has it on at his rallies all the time.

Updated

Trump says he will bring 'every ounce of energy, spirit and fighting' to White House

Donald Trump struck something of a conciliatory note to the millions of Americans who did not vote for him, saying he will devote himself to the presidency and unite the country.

“The task before us will not be easy, but I will bring every ounce of energy, spirit and fighting that I have in my soul to the job that you’ve entrusted to me,” Trump said.

“I will govern by a simple model, promises made, promises kept. We’re going to keep our promises. Nothing will stop me from keeping my word. To you, the people, we will make America safe, strong, prosperous, powerful and free again. And I’m asking every citizen all across our land to join me in this noble and righteous endeavor. That’s what it is. It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us. It’s time to unite, and we’re going to try.”

Harris wins Minnesota

The Associated Press has called Minnesota for Kamala Harris.

The vice-president picks up 10 electoral votes from the traditionally Democratic state, but those will not be enough to stop Donald Trump from winning, assuming he picks up three more electoral votes from the swing states that have not been called.

Trump vows 'to do the best job'

More promises from Donald Trump, as he stands on the verge of returning to the White House:

I want to thank the millions of hard-working Americans across the nation who have always been the heart and soul of this really great movement. We’ve been through so much together, and today you showed up in record numbers to deliver a victory … this was something special. And we’re going to, we’re going to pay you back. We’re going to do the best job … we’re going to turn it around. It’s got to be turned around. It’s got to be turned around fast. And we’re going to turn it around. We’re going to do it in every way, with so many ways, but we’re going to do it in every way. This will forever be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their country.

Updated

Trump just went on an extended riff about Elon Musk, the billionaire who sank millions of dollars into helping the former president’s campaign win Pennsylvania.

“He’s a character. He’s a special guy, he’s a super genius,” Trump said of Musk. “We have to protect our geniuses. We don’t have that many of them. We have to protect our super geniuses.”

Updated

Trump then came back to the mic, and restated his vow to crack down on undocumented people.

It was a key plank of his campaign, and appears to have worked with voters where it mattered.

“We’re going to have to seal up those borders, and we’re going to have to let people come into our country. We want people to come back in, but we have to, we have to let them come back in. But they have to come in legally,” he said.

Updated

Vance says: 'We just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history' of the US

JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, just said a few words:

Well, Mr President, I appreciate you allowing me to join you on this incredible journey. I thank you for the trust that you placed in me, and I think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America, and under President Trump’s leadership, we’re never going to stop fighting for you, for your dreams, for the future of your children, and after the greatest political comeback in American history, we’re going to lead the greatest economic comeback in American history under Donald Trump’s leadership.

Updated

“It also looks like we’ll be keeping control of the House of Representatives,” Trump said. But we also don’t yet know if that’s the case, either.

The GOP has a small majority in Congress’s lower chamber, and races that still have not been called will determine if they keep it.

Trump claimed victory in the popular vote, but that has not yet been determined.

“Thank you very much. Winning the popular vote was very nice, very nice, I will tell you,” he said.

No Republican, including Trump, has won the popular vote since George W Bush in 2004.

Trump says 'we made history' as election victory nears

On stage in West Palm Beach, Trump declared victory and pledged to bring a “golden age” to the United States.

“This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond,” Trump said.

“And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance, because we’re going to help our country. We’ll help our country … we have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country. And we made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and it is now clear that we’ve achieved the most incredible political thing.”

He continued:

I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president, and every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you and with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America.

Only three electoral votes separate Trump from the White House.

They could arrive soon, from red state Alaska, or perhaps from one of the other swing states that have not yet been called.

Trump wins Pennsylvania

Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reports, putting him on the brink of crossing the 270-electoral vote threshold to become the next president.

Updated

Trump addresses supporters at election watch party

Donald Trump just stepped onstage at his election watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Things appear to be going his way this election, but it’s not over yet. Let’s hear what he has to say.

Republican House speaker Mike Johnson says 'we have saved America'

Mike Johnson has congratulated Donald Trump on his potential victory in the presidential race:

The Associated Press has not yet called the race.

Updated

The former CNN anchor and Daily Beast editor John Avlon has fallen short in his attempt to win a congressional seat as a Democrat, losing to the incumbent Republican, Nick LaLota, in New York’s first House district.

The contest on Long Island was a fractious one. Avlon, who once wrote speeches for Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor of New York City, campaigned on a return to the political centre and civility but the two candidates clashed repeatedly. Avlon highlighted that LaLota did not live in the district. LaLota charged Avlon with being a Manhattan elitist.

Celebrating victory, LaLota said: “I am deeply honored that Long Islanders have entrusted me to serve in Congress for another two years. Our convincing victory reflects our commitment to tackling our nation’s toughest challenges.”

Conceding defeat, Avlon said: “It’s a hard night in Suffolk county for us Democrats. It’s a hard night for many Democrats in the country, but the fight continues, and it’s really important for us to keep the energy up to understand that this is not a time for us to shirk back, but it’s a time for folks to step up continuously, because the good fight never ends.”

Updated

Should Donald Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania be confirmed, as it has not yet been by the Associated Press, he wouldn’t quite have the electoral votes needed to become president.

Based on states the AP has called so far, Trump would have 267 electoral votes, just shy of the 270 needed to become the next president. The remaining electoral votes may arrive soon after – polls closed just over an hour ago in Alaska, a red state with three electoral votes.

That would bring Trump up to exactly 270, and that’s before the outstanding swing states Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin are called.

Trump reportedly wins Pennsylvania

News outlets including NBC News and CNN project that Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania, putting him on the verge of becoming the next president.

The Associated Press has not yet called the state. The Guardian relies on the AP to determine the outcomes of elections across the United States. The New York-based global news agency has a presence in every US state and a long and authoritative history of determining the winners of elections at the presidential, congressional and state level. Here is more information about their process.

Updated

Trump wins bellwether county in Pennsylvania

It appears that Donald Trump has won the bellwether Erie county in Pennsylvania as results indicate the GOP candidate is on track to win the crucial state, and with it, the election.

Pundits have previously said: “No county in Pennsylvania – and possibly in the country – is as consistently swingy as Erie county.”

With more than 95% of votes counted, Trump appeared to have 50.3% of the votes in the county, compared with Kamala Harris’s 48.8%.

Trump previously won the working-class county in 2016, followed by a slim Joe Biden win there in 2020.

Updated

In Las Vegas, Nevada, the crowd at a GOP watch party roared as Fox News projected Donald Trump as the winner of the election. They burst into a chant of: “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

Several states, including this swing state, remain too close to call – but Fox recently projected Pennsylvania for Trump, a key state for winning the White House. The Associated Press, which the Guardian relies on for projections, has not yet called Pennsylvania or the election overall.

Several key swing states – including Nevada – remain in play, according to the AP.

“I feel fantastic,” said Yolanda Wright, 47, a former Democrat who backed Donald Trump and other Republican candidates for the first time this year. Trump offers more to the African American community, she said: “I’ve been a Democrat my whole life, and I haven’t seen any benefit from that.”

Joe Biden and the Democrats have been sending funds to wars and resources to migrants coming in through the southern border, rather than to Americans who are struggling, added Ronda Kennedy, 51, who had run in the Republican primaries for the US Senate. “I trust Trump to put us first,” she said.

Updated

Trump wins electoral vote in Maine

Donald Trump has won one of Maine’s electoral votes, the Associated Press reports.

He picked up the vote in the state’s right-leaning second congressional district, while Kamala Harris earlier won the vote in Maine’s more liberal first district. The two other electoral votes in the state, given to the winner statewide, have not been called by the AP.

The presidential election has not yet been called, but some Republican lawmakers are already acting as if Donald Trump has won.

Oklahoma Republican congressman Kevin Hern just issued a statement congratulating Trump for winning:

This campaign felt different from the start – Americans were sick and tired of the status quo under Biden-Harris and wanted the prosperity they felt under Donald Trump. I am thrilled to see President Trump win the electoral votes to send him back to the White House and cannot wait to work alongside him to Make America Great Again. Americans fought to win back their nation and we did it!

A dispatch from the Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi-hui Lin in Taipei:

The US election is being closely watched in China as well.

The country’s relationship with the US has been swinging between competitive and hostile in recent years. China and the US were locked in a trade war during the last Trump administration, and Joe Biden maintained many of the policies and sanctions put in place during that time. The continued support of Taiwan – which China’s ruling Communist party has vowed to annex – is the primary point of friction, at least from Beijing’s perspective.

On social media platform, Weibo, the US election is at least three of the top 10 trending topics. State media coverage of the election has so far been largely informational, with no push for one candidate over another. The Global Times, an English-language nationalistic tabloid, has a prominently placed article about fears of election-related violence.

Xinhua, the official state media outlet, has gone through eight election issues that “reveal the truth about American democracy”, including inflation, healthcare, crime, abortion rights, and housing affordability. It also listed immigration, which it said had become a heated issue because of “a shifting economic landscape that has scapegoated newcomers”.

The US representatives in China also welcomed Chinese people to look to their election as an example of a different governance system. The embassy in Beijing has invited people to join them at a viewing event for “an exciting Wednesday morning as we watch the election unfold live and witness democracy in action”.

Across the Taiwan strait, the US representatives at the American Institute of Taiwan (a de facto embassy) did not hold any watch events this year. Local polling taken just a few days ago revealed overwhelming support for Kamala Harris among Taiwanese people. Taiwan – along with Hong Kong – had previously been one of Asia’s biggest pockets of Trump supporters, but it seems the tide has turned. Comments from Trump in recent months that falsely accused Taiwan of stealing US semiconductors, and separately, that Taiwan should pay protection money to the US, didn’t go down well.

Updated

A prolonged, almighty roar went up at Trump’s election watch party when Fox News called Pennsylvania for him at 1.20am.

“It’s over!” screamed one man amid the noise at what felt like the point of no return. A young man in a black Maga hat shouted: “Fuck Joe Biden! Fuck her!”

The euphoric crowd chanted: “USA! USA!” They are now gathered near the stage waiting for Trump to enter and deliver a speech. Near the front is Blake Marnell, who wears a suit styled after Trump’s wall.

Updated

US senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania incumbent Democrat in a close race with Republican Dave McCormick, isn’t conceding his race.

“We have confidence in our path to victory and we are going to make sure we count every vote,” said Maddy McDaniel, a campaign spokesperson.

Democratic officials at the party’s Arizona election watch party kept telling supporters to wait for more results.

The ballot so far held mixed signals for the party: Kamala Harris was trailing Donald Trump narrowly, while US Senate candidate Ruben Gallego was up by several points over Republican Kari Lake, and an abortion access measure held a strong lead.

Gallego grew emotional as he thanked his family and recounted his upbringing as a poor kid whose single mom raised him and his sisters. He gave a shoutout to his old boss, who was in attendance, from when he used to sell hot dogs. He mentioned his fellow Marines, some of whom were there to cheer him on.

“Growing up the way I did, the son of immigrants, I would have never thought I’d make it this far,” he said. When every vote in counted, he believed, “a poor Latino boy who slept on the floor will be headed to the floor of the United States Senate, the first Latino senator in Arizona history.”

The crowd was on edge as they refreshed electoral maps and saw results come in on the big screen from around the country, but they hoped Harris could still pull off a win.

Denise Dewberry, a 55-year-old Phoenix resident, said she was “nauseously optimistic”.

She voted for the first time in 2020 and has dedicated herself to Democratic causes, doing all she could to turn out voters this year: “I can’t not feel optimistic. I feel so invested in what is right that I don’t know how to not be optimistic right now. At the same time, I know what I’m up against.”

And no matter the outcome, she would get to work to keep pushing for the Democrats. “This is how it starts, not how it ends.”

Updated

Harris surrogate Mark Cuban congratulates Trump

Billionaire Mark Cuban, who acted as a surrogate for Kamala Harris in the final weeks of her campaign, has tweeted congratulations at Donald Trump and Elon Musk, a fellow billionaire who backed his bid to return to the White House:

The Associated Press has not yet called the election for Trump, but the former president has won two of the seven crucial swing states expected to determine the winner.

Nebraska upholds its abortion ban

Nebraska has voted to uphold its abortion ban, which outlaws the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Voters in Nebraska chose between two competing measures – one enshrining the existing 12-week ban, and another that would have amended the state constitution to protect the right to abortion up until viability, or about 24 weeks.

The more restrictive measure appears to have won with just over 50% of the vote. It was only the second loss of the night for abortion rights supporters. An initiative to restore abortion rights fell short in Florida, but measures succeeded in four other states. Four others have yet to be called.

California passes tough-on-crime ballot measure

California voters voted passed Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime ballot initiative that will enact harsher penalties for retail theft, property crimes and drug offenses.

The new measure will undo parts of a landmark 2014 law that downgraded several non-violent felonies to misdemeanors as a way to reduce the state’s prison population and redirect money to drug treatment and resources for crime victims.

While some considered the original law, known as Proposition 47, a breakthrough in criminal justice reform, for others, it was viewed as a major driver of property crime, homelessness and substance abuse.

Nevada senator Catherine Cortez Masto took the stage at the Democratic watch party in Las Vegas and reminded voters that she won her re-election by 7,928 votes in 2022.

“And 4,000 of those votes were ones we cured,” she said. “Listen, we feel confident that when all the votes are counted tonight and this week, however long it takes to cure and count every single vote, we will win the Silver State for Democrats up and down the ballot.”

Republicans have already flipped enough seats to control the US Senate, though in Nevada, Democrat Jacky Rosen is fighting to keep her seat and facing Republican challenger Sam Brown. Even if Kamala Harris narrowly wins here, it’s unclear whether Nevada’s six electoral votes would give her enough of a boost as the vice-president’s path to victory narrows.

Updated

Harris wins New Hampshire

Kamala Harris has won New Hampshire, the Associated Press reports.

She picks up four electoral votes in the state that’s known for holding the first primaries in the presidential nomination process – which Donald Trump swept earlier this year, paving the way for him to challenge the vice-president in the presidential election.

In Las Vegas, Leo Murrieta, director of Make the Road Nevada, a progressive group that has focused on turning out Latino voters and voters of color, said he was feeling “a little anxious”.

“We did everything we could this election,” he said. “We talked to over 770,000 plus voters. We launched 475 canvassers just today. We really did everything that we possibly could to make an impact in this election, and now we just have to wait and see.”

Latinos in Nevada, who make up one in five voters here, will likely play a decisive role. Polling from Make the Road suggests that economic issues and abortion rights were the top issues for the Latino community. Murrieta said he was also closely watching Latino turnout in Arizona’s Maricopa county and other key swing districts in the west.

Polls have closed in Nevada, but snaking lines of voters were still waiting to cast their ballots at several locations across the state. Results here will only be reported once every polling place has confirmed that every voter in line has had a chance to vote. It could be days before the results are clear.

“I know we left no stone unturned. We persuaded hundreds and hundreds of non-partisan Brown folks to vote, and to vote for Kamala Harris, to vote for reproductive health,” Murrieta said. His plan for the rest of the night was to be with Make the Road members and celebrate their hard work.

“Because regardless of the outcomes, the only thing that we can rely on is each other,” he said. “We can’t rely on political parties to save us. Politicians won’t save us. But our community is going to have our back.”

Donald Trump’s victory in Georgia further expands his options for winning the White House – and narrows Harris’s.

Trump just needs to win Pennsylvania or Michigan – two states where he is currently leading in the vote count – to win the 270 electoral votes needed to become president.

Harris can still win, but will need to sweep the three “blue wall” states (which aren’t looking so blue tonight) of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. She could stand to lose in Wisconsin, but only if she wins Arizona.

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As Trump wins Georgia, what has happened on election night so far

As the clock ticks past 1am Eastern Time in the US on the day after the 2024 presidential election, here is where things stand:

  • Donald Trump has won the swing states of Georgia and North Carolina, the only two of the seven swing state called in the race so far. Trump has 246 of 270 electoral college votes needed to win, and Kamala Harris has 210 electoral college votes. The vice-president now cannot win the election without winning the state of Pennsylvania, in which Trump holds a lead, with 90% of the vote counted.

  • Alaska closed its polls, ending most voting in the US presidential election. The red state was the last where voting was ongoing statewide, and Donald Trump is expected to claim its three electoral votes. Voters may still be casting ballots in some counties elsewhere that saw long lines, or where courts ordered polls to be open later.

  • Harris’s campaign announced that she would not be speaking on Tuesday night. Her campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond addressed the crowd assembled for the vice-president’s election night party, and said, “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. So you won’t hear from the vice-president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow.”

  • The vice-president has won the following states so far: Virginia, Hawaii, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington DC and Maine’s first congressional district.

  • Trump has won the following states so far: North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Kansas, Idaho, Iowa and the third congressional district in Nebraska.

  • Trump won in Iowa despite the state’s foremost pollster Ann Selzer on Saturday finding Harris leading by a small amount that was nonetheless within the survey’s margin of error. The finding was viewed as a potential sign of strength for Harris in nearby Wisconsin and Michigan, two swing states that are demographically similar to Iowa. The Trump campaign decried Selzer’s poll as an outlier, which turned out to be the case.

  • Republicans have retaken the majority in the Senate, the Associated Press reported, after picking up seats in Ohio and West Virginia, and fending off challenges to their candidates in Texas and Nebraska. Republicans will control Congress’s upper chamber for the first time in four years.

  • Should Donald Trump win, they will be in a position to confirm his supreme court justices, federal judges and appointees to cabinet posts. If Harris wins the White House, they can force hold up her appointees, or block them outright.

  • Missouri voters approved a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution, setting the state up to overturn its near-total abortion ban – a first in the US post-Roe v Wade.

  • Colorado, New York and Maryland also passed measures to protect abortion rights, while in Florida, an effort to roll back a six-week ban fell short.

  • The US will have two Black women serving as senators for the first time in American history, with the election of Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland.

  • Sarah McBride, a Delaware state senator, has made history as the first out transgender person elected to the US House of Representatives. McBride, 34, won Delaware’s at-large House seat in Tuesday’s general election against the Republican candidate John Whalen III, a former Delaware state police officer and businessman. The House seat, Delaware’s only one, has been Democratic since 2010.

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Voting in US presidential election ends as polls close in Alaska

Alaska just closed its polls, ending most voting in the US presidential election.

The red state was the last where voting was ongoing statewide, and Donald Trump is expected to claim its three electoral votes.

Voters may still be casting ballots in some counties elsewhere that saw long lines, or where courts ordered polls to be open later.

Trump wins Georgia

Donald Trump has won Georgia, the Associated Press reports, with the Republican reclaiming a state he lost to Joe Biden four years ago.

With polls closed, campaign surrogates, union leaders and progressive campaigners are trickling into the Democratic watch party at the Aria hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The mood inside is uneasy, so far. Crystal and Kiersten Madrid, twins who are 30 years old, had accompanied their friend Fabian Doñate, a Nevada state senator. “I’ve just been drinking a lot of water, trying to stay hydrated,” said Kiersten.

“And it’s good to be with loved ones and like-minded people tonight,” Crystal added.

Aneri Shah, 22, had canvassed in Nevada with Emily’s List, a political group focused on electing women who support reproductive rights: “I’m a little nervous,” said Shah who had come to the event with her father, Gunjan Shah, who was wearing a “Reproductive Rights ’24” t-shirt.

Both eyed the presidential results rolling in on the big screens. “I don’t know. Things do seem to have shifted since 2020,” said Aneri. “But I do feel positive about Nevada.”

With its six electoral votes, the state could be a decider in the election – especially as Harris’s path to victory narrows.

A massive billboard just outside is showing live updates from the betting market Kalshi, where the presidential race is trading 83% for Trump.

Trump set to soon speak from election watch party

Donald Trump is expected to speak shortly at the campaign watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida, per a person familiar, as his “YMCA” walkout song comes on and Secret Service clears the lobby area.

Trump’s aides suggest tonight ahead of his appearance that they think they could sweep all the battleground states.

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Harris will not make speech tonight

Kamala Harris’s campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond just addressed the crowd assembled for the vice-president’s election night party, and said that she will not be speaking tonight.

“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. So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow,” Richmond said.

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At Kamala Harris’s election-watch party at Howard University, aides are yelling at camera crews to cut their lights and flip their monitors. Law enforcement officers are assembling.

It’s unclear what is happening but it appears someone will address the crowd, many of whom are leaving.

Beyoncé’s Freedom just started up, but was cut after a few chords.

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Not enough ballots left in Georgia for Harris to win – report

Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling has told CNN that there are not enough uncounted ballots left in the state for Kamala Harris to overtake Donald Trump:

Both CNN and NBC have projected that Trump has won the state, which Joe Biden carried four years ago, but the Associated Press has yet to report the winner.

The Guardian relies on the Associated Press to determine the outcomes of elections across the United States. The New York-based global news agency has a presence in every US state and a long and authoritative history of determining the winners of elections at the presidential, congressional and state level. Here is more information about their process.

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House Democrats are gaining a seat in Louisiana after Cleo Fields was projected to defeat four opponents outright to complete a congressional comeback.

Fields – who was a member of the US House from 1993 to 1997 – beat four fellow Democrats and a single Republican in a contest held under the rules of Louisiana’s open primary system by capturing 51% of the 296,011 votes cast in the race, according to election results from the state.

He ran in Louisiana’s sixth district, whose constituency changed as the state was ordered to redraw its congressional map to account for population shifts in the 2020 census. It became Louisiana’s second majority Black congressional district, encompassing parts of Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Baton Rouge.

The only other majority Black congressional district in Louisiana – largely based in New Orleans – re-elected a Democrat on Tuesday.

How pivotal Fields’s victory will be in Democrats’ efforts to retake control of the House – which Republicans have held since 2022 – remains to be seen. The redrawn sixth district had long been seen as an opportunity for Democrats to add another of its members to the House, meaning Republicans had anticipated Tuesday’s outcome as they weighed their chances of keeping the chamber.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the US supreme court indicated it would essentially review the redrawing of Louisiana’s sixth district after a lawsuit from a group of self-described non-Black Americans challenged the constitutionality of Louisiana’s congressional map. The map as it stands all but guarantees easy re-election paths for House speaker Mike Johnson and majority leader Steve Scalise, who are both Republicans, as long as they want them.

The seat clinched by the 61-year-old Fields, who is Black and a longtime Louisiana state lawmaker, is being vacated by Republican congressman Garret Graves. Graves decided against seeking re-election.

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Democrats who had gathered in Milwaukee to watch the election results come in are facing a nail-bitingly close race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

“I’m feeling super nervous – anxious,” said Sandy Solo, a truck driver who said she felt “stoked” earlier in the day.

Erv Seheibengraber, a retired teacher, said he was feeling “cautious” and told me he worried about “the far right, and the possibility my daughters and grandkids won’t have the same rights as I do” if Trump serves another term in office.

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Votes are still being counted in Pennsylvania, but there’s yet another ominous sign for the Harris campaign. Democrats had hoped to improve on their performance in Luzerne county in northeast Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump won the county by nearly 20 points in 2016. In 2020, Joe Biden cut significantly into that margin and lost it by 14 points. Democrats had hoped to continue to improve on their performance this year.

But with an estimated more than 95% of the vote in, Trump is winning the county by 22 points. The county is home to the city of Hazleton, where nearly two-thirds of residents are Hispanic or Latino.

Taken together with Democratic drops compared to 2020 in Lackawanna and Northampton counties, there are clear signs Harris’s chances of winning Pennsylvania may be slipping away.

One key county that experts are watching in Pennsylvania is Northampton county in the Lehigh valley.

Donald Trump won the county in 2016 when he won Pennsylvania. In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly flipped it when he flipped the state. Tonight, with more than 90% of the vote in, Trump is leading in the county by more than 5 points.

This doesn’t necessarily mean Harris is going to lose Pennsylvania. There’s still a lot of votes to be counted in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties – the bastion of Democratic votes in the state. Those votes could make up for margins Harris has lost elsewhere in the state.

But Harris’ performance here, combined with a decrease in her performance in Scranton’s Lackawanna county, are not the direction Democrats had hoped to see tonight.

Harris wins electoral vote in Nebraska

Kamala Harris has won the electoral vote in Nebraska’s second congressional district, the Associated Press reports, a potentially crucial victory for her path to the White House.

The district encompasses Omaha, and has grown increasingly Democratic in recent years. Its vote, coupled with victories in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and in the states that typically vote Democratic, but no other swing states, would give Harris 270 votes, precisely enough to win the White House.

Of the seven swing states, only North Carolina has been called for Donald Trump, so there’s no telling if that scenario will play out.

In addition to picking up seats in West Virginia and Ohio, Republicans won control of the Senate through the re-election of incumbent Deb Fischer in Nebraska.

She faced independent Dan Osborn who put up a tougher-than-expected challenge in a state that is otherwise a GOP stronghold. But Fischer prevailed, and the Associated Press called the race for her about 10 minutes ago.

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At a watch party hosted by the Milwaukee County Republican party at an Italian restaurant in the suburbs, Dimitra Anderson, 64, and her pet boa constrictor Tarzan, watched excitedly as the early results came in.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Anderson, who describes herself as a “born-again believer” – and cites her faith as her most powerful political guide. Anderson has been following numerous self-styled prophets online since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic jarred the world and kept her home from church. Anderson believes confidently – as some religious figures on the Christian far-right have prophesied – that Trump will win the election.

Javier Ramos, a 20-year-old first time voter in attendance at the watch party, wasn’t so confident.

“I’m really anxious,” Ramos told me. He worried that undecided voters would prefer Kamala Harris, and said he felt Trump had been unfairly maligned in the media. “They’re bashing president Trump.”

How Trump and Harris have fared in the election so far

Here are the states where the presidential election has been called as of 12am ET:

Kamala Harris has won Virginia and Hawaii after previously picking up New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington DC and Maine’s first congressional district.

Donald Trump has won Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Kansas, Idaho, Iowa and the third congressional district in Nebraska.

The mood at Harris’s watch party at Howard University in Washington DC has shifted throughout the night. After being jubilant earlier, the crowd is quiet. The TV is tuned to CNN, which shows Trump appearing to be in a strong position to reclaim the White House. Some people appeared to be leaving, as it remains uncertain when or whether Harris will address the crowd at Howard tonight. When CNN predicted that Trump would win North Carolina, one of the seven battleground states that Harris is contesting, there were hardly any boos, just a wave of sighs. After the North Carolina call, the TVs were muted, and the DJ started back up– 2Pac’s California Love. But no one seems to be in the mood for dancing – instead there’s a lot of stone-faced Democrats.

Trump aides, meanwhile, have expressed confidence about their chances, based on results so far, including a substantial win in a key Florida county that is considered a bellwether. Trump also won in Iowa, despite the state’s foremost pollster Ann Selzer on Saturday finding Harris leading by a small amount that was nonetheless within the survey’s margin of error.

The finding was viewed as a potential sign of strength for Harris in nearby Wisconsin and Michigan, two swing states that are demographically similar to Iowa. The Trump campaign decried Selzer’s poll as an outlier, which turned out to be the case.

Republicans win majority in the Senate

The GOP has retaken the majority in the Senate, the Associated Press reports, after picking up seats in Ohio and West Virginia, and fending off challenges to their candidates in Texas and Nebraska.

Republicans will control Congress’s upper chamber for the first time in four years. Should Donald Trump win, they will be in a position to confirm his supreme court justices, federal judges and appointees to cabinet posts. If Kamala Harris wins the White House, they can force hold up her appointees, or block them outright.

There’s an air of nervousness creeping in at the Michigan Democratic watch party. There isn’t quite the buoyancy there was earlier – although Harris supporters are remaining positive.

“I’m still very optimistic. I feel like we’re still in the race. We’re just waiting for the final numbers to come in so we can celebrate and do what we came here to do – and that was to win the presidency,” Henrietta Ivey said. “I still say that we still have a long way to go for the night, and those numbers can all tally up and come through like a wave.”

This is Chelsea Dureseaux’s first time voting in Michigan in 12 years – she just moved back to her home state after a spell living in Louisiana.

“It’s an honor for me to come back home for this historical election and be able to cast my vote where it actually matters,” she said. Dureseaux said she was “nervous, but also hopeful”.

“It’s like the tortoise and the hare race, is how I feel about it, and I feel like she’s gonna come out on top,” she said. Dureseaux said that a Harris win would have a special resonance: “If you think about how far we’ve come, and the rights that we have gained as women, and what the people in the past have fought for – this is that moment right here. So it’s a pivotal moment, and I’m praying that we actually get to write it down in the history books.”

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Earlier in the night, the crowd erupted in cheers as the TVs at Harris HQ flipped from CNN’s analysis to hear Angela Alsobrooks give her victory speech.

Alsobrooks will be the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the Senate, after defeating the Republican former governor, Larry Hogan. Many in the crowd live in Maryland, which neighbors Washington DC.

Alsobrooks noted that in the nation’s nearly 250-year history, “only three have looked like me”, she said. Until tonight, only three Black women had served in the Senate, including Kamala Harris.

“I want to salute all of those who came before me,” Alsobrooks said as the crowd in Washington DC cheered. “We’re going to be celebrating this one for a moment.”

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Harris wins Hawaii

Kamala Harris has won Hawaii, the Associated Press reports.

The vice-president’s victory was expected, and she picks up four electoral votes.

I’m at the Arizona Democratic Party’s election night party at a Phoenix hotel, where the crowd of liberal party faithfuls cheered as NBC’s Steve Kornacki showed results from around the country, broadcasted on two big screens at the front of the room.

When the first drop of results from Arizona’s Maricopa county, a swing county, showed Harris with a slight edge, Democrats roared and cheered – but it’s clear to all that there’s likely a long road ahead until races are called.

Democratic US Senator Mark Kelly and former US Representative Gabby Giffords, his wife, said before results dropped that they’re optimistic for Democrats tonight, but it’ll be a while for results.

Kelly stressed accuracy over speed, with Giffords adding, “Patience, patience, patience.”

Democratic governor Katie Hobbs said she was optimistic about the state’s eventual results, but added, “We have to prepare for a really long evening, a really long couple of days, and make sure all these votes are counted.”

Polls close in Hawaii

Polls have just closed in Hawaii, one of the final two states that were still voting.

It’s a Democratic stronghold, and Kamala Harris is expected to win its four electoral votes.

The only other state where polls remain open statewide is Alaska. Voting finishes there at 1am eastern time.

Another dispatch from Black voters in California:

Jasmyne Cannick, a Los Angeles-based political strategist who worked as a consultant on five local campaigns, started her election day with a political activation event alongside her close friend, Nana Gyamfi, an attorney who heads Black Alliance for Just Immigration, a legal advocacy group. Cannick says she’s excited to hopefully see Kamala Harris win the presidency but worried about the potential for subsequent protests and violence.

“I wanna make sure this country doesn’t act like a fool. That worries me,” she said. “When Kamala wins I hope no one pulls out the pitchforks and come for us. We saw what happened on January 6 so we know what’s possible.”

Cannick and Gyamfi joined actresses Meagan Good and Amber Riley for stops in downtown LA, where they spoke with canvassers, handed out voter information and took people to the polls.

The work, combined with avoiding the news, had Cannick feeling excited to begin an evening of election night event-hopping that she hopes will end in celebrations for the local races she has supported.

“Those are important: your trash, your potholes, your parks, your schools. These are critical positions that affect us quickly,” she said. “If they vote down there to raise your water bill, that’s going to happen immediately. Sometimes we get so distracted by the noise that we just pay attention to what happened in DC. But we’ve got to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Scenes from election watch party at Harris's alma mater

Earlier in the night, Kamala Harris supporters gathered at Howard University, the vice-president’s alma mater, for what they hoped would be a historic night celebrating the first Black woman elected US president. The mood has shifted over the course of the evening, but here are some photos from our photographer on the scene:

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The mood has certainly shifted at the Harris HQ. The crowd is quiet. The TV is tuned to CNN as Trump appears to be in a strong position to reclaim the White House.

Many supporters are refreshing their phones. One woman in my view is chewing her nails. A few groups appear to be leaving, as it remains uncertain when or whether Harris will address the crowd at Howard tonight.

At 11.40pm, CNN predicted that Donald Trump would win North Carolina, one of the seven battleground states that Harris had contested. There were hardly any boos. Just a wave of sighs.

After the North Carolina call, the TVs were muted, and the DJ started back up, playing 2Pac’s California Love. But no one seems to be in the mood for dancing. Instead there’s a lot of stone-faced Democrats.

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Harris wins Virginia

Kamala Harris has won Virginia and its 13 electoral votes, the Associated Press Reports.

Virginia is another state that has trended blue lately, but nonetheless received a visit from Donald Trump last week – fruitlessly, as it turned out.

Cruz re-elected in Texas, lowering Democrats' odds of keeping Senate

Republican Ted Cruz has been re-elected to the Senate in Texas, the Associated Press reports.

The party was hoping that a victory by congressman Colin Allred against the incumbent, who gained notoriety for vacationing in Cancún as a deadly cold spell struck the state, could help them keep their 51- seat majority. But Texas is a reliably Republican state, and voters there have given Cruz another six years in the office.

It’s another blow to Democrats’ hopes of keeping the majority, after losing seats in West Virginia and Ohio earlier this evening.

Missouri passes abortion rights ballot measure

Missouri voters approved a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution, setting the state up to overturn its near-total abortion ban – a first in the US post-Roe v Wade.

The measure protects the right to abortion up until fetal viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy. Its success in a ruby-red state is a stunning repudiation of the US supreme court’s 2022 overturning of Roe as well as a signal of just how powerful the issue of abortion has become in US politics.

The passage of the Missouri measure does not, however, automatically overturn the state’s ban. Abortion rights supporters must first pursue litigation or legislation to officially strike down restrictions.

A total of 10 states are voting on abortion ballot measures on Tuesday. Maryland, Colorado, and New York have all passed measures to expand protections for abortion rights while Florida’s measure fell short of the 60% it needed to pass. That failure left the state’s six-week abortion ban in place.

Three other states still have the chance to vote to overturn abortion bans. Results are forthcoming.

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Harris wins New Mexico

Kamala Harris has won New Mexico, the Associated Press reports, dashing the Donald Trump campaign’s hopes of a surprise victory in the south-western state.

New Mexico has typically voted Democratic in recent elections, but Trump campaigned there last week, hoping to flip it to his side. He was not successful, and Harris has won its five electoral votes.

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Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon tells me: “We’ve got this.”

Some Trump allies have started to filter into the Palm Beach convention center where the campaign watch party is taking place, which may be an indication that Trump may appear tonight.

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GOP flips Senate seat in Ohio, imperiling Democratic majority

Republican Bernie Moreno has defeated Democratic senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, the Associated Press reports, likely giving the GOP the majority in the chamber.

It is the second seat Democrats have lost tonight, after Republican Jim Justice won the seat held by retiring independent Joe Manchin in West Virginia. Democrats will need surprise victories in Montana and Texas and a victory by Kamala Harris to keep control of Congress’s upper chamber.

Harris wins Oregon

Kamala Harris has won Oregon, the Associated Press reports, completing a sweep of the west coast’s Democratic strongholds.

She picks up eight electoral votes from the state in a victory that was expected, given its strong Democratic tilt.

Donald Trump’s victory in North Carolina is the latest instance of Democrats falling short in a state that always winds up being just out of reach.

No Democrat has won its electoral votes since Barack Obama in 2008, but Kamala Harris’s campaign believed they might have a chance this year. Had they succeeded, it would have padded her margins, though she still would have had to capture several other swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona or Georgia to take the White House.

Trump wins North Carolina

Donald Trump has won North Carolina, the Associated Press reports, picking up his first of the seven swing states expected to decide the election.

Ohio voters have rejected a ballot measure that would have stripped lawmakers of their ability to draw electoral districts, a major blow to curb the practice of extreme partisan gerrymandering, Decision Desk HQ is projecting.

The panel would have given redistricting power to a panel of 15 citizens – Democrats, Republicans, and independents to draw district lines. Citizens placed it on the ballot after the Ohio supreme court struck down maps drawn by Republicans seven times. Republicans implemented their maps anyway after control of the court changed.

Republicans successfully distorted the ballot language to make it confusing. They were able to approve language that said the measure would have required the panel to gerrymander districts. In reality, the measure would have outlawed gerrymandering. The news site Bolts reported that Ohio voters were confused about the measure.

The defeat is a major win for Republicans, who control the Ohio state house and have a majority in the state’s congressional delegation.

“Ohio voters spoke loudly and clearly on Issue 1. Ohio’s constitution is not for sale to foreign billionaires and out of state leftwing special interest groups,” Bob Paduchik, senior adviser to Ohio Works, said in a statement.

“Despite Democrats’ best efforts to deceive Ohioans into changing our constitution and rigging elections in their favor, the truth has carried the day. We are grateful to our elected Republican leaders, the Ohio Republican party, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Manufacturers Association and many others that took a stand to protect representational democracy.”

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Californians send Democrat Adam Schiff to the Senate

Democratic congressman Adam Schiff will be California’s next senator, taking the seat occupied for more than 30 years by Dianne Feinstein, who died last year.

Schiff, a major antagonist of Donald Trump and a leader of his first impeachment, takes over from Laphonza Butler, who was appointed to the seat after Feinstein’s death, but did not stand for a full term. Here’s more about Schiff:

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Colorado adopts abortion rights ballot measure

Colorado has passed a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

The measure, which needed to secure 55% of the vote to pass, blocks Colorado’s state government from denying, impeding or discriminating against individuals’ “right to abortion”.

There is currently no gestational limit on the right to abortion in deep-blue Colorado, which has become a sanctuary for people fleeing abortion bans.

A total of 10 states are also voting on abortion ballot measures on Tuesday. Maryland and New York passed measures to expand protections for abortion rights while Florida’s measure fell short of the 60% supermajority it needed to pass. Had it succeeded, the Florida initiative would have paved the way for the state to overturn its six-week abortion ban.

Four other states still have the chance to vote to overturn abortion bans. Results are forthcoming.

Harris wins California and Washington; Trump carries Idaho

Kamala Harris has won her home state of California, as well as Washington state, while Donald Trump has picked up Idaho, the Associated Press reports.

The two states give Harris a combined 66 electoral votes, while Idaho gives Trump four electoral votes. Oregon, the other state where polls just closed, has not yet been called.

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Polls close in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho

Polls have just closed in four west coast states that should give Kamala Harris a slew of electoral votes.

The most-populous state California, along with Oregon and Washington, are all reliably Democratic, and expected to be easy pick ups for the vice-president. Idaho, by contrast, is strongly Republican, and Donald Trump is almost certain to win its electoral votes.

I spent the day with three different Black women in Los Angeles to see how they were spending an unprecedented election day for their demographic.

The first was Kathy Evans, an LA native, who started her day with her late mother on her mind and a trove of text messages from family and friends asking for her thoughts on ballots. Evans, a longtime community activist, says that she is honored that people think highly enough of her to ask for her insights and only wishes that her mother, who died in 2000, was alive to see Kamala Harris won.

“I’m honored, I don’t take it lightly,” she said of the role she plays in her community. “I don’t even know how I ended up with the job and it’s important and I’m so honored that people would trust me to be the voice of reason and the truth.”

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Harris picks up electoral vote in Maine

Kamala Harris has won one of Maine’s four electoral votes, the Associated Press reports.

The state is one of two, along with Nebraska, to allocate its votes by congressional district. Harris won the first congressional district, but its three other votes – one given to the winner of its second congressional district, and two for the winner statewide – have not yet been called.

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The mood at Trump’s watch party in Florida is fairly upbeat and expectant right now.

The giant TV screens switched from Fox News to CNN, which ran through some states where Trump is leading: Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia. Each was greeted by a big cheer from the crowd.

Every now and then some young Trump supporters break into chants such as: “Re-elect Trump! Re-elect Trump!”

A huge “Trump will fix it!” poster hangs on a far wall. Guests are helping themselves to a buffet of wine and cheese and other snacks. Thankfully, coffee is also on sale.

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It’s early and votes are still being counted in Pennsylvania, but ominous signs have emerged for Kamala Harris in a key county.

Lackawanna county, home to Scranton, has reported nearly all of its votes and has Harris leading Donald Trump by three percentage points. That’s a drop from 2020, when Joe Biden carried the county where he was born by eight points. Hillary Clinton won the county by three points in 2016 when she lost Pennsylvania. Barack Obama carried it by nearly 28 points in 2012.

Harris could improve on Biden’s margins elsewhere in the state to offset the loss in the margin here. And Trump could still slip in his performance from 2020 elsewhere. But Democrats had been hoping to build on their margin here and it was one of the key counties in the state Democrats were watching as a signal of how Harris would perform in the state and in the rust belt.

Harris campaigned in Scranton yesterday and Biden had a muted visit to the city over the weekend.

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Trump wins Iowa, Kansas

Donald Trump has won the midwestern states of Iowa and Kansas, the Associated Press reports, picking up a combined 12 electoral votes.

His victory in Kansas was expected, as was Iowa – until Saturday, when the state’s foremost pollster Ann Selzer found Harris leading by a small amount that was within the survey’s margin of error. It was a surprising finding, given that the state has grown markedly Republican in recent elections, after Barack Obama won it twice.

The finding was viewed as a potential sign of strength for Harris in nearby Wisconsin and Michigan, two swing states that are demographically similar to Iowa. The Trump campaign decried Selzer’s poll as an outlier, and that turned out to be the case.

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Senator Josh Hawley, backer of Trump's election denialism, secures second term

Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator who was one of the most prominent voices in the chamber backing Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud in his 2020 election loss, has won re-election, the Associated Press reports.

Hawley would raise his fist to the crowds that gathered outside the Capitol on January 6, only to later be seen running through the halls as they entered the building. He faced Democrat Lucas Kunce, who was not able to overcome the senator’s appeal to voters in a state where the Republican party is strong.

Read more on Hawley here:

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Tarence Wheeler is among those eagerly awaiting Michigan’s results at Democrats’ election night party in Detroit.

He’s wearing a T-shirt which says: “Voting is my Black job” – a reference to Trump’s frequent, but vague, claims about how he would provide Black-specific employment.

“This is such an important election. Every election they keep saying: ‘This is the most consequential election of your lifetime.’ But this is. There’s so much at stake in this election. We can’t get it wrong,” said Wheeler, an educator.

The fact that Harris would be the first female president and the first Black woman president, adds to the historic air of the election, Wheeler said.

“There’s a momentum that’s being built. People are incentivized. They have the courage to stand in line for two hours, three hours, whatever it takes. You’re voting for your ancestors. So for me, as a Black man, born and raised in the city of Detroit, I am immensely proud to have cast my vote,” he said.

“I’m immensely proud that my daughters can see that. So in my lifespan, if she wins, I’ve seen Obama and I’ve seen Harris. That shows you that the country is making a turn. Kamala Harris is who America aspires to be.”

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Allyson DeFelice, 49, a property agent from Delray Beach, Florida, said it is “amazing” to be at Donald Trump’s election watch party: “I’ve been waiting for this for four years.”

DeFelice predicted a Trump victory “hands down”, adding: “Some of the main concerns for everybody over the last four years have been inflation, price of goods, gas, everything that’s going on at the border. The Democrats destroyed what he built up in this country. Even during Covid he still managed to rebuild the economy afterwards and they just destroyed it.”

Trump infamously declared victory on election night in 2020 even as the result was slipping away from him, but DeFelice does not expect a repeat. “I respect that he’s going to wait till the electoral college counts the exact votes and make sure he hits the 270 number before declaring victory.”

Although there is zero evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, DeFelice added: “They rigged the last one but I do believe this time we have more attorneys in place beforehand able to bring any issues to the courts before they happen instead of after. That was the downfall, what happened in the 2020 election. But we’re definitely more prepared on the ground this time.”

Donald Trump and his allies have spent weeks talking up the accuracy of the betting market forecasts as the top platforms put the former president ahead.

After a significant narrowing at the weekend, Trump has rebuilt a clear lead over Kamala Harris in recent hours in betting markets as the first results came in.

As of 8.54pm, Polymarket put Trump’s chance of winning the presidential election at 75% over 26% for Harris; Kalshi has Trump on 70% and Harris on 30%; and PredictIt has Trump on 66% and Harris on 39%.

Betting markets, like opinion polls, have had mixed success in predicting the winner of recent presidential contests.

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Harris wins Washington DC

Washington DC is not a state, but it has three electoral votes, and Kamala Harris has won them, the Associated Press reports.

No Republican candidate has won the federal district’s votes since the 23rd amendment to the constitution granted them in 1961. The victory is particularly sweet for Harris – she’s an alumni of the city’s historically Black Howard University, and her election night party is being held there.

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Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary, is at the Michigan Democrats’ election watch party now:

Michigan is the center of the political universe tonight … This isn’t just about defending our rights and freedoms, it’s about an opportunity to have politics get out of our face. I live and breathe politics and public policy – I can’t wait for a chance to go into Thanksgiving dinner and maybe have politics be on the backburner just a little bit.

Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, moved to Michigan in 2022, and has been a high-profile figure in Harris’s campaign.

He has regularly jousted with hosts on Fox News – as recently as this morning he was upsetting Brian Kilmeade on Fox and Friends – and recently debated 25 undecided voters.

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Presidential race calls so far - and how things are looking

Here are the states that have been called in the presidential race as of 11.08pm:

Kamala Harris: California, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington DC, Maine’s second district.

Donald Trump: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Kansas, Idaho and Iowa.

There haven’t been any surprises in the presidential race so far. The swing states have all closed their polls, but none have been called yet. All eyes remain on the key battleground states – Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – where counting is ongoing.

Trump’s victory in Iowa had been expected – until Saturday, when the state’s foremost pollster Ann Selzer found Harris leading by a small amount that was within the survey’s margin of error. The finding was viewed as a potential sign of strength for Harris in nearby Wisconsin and Michigan, two swing states that are demographically similar to Iowa. The Trump campaign decried Selzer’s poll as an outlier, and that turned out to be the case.

Trump aides have expressed confidence about their chances, based on some early results, including a substantial win in a key Florida county that is considered a bellwether. But it’s far too soon to make a clear prediction about the final results. In previous presidential elections, pundits have described a “red mirage” in reference to the phenomenon in which a GOP candidate appears ahead in the early evening, but loses the edge as more votes are counted.

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At Howard University’s the Yard, Kamala Harris supporters are dancing and cheering.

Doreen Hogans, 50, said she was feeling hopeful. She pulled a string of pearls from her pocket. The necklace belonged to her late mother. Hogans’ eyes glistened: “She would have been so proud.”

Around her, students and supporters filled the Yard. They danced as the music pulsed. There were a mix of cheers and boos as CNN made a series of race calls. When CNN declared Harris the winner of Washington DC and Maryland, Chelsea Chambers clasped hands with Kelo Torres and cheered. The women wore sashes – Miss District of Columbia Teen USA and Miss District of Columbia USA, respectively.

Chambers, 19 and a sophomore at Howard, voted for the first time. “To see a woman become president, I’m like, I can do anything after that,” the aspiring sports journalist said.

Michele Fuller attended Howard at the same time as Harris – the future vice-president was a year ahead of her. “It feels unbelievable,” Fuller said, as she walked into Harris’s election night watch party at their alma mater. “She’s just done so great. And she’s more than qualified. I’m just so excited.”

Asked if she ever imagined Harris would one day be standing on the cusp of history, Fuller said: “No – never. But once she became the vice-president, I knew it. I knew it.”

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Harris wins Colorado

Kamala Harris has picked up Colorado’s 10 electoral votes, the Associated Press reports.

Though states such as Ohio and Florida have slipped away from Democrats in recent years, the party has built up its strength in Colorado, which used to be reliably Republican territory. But the GOP has not won Colorado’s electoral votes since 2004, and won’t this year.

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Trump aides bullish on his chances in Great Lakes swing states

Donald Trump has been milling around his Mar-a-Lago club tonight as the results come in, after earlier dropping in on some private dinners there.

The Trump team there has continued to be bullish on their chances. Some top advisers have told members within the last hour that they think the former president could win Pennsylvania and both of Wisconsin and Michigan, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Trump wins Montana, Utah

Donald Trump has won Montana and Utah, the Associated Press reports, picking up a combined 10 electoral votes.

Both results were expected. The big contest to watch of the pair is Montana Democrat Jon Tester’s bid for re-election to the Senate against Republican Tim Sheehy.

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Polls close in swing state Nevada, Utah, Montana

Voting has finished in Nevada, one of the seven battleground states, as well as Utah and Montana.

All eyes will be on Nevada’s Clark county, where Las Vegas sits, and Washoe county, home to the city of Reno. Those are the state’s two main urban areas and turnout there will likely determine whether Kamala Harris wins the state, or if Donald Trump becomes the first Republican to triumph in Nevada in 20 years.

Utah is a solidly Republican state with no electoral surprises expected. Montana is also a red state, but there, Democratic senator Jon Tester is running for another term against his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy. Should he lose, it’s probably curtains for the Democratic Senate majority.

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Sarah McBride becomes first trans person elected to US House

Sarah McBride, a Delaware state senator, has made history as the first openly transgender person elected to the US House of Representatives.

“Thank you, Delaware! Because of your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress,” McBride wrote on X after the race was called.

“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and healthcare are available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us.”

McBride, 34, won Delaware’s at-large House seat in the general election against Republican candidate John Whalen III, a former Delaware state police officer and businessman.

Ahead of Tuesday’s election, McBride spoke about what it would mean to be the first transgender person elected to Congress, telling CBS News: “It is a testament to Delawareans that the candidacy of someone like me is even possible.”

Several voters waiting in the snaking line to cast their ballots in Las Vegas’ Spring Valley neighborhood were once conservatives, but are now voting with Democrats.

James, 23, who didn’t want to give his surname because much of his family and his co-workers are staunch Republicans and Donald Trump supporters, said he was excited to cast a ballot for Kamala Harris: “A lot of my family members are die hard conservatives. But I’m a little bit hitting my rebellious phase right now.”

He has been turned off by Project 2025 – the conservative blueprint for a second Trump term that outlines extreme policies: It’s kind of freaky.” Harris seems more level-headed to him, and he likes that she is committed to protecting reproductive rights – an important issue for him and his wife, who want children eventually but wouldn’t be able to financially support a child at the moment. “I don’t want us to be bringing someone into the world that we couldn’t take care of,” he said.

James said he was still reading up on some of the down ballot races – and was grateful he had at least an hour to read before reaching the front of the line. Sam Brown, the Republican candidate for the senate, had stopped by a few minutes back, and James said he enjoyed talking to him, but was still unconvinced. He’s leaning toward the Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen, who seems more moderate.

He’s been dismayed at how divided his community had become. “Even in 2020, it was divided but not like this. Bak then you could still have a civilized conversation” he said. “This is brutal.”

Trump wins Missouri

Donald Trump is the winner of Missouri’s 10 electoral votes, the Associated Press reports.

It’s a red state and no surprises were expected there. Democrats had hoped their candidate Lucas Kunce would be able to oust Republican senator Josh Hawley, a key supporter in the chamber of Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud four years ago.

But polls have shown Kunce trailing Hawley, and though the race has not yet been called, he is not expected to win.

Updated

Joe Biden has made congratulatory calls to a number of Democratic winners, the White House says.

The president has talked to Lisa Blunt Rochester, the first woman and Black senator to represent Delaware; New Jersey’s senator-elect Andy Kim, the first Korean American to serve in Congress’s upper chamber; John Carney, who was elected mayor of Wilmington, Delaware; and Josh Stein, who was elected governor of North Carolina.

Advocates are celebrating the election of Lisa Blunt Rochester, who will be the first woman and first Black senator to represent Delaware in Congress.

The Democratic congresswoman will replace senator Tom Carper who is retiring.

“Lisa Blunt Rochester is a groundbreaking leader who has a proven track record of protecting our fundamental rights,” EMILYs List President Jessica Mackler said.

She will be joined in the chamber by another barrier-breaking Black female senator, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, who prevailed over the state’s former Republican governor, Larry Hogan.

Maryland and New York pass abortion rights measures

New York and Maryland have both voted in support of ballot measures to amend their state constitutions to protect abortion rights, cementing their status as abortion havens.

The Maryland measure guarantees individuals’ “right to reproductive freedom, including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end the individual’s pregnancy”. There is currently no gestational limit on the right to abortion in the state, but the success of the measure promises to protect abortion rights even in the event that anti-abortion Republicans take control of the state.

Meanwhile, the New York measure expands the state’s anti-discrimination laws by protecting against discrimination on the basis of “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health”. Although this language does not explicitly reference abortion, advocates say its pregnancy-related language encompasses abortion protections. New York state already allows abortions until fetal viability.

Seven other states are also voting on abortion ballot measures. One of the measures – in Florida – has already failed, leaving the state’s six-week abortion ban in place. Four of the states with forthcoming results have the chance to overturn abortion bans.

Many voters in line at the senior center in Las Vegas’ diverse Spring Valley neighborhood were the sort of swing voters both parties have been desperate to win over this election cycle.

Some, like Kidani Perez, 32, had voted blue the past few elections. This year, he was voting for Donald Trump – in large part because he was disappointed by Joe Biden’s administration.

“I grew up Democrat – I’ve been a long term Democrat,” said Perez, who works in asphalt. But recently, he’s been dismayed that Democratic leaders have been sending funds overseas to Ukraine rather than helping struggling communities in the US. “My wife’s from Hawaii and seeing Hawaii get almost no money after the fires there? And meanwhile they’re sending millions to Ukraine,” he said. “No that’s our taxpayer money. And we’re getting chump change.”

Maedot Apthayas, 38, agreed. The customer service representative, who voted for Biden in 2020, said she was looking forward to a Trump administration. “He’s going to get us out of wars,” she said. “And he’s going to be good for the economy.”

Apthayas was also opposed to abortions, and appreciated Trump’s commitment to restricting access: “It’s so close here, the election is very close, but I’m praying. We’ll see.”

Fani Willis, Georgia DA prosecuting Donald Trump, is re-elected

Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who charged Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, has been re-elected, the Associated Press reports.

The Fulton county district attorney won her race against GOP challenger Courtney Kramer, who had served as an intern in the White House counsel’s office during the Trump administration. The county is home to 11% of the state’s electorate and most of the city of Atlanta and is reliably Democratic, the AP reports.

Trump’s lawyers have tried to have Willis removed from the case, which is ongoing.

Marylanders elect Democrat Angela Alsobrooks to the Senate

Democrat Angela Alsobrooks will be Maryland’s next senator, the Associated Press reports, with voters turning down an attempt by the popular Republican former governor Larry Hogan to win the seat.

Alsobrooks will be Maryland’s first Black senator, and only the third Black woman to ever serve in the chamber.

Hogan was about the best candidate the GOP could hope to get in what is otherwise a strongly Democratic state. Had he won, it would have badly damaged Democrats’ chances of keeping their Senate majority, or even regaining control in upcoming elections.

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Donald Trump has won one of Nebraska’s five electoral votes, the Associated Press reports, but four others have not yet been decided.

Nebraska and Maine are the only two states in the nation that dole out electoral votes by congressional district. The AP has called Nebraska’s third congressional district for Trump, and he’s tipped to win four more in what is generally a red state.

But Nebraska’s second congressional district, which encompasses the largest city Omaha and its suburbs, may elude him – and potentially send Kamala Harris to the White House. The district is viewed as Democratic leaning, and if the vice-president wins its single electoral vote along with those of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, it will be enough to make her president.

This post has been corrected to note that Nebraska has five electoral votes, not four.

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Trump aides see reasons for hope in early results

Donald Trump’s aides are expressing confidence in their chances based on some of the early results, saying they think Trump winning several key counties in Florida and Republicans defeating both abortion ballot measures are good omens.

In 2020, Trump lost Miami-Dade county by seven points to Joe Biden. This year, Trump is currently ahead of Kamala Harris by 12 points – a notable turnaround that Trump’s aides see as momentum in his favor.

When the Fox News analysis of the Miami-Dade result was played on the two massive screens here at the Trump campaign’s official watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, supporters looked up to clap and cheer over the commentary.

The atmosphere inside the convention center has been buzzing as it has started to fill up. Trump is not here himself. He is holding court at his Mar-a-Lago resort a few minutes away with a few hundred members, donors and family and friends.

Trump’s supporters at the convention center are being well looked after. There is hot food catering, multiple snack stations with Hersheys and Snickers and marshmallow bars, as well as wine and beer on sale. Earlier in the night, staff were also handing out free Maga hats.

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Alfred Vivar Muñoz, a political science student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said he was most worried about what a Donald Trump presidency would mean for immigrants.

Vivar Muñoz moved to the US from Cuba as a child, and he has been especially alarmed by the former president’s harsh, anti immigration policies, which includes a promise of mass deportations.

“It was Haitians, it was Mexicans, and it was Central Americans, Venezuelans. They’re all being weaponized in this election, and I feel like that is something that we cannot have in our American politics,” he said. “Immigrants should not be classified as a threat. We crafted this country. We have built it together with people from here.”

When he and his family first moved to the US, he said, he found it welcoming. But the political rhetoric about immigrants in recent years has hurt. “I’m an immigrant, I’m a Democrat – is there a chance I’m going to get attacked?” he said.

“But I try to contain those fears and that nervousness and just try to stay positive,” he said. “I think Kamala Harris is going to win.”

Outside the library polling center on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, Gloria-Jean Cutsforth said she was feeling cautiously optimistic about the election.

The 21-year-old student was wearing a shirt that read: “hysterical female voter”, and handing out pins, stickers and other swag to students who had stood in a snaking line to cast their ballots. “We have these condoms that say ‘Protect yourself from Republicans, vote Democrat’ – they’re a big hit!”

Like many students who were voting today, Cutsforth said that reproductive freedom was top of mind for her. “I wish we were able to spend more time on issues other than reproductive rights,” she said, noting she cared deeply about climate action, gun reform and foreign policy. “But I am saddened that we are still having this debate.”

She shouldn’t have to be taking up the same fight that her grandmother was fighting decades ago, she said. “And my grandmother should not have to be worrying about this issue again.”

Nevada is one of 10 states with an abortion measure on the ballot, which Cutsforth has been promoting as part of a group called Vote For Equality. She has also been urging fellow students to vote for Kamala Harris and Democratic senator Jacky Rosen, both of whom have made reproductive rights key to their campaigns.

Polls in Nevada have shown Harris and Donald Trump virtually tied, and the state’s top pollster, John Ralston, predicts that Harris may pull through in the end with a .3% edge. Cutsforth said she was feeling nervous, but excited to just how many young people were showing up to vote. The university polling location was one of the busiest in the county.

“I’m feeling good,” she said.

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Trump wins Texas

Donald Trump has won Texas and the populous state’s 40 electoral votes, the Associated Press reports.

It’s his biggest victory of the night, and wholly expected, since Texas is a Republican stronghold. Democrats are holding out hope for an upset victory in the Senate race, where congressman Colin Allred is hoping to oust Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.

Elon Musk says his political action committee, America Pac, will “keep going after this election”.

During a discussion on X this evening, the billionaire Trump backer said his Pac was “preparing for the midterms and any intermediate elections, as well as looking at elections at the district attorney level”, Business Insider reported.

“Something has to be done to counter the damage that [George] Soros has done to the American system,” said Musk, referring to the billionaire philanthropist who has supported progressive prosecutors dedicated to criminal justice reform and reducing mass incarceration.

His announcement comes after Musk was sued by Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s DA, who has championed progressive policies and been supported by Soros. Krasner had filed a lawsuit to stop Musk’s $1m voter prize giveaway, but a judge sided with Musk this week and allowed the controversial stunt to continue.

America Pac has led Trump’s ground game efforts and was warned in September about increasing numbers of door knocks being flagged as potentially fraudulent, the Guardian reported last week. The canvassing operation, which has funneled more than $100m into the election, was also accused of “willful violations of the California labor code” in a new California lawsuit. America Pac allegedly paid workers less than it promised and refused to make up the difference. More background here:

Trump wins Ohio

Donald Trump has won Ohio, the Associated Press reports, underscoring the one-time swing state’s shift towards the GOP.

We still do not have a result for its Senate race, which may decide whether Democrats are able to maintain their majority in the chamber. Democrat Sherrod Brown is standing for re-election against Republican challenger Bernie Moreno, and analysts view the race as a toss-up.

Donald Trump supporters at his election watch party in Florida are expressing measured confidence about the final result.

“Waiting for Pennsylvania,” said Kenneth Stewart, 47, a YouTuber from New York. “Everyone keeps talking about how razor thin of a margin it is.”

Stewart does not expect Trump to declare victory prematurely as he did in 2020. “He might be a little bit more cautious. There’d be no reason to rush because we know what happened last time and we know what could happen again.”

Stewart, who is African American, said Black voters have little faith in Kamala Harris. “Even in my community, I don’t think there’s a lot of energy behind Kamala.”

Trump appeals to Black men, he added. “He’s masculine. He brings a lot of energy. He talks about things that we can understand. He talks about building. He talks about the auto industry. I’m originally from Chicago, so he talks about a lot of stuff that people in the Rust Belt care about.

“The other side, they’re only talking about feelings. They’re talking about reproductive rights. They’re talking about Trump’s bad, he’s this or that, but come to me with tangibles. A lot of the Black men just want tangibles. We just want jobs. We want to see what our fathers had. We want to see what our grandfathers had, especially in the Rust Belt.”

Trump wins North and South Dakota, Louisiana, Wyoming, Harris carries New York

Kamala Harris has won Democratic stronghold New York, while Donald Trump picked up both North and South Dakota along with Louisiana and Wyoming, all reliably Republican.

Polls close across midwestern states, including battlegrounds Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan

More than a dozen states closed polls at 9pm, including three crucial battlegrounds: Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan.

In addition, voting finished in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.

It’ll be interesting to see if Kamala Harris can pull off an upset victory in Iowa, which hasn’t supported a Democrat since Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2012. Over the weekend, an authoritative pollster found Harris leading Donald Trump in the state.

There’s no question Trump will win Texas’s 40 electoral votes, but Democrats are hoping their candidate Colin Allred can oust incumbent senator Ted Cruz, and bolster their hopes of keeping the majority in the chamber.

Updated

Democrat Josh Stein elected North Carolina governor, beating Republican Mark Robinson, who called himself 'black Nazi'

Republican Mark Robinson has lost the race for governor of North Carolina to Democrat Josh Stein, the Associated Press reports.

Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, was known for making controversial statements, but his campaign was badly damaged in September after reports emerged that he had previously made lewd and offensive posts on the message board of a pornography website, including calling himself a “black Nazi”.

Stein, the state’s attorney general, will take over from fellow Democrat Roy Cooper. Here’s more about Robinson’s writings, which likely sunk his hopes of becoming governor:

Mark Robinson is at a watch party in Raleigh tonight.

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Arizona is a narrowly divided swing state this election – and the Tempe campus of Arizona State University sure looked like it on Tuesday.

Arizona senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, and his wife Gabrielle Giffords, a former representative turned gun control activist, showed up on campus, just feet away from a booth of Turning Point USA, a conservative group. Hundreds waiting to vote snaked around a campus fitness complex, while students in “Sun Devils for Harris” t-shirts mingled with those wearing “Make America Great Again” hats.

Arizona State University student Madison Schotz, 19, wore one of those red hats – which matched her red sports bra – as she walked past the line with her best friend and roommate Zoe Bellomio, 18. Both were first time voters: Schotz had voted for Donald Trump, while Bellomio had voted for Kamala Harris.

“I’m a Christian, and I see Trump upholding God’s policies more than I see Kamala,” Schotz said, adding that “protection” is important to her. “I like Trump’s policies on the border.”

“I just believe in inclusivity and I think Harris is way more inclusive,” Bellomio said. “I’m Jewish so I don’t see myself being very included in Trump’s policies. But furthermore I think Harris is good for middle-class economy and lowering taxes.”

Although abortion is one of the top issues in the 2024 election, especially for women under 45, it wasn’t critical to either Schotz, who identified as “pro-life”, or Bellomio, who identified as “pro-choice”. Neither had voted on Proposition 139, an Arizona ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and overturn the state’s 15-week abortion ban. When asked about their friendship, Schotz and Bellomio hugged enthusiastically.

“You can be besties and have opposing sides!” Bellomio said.

Trump wins Miami-Dade, a closely watched Florida county

Donald Trump is the first GOP presidential candidate to win Florida’s Miami-Dade county since George HW Bush in 1988, the New York Times reports.

Analysts have been keeping a close eye on the county, which includes the city of Miami and was once a Democratic stronghold. Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade by a 30-point margin in 2016, but the area has since moved right as Florida has transitioned from a swing state to a solidly red state. With 95% of votes in as of around 8.45pm, Trump had won 55% of the Miami-Dade vote compared with Harris’s 44%.

Joe Biden beat Trump by seven points in 2020 in the state’s most-populous county. Some pundits have said the Miami-Dade result could be a bellwether for Harris’s performance among Latino voters.

Updated

Measure to protect abortion access in Florida fails

A measure to enshrine abortion rights into the Florida state constitution fell short on Tuesday, narrowly missing the 60% vote share that it needed to become law in the red state.

The failure of the measure, which would have helped overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban, is a first for abortion rights supporters, who have won a string of abortion-related ballot measures in the two years since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.

Advocates had hoped to restore abortion access in Florida, which up until May had been the only southern state to allow the procedure past six weeks of pregnancy.

In the first month after the six-week ban took effect, abortions in Florida fell by roughly 30%, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

Nine other states are voting on abortion-related ballot measures on Tuesday. Results are forthcoming.

Updated

Harris wins Illinois

Kamala Harris has won Illinois, the Associated Press reports, taking the 19 electoral votes in the Democrats’ midwestern stronghold.

No Republican has won the state since 1988.

I am at Donald Trump’s election watch party at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

There are men in suits – often with red ties – and women in mostly red dresses. Other guests have gone full Maga with “Make America great again” caps and other regalia.

Most are gathered inside a black, cavernous exhibition hall, the focus of which is a giant US flag hanging from the ceiling, then a row of US flags on a stage where a lectern and microphone are set up. Unlike his 2016 party in New York, there is no sign of Maga caps displayed in glass cases like museum relics; however, a big pile of free Maga caps was on a table outside.

The hall is buzzing with conversation but dominated by giant TV screens showing Fox News’s coverage of election results with the volume turned up loud.

Elsewhere, people are standing in a queue to have their photo taken against a big black canvas that says: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Steve Bannon’s daughter Maureen is doing the rounds. And in one of the allocated press filing centres, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is podcasting away, providing a live commentary on events for anyone who will listen.

Updated

A helpful reminder from Guardian US data editor Will Craft:

Votes have started coming in across the east coast. But early US vote counts are misleading.

Large numbers of early votes and vote-by-mail ballots means that the vote count will shift as the night goes on, and votes from large, urban precincts might radically shift the count with one report.

States will be reporting totals throughout the night and it’s important to avoid the red or blue mirage.

Our results page is here:

Harris wins Delaware, New Jersey

Kamala Harris added blue states Delaware and New Jersey to her trove of electoral college wins, the Associated Press reports.

The news agency has yet to call any of the three swing states where polls have closed: Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.

Trump wins Arkansas

Donald Trump has won Arkansas, the Associated Press reports, gaining its six electoral votes.

The state last voted for a Democrat in 1996, when Bill Clinton, its former governor, ran successfully for a second term.

Polls close in Arkansas

It’s closing time for polling places in Arkansas, the home state of Democratic former president Bill Clinton but otherwise a solidly red state.

Expect its six electoral votes to be quickly declared for Donald Trump.

New Jersey Democrat Andy Kim becomes first Korean American elected to Senate

Andy Kim is the winner of New Jersey’s Senate race, the Associated Press reports, making the Democratic congressman the first Korean American elected to Congress’s upper chamber.

Kim takes over from fellow Democrat Robert Menendez, who resigned his seat after being convicted of bribery charges. George Helmy, also a Democrat, was appointed to replace Menendez, but did not run for a full term.

Lisa Blunt Rochester elected Delaware's first Black female senator

Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester has won the race for Delaware’s Senate seat, the Associated Press said, becoming both the first woman and first African American to represent the state in Congress’s upper chamber.

Rochester is currently the state’s at-large congresswoman, and broke the same barriers when first elected in 2016.

Updated

Republican senator Rick Scott re-elected in Florida, limiting Democrats' options for keeping majority

Republican Rick Scott has won re-election as Florida’s Senator, the Associated Press said, blocking Democrats from an upset victory in the increasingly Republican state that could have helped them preserve their majority in Congress’s upper chamber.

Democrats have a 51-seat majority in the chamber, but earlier lost the West Virginia seat held by retiring independent senator Joe Manchin. The party had hoped their candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell could oust Scott in the Sunshine state and give them another seat, but those hopes have been dashed.

They still have a chance to keep the majority, but it requires the re-election of Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Jon Tester in Montana, or a surprise victory by Colin Allred in Texas. All of those are red states.

Updated

Trump triumphs in Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, Harris wins Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island

The Associated Press has called Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee for Donald Trump, and Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut for Kamala Harris.

None of these results are surprising, with the two candidates winning states that have supported their respective parties for years. If there is anything to note, it’s that Florida was called so quickly – when Trump first won in 2016, it was viewed as a swing state, but has since become reliably Republican.

Harris wins Maryland, Trump carries Mississippi, Alabama

Kamala Harris has won Maryland, a Democratic stronghold, the Associated Press reports, while Donald Trump has won the very red states of Mississippi and Alabama.

Expect more race calls from the AP imminently.

Polls close across east coast, midwestern states, including pivotal Pennsylvania

Voting just finished in more than a dozen states, including Pennsylvania, which is regarded as perhaps the most vital swing state for determining the outcome of the presidential election.

In addition to the Keystone state, polls closed at 8pm in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and the District of Columbia. Voting also finished in counties in Florida and New Hampshire that had stayed open beyond 7pm.

Beyond the presidential race, we’ll be looking for the outcome of the Senate race in Pennsylvania, where Democratic incumbent Bob Casey is up for re-election against Republican David McCormick. Maryland is also worth watching – it’s a blue state, but Democrat Angela Alsobrooks may face trouble beating Republican former governor Larry Hogan to win its Senate seat. And Democrats are hoping for a surprise in Florida, where they believe Republican senator Rick Scott could be beaten by their candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

Many of these states are otherwise solidly red or blue, and no surprises are expected at the presidential or congressional level.

It’s starting to pick up at Kamala HQ. The DJ has started playing music on the Yard at Howard University, Harris’s alma mater, is beginning to fill up.

There is a whole section awash in pink and green, the colors of AKA, the sorority Harris joined at Howard. Students are dancing. The mood at this early stage in the night is joyful.

“If you’re ready to make Black history, talk to me,” the DJ shouted, getting cheers from the crowd.

For more on Harris and AKA:

Updated

Kamala Harris has given one of her final interviews before the polls close, telling SiriusXM host Zerlina Maxwell that last-minute undecided voters should understand how Trump would govern if he wins.

The vice-president said:

On January 20th, it’s either going to be him or me in the White House, and if it is him, he’s going to be sitting there stewing over his enemies list, plotting his revenge, playing out all of his grievances, which are all about himself, versus what I will be doing if elected president, which is working from day one on my to-do list on behalf of the American people to make progress through common ground solutions that are common-sense solutions.

Updated

Sister Barbara Pfarr, a member of the faith group Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), prayed with a small group in front of the Baird Center where Milwaukee’s central count is taking place.

“We’re here to support the folks inside because of all of the threats and harassment,” said Pfarr, nodding to the increase in violent threats that election workers have faced since the 2020 election, when Donald Trump and his allies falsely claimed election workers had participated in a plot to rig the election for Joe Biden.

“We’re here to support the democratic process and we believe in whatever is going to come out of here,” said Pfarr, who said she had been stationed in front of the building since the early morning. “I have every confidence in [the process] and I’m just so grateful for these folks, for what they’re doing.”

Poll workers and election experts have been on high alert for security threats and voters have been telling me all day about their fears of violence no matter the outcome.

“The vote is sacred, but it’s not just the vote, it’s what comes after,” said Pfarr. And then she said something that – following all my conversations with voters today – genuinely took me off guard: “I feel optimistic about the country and our democracy.”

Republican attorney general Patrick Morrisey will be West Virginia’s next governor, the Associated Press reports.

The victories are a sweep by the GOP of a state that was for decades a Democratic stronghold, but has recently become one of the most Republican in the nation and in the past two presidential elections gave Donald Trump some of his biggest margins of victory.

Trump wins West Virginia, Republicans pick up Senate seat

Donald Trump has won West Virginia, the Associated Press reports, while Republican governor Jim Justice has won its Senate seat.

Justice will replace Joe Manchin, an independent who recently left the Democratic party after acting as a spoiler to many of Joe Biden’s economic proposals.

Manchin continues to caucus with the Democrats, and the loss of his seat brings Democrats closer to losing their control of Congress’s upper chamber. Their hopes now hinge on victories by their candidates in Ohio, Montana and potentially Texas and Florida – all red states.

Updated

Polls close in battleground state North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio

Voting has finished in another three states, one of which is a swing state.

At 7.30pm, polls closed in North Carolina, which has not backed a Democratic candidate since 2008, but which Kamala Harris’s team believes she may have a chance of winning this year.

Balloting also wrapped up in deep-red West Virginia, where Democrats are expected to lose a Senate seat. But they are hopeful about Ohio, where Democratic senator Sherrod Brown is standing for re-election in a state that has grown increasingly Republican in recent years. Voting just finished there, too.

The Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking legal action to have voting extended past 8pm in precincts where students have been waiting hours to cast a vote.

That includes in Bethlehem, where students have been waiting as many as six-and-a-half hours to cast a ballot.

“The counties know from history that students come out for presidential elections, and they should have been better prepared,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

“Still, it’s a good problem to have. Students are participating in this election, and we’ll take court action necessary to ensure that they get to cast their ballots.”

Here’s a post on X from earlier with a clip of a voting line near the university.

Updated

Georgia independents breaking for Trump by slim margin - exit poll

A CNN exit poll in Georgia had a potentially concerning finding for Kamala Harris: independents who backed Joe Biden in 2020 now have swung to Donald Trump, albeit by a small margin.

However, the vice-president continues to be strong among Black voters, as well as young people. Here’s more, from CNN:

Roughly 86% of Black Georgia voters say they cast their ballot for Harris, as do about 6 in 10 voters younger than 30 — in both cases, generally similar to Biden’s numbers in 2020.

As was the case in 2020, suburban voters are closely split. But where Biden won slightly over half of political independents in 2020, now a slim majority say they’re backing Trump.

White voters without a college degree, who went overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020, are still predominantly in his camp, with roughly 8 in 10 picking him over Harris.

Lara Trump, the GOP nominee’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, has raised alarms about slow counting in Milwaukee, saying it was “an unacceptable example of incompetent election administration in a key swing state”.

As we reported earlier, a human error during Milwaukee’s absentee vote could lead to a late night for election workers in the city. An election observer noticed panels open on multiple tabulators, which should have been locked and closed, according to Vote Beat. The open panels revealed machines’ on/off switches, and although officials said it appeared the machines had not been tampered, they moved to recount 30,000 votes that had already been processed.

Lara Trump’s statement said:

We are unambiguously calling on Milwaukee’s officials to do their jobs and count ballots quickly and effectively. Anything less undermines voter confidence.

We also have a few race calls for House seats, with no surprises.

In Florida, the Associated Press says Republican Gus Bilirakis has been re-elected, as have Democrats Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Frederica Wilson.

In Kentucky, Republicans Hal Rogers and Thomas Massie have won themselves another term. Republican Mark Messmer has won election to a district in Indiana.

All were running in safe districts, and expected to win.

Updated

Progressive Bernie Sanders re-elected to Senate

Independent Bernie Sanders, an icon among progressives, has won a fourth term representing Vermont in the US Senate, the Associated Press reports.

Republican congressman Jim Banks will be Indiana’s next senator, replacing Mike Braun, who the AP says was just elected as the state’s governor.

Here’s what Sanders posted on X on Sunday.

Updated

Trump wins red states Kentucky and Indiana; Harris picks up blue Vermont

The Associated Press has called its first states, and there are thus far no surprises.

Kamala Harris became the latest Democrat to win Vermont, a party stronghold. Donald Trump has won Indiana and Kentucky, both red states.

The AP has not yet called swing state Georgia, or Virginia and South Carolina.

Updated

Polls close in battleground Georgia and five other states

Voting just wrapped up in six states, including Georgia, one of the swing states expected to determine the winner of the presidential election.

In addition to the Peach State, polls closed at 7pm in red state South Carolina, blue state Vermont and Virginia, which is expected to vote Democratic but where there are several contested races for seats in the House of Representatives.

Polls that had remained open in Kentucky and Indiana, both red states, have also closed.

Georgia tends to count ballots quickly, so we may know the winner there before the night is through. Joe Biden won the state in 2020 and Democrats won both of its Senate seats, despite the state’s historically Republican tilt.

Updated

Ana Mendoza, a 19-year-old political science major at Lehigh University, got in line to vote around 11am at her polling place. She didn’t cast her vote until six-and-a-half hours later.

She was one of many students who waited hours in line at a polling precinct that only had two working voting machines this morning, and two volunteers checking people in, according to school newspaper the Brown and White. The county has sent three additional voting machines to the site, according to the Allentown Morning Call.

“I’m in Pennsylvania and it’s a swing state so I know that every single vote matters,” she said.

Mendoza, who was voting in her first presidential election and cast her ballot for Kamala Harris, said she and those who were waiting were pretty tired by the end, but there were groups giving food and water out.

Philadelphia district attorney says Trump's 'cheating' claim 'unfounded'

Philadelphia’s Democratic district attorney Larry Krasner had this to say about Donald Trump’s claim that “cheating” was happening in elections held in the city:

A human error during Milwaukee’s absentee vote count could lead to a late night for election workers in the largest city in the state, and delayed results.

According to Vote Beat, an election observer noticed panels open on multiple tabulators which should have been closed and locked – revealing the machines’ on/off switches. Although election officials said it did not appear that anyone had touched the panels or tampered with the machines, the commission has moved to recount the 30,000 votes that those tabulators already processed.

The recount could mean a long night for Milwaukee election officials and lead to a possible late night boost for Kamala Harris, who will probably command a majority of the Milwaukee vote, which tends to be a Democratic party stronghold.

In 2020, Trump and his allies seized on late-night absentee votes as evidence of wrongdoing – a patently false claim that nonetheless contributed to a wave of misinformation.

MJ, an 18-year-old from Milwaukee, voted for the first time today – splitting her ballot between Donald Trump, at the top of the ticket, and Democratic candidates all the way down.

“I’m mainly worried about economics,” said MJ, who cited immigration as her second top concern. She said she’s frustrated about the possibility of non-US citizens voting in this election – a claim that Trump and his allies have been promoting for months, despite the fact that empirical evidence suggests non-citizens, who face steep penalties for voting illegally, including felony charges and possible deportation, rarely cast a ballot in federal elections.

Evidently, those claims have stuck – including influencing MJ’s decision to vote Trump, despite preferring Democratic party candidates in general.

“I’m gonna vote all Democrat [otherwise],” said MJ. She said abortion rights are a major concern for her, and said she was “on the fence” about Trump for that reason.

Updated

According to CNN, Philadelphia police don’t know what Trump is talking about in his post alleging “cheating” in the city, and are not aware of any issues that would call for their response.

There was a semi-viral video spreading on the rightwing internet today. James O’Keefe, the guy who makes undercover videos that are often misleading or outright false, posted a video on X claiming that an election worker in Philadelphia told voters they could cast a ballot if they were not citizens. Accounts like Libs of TikTok spread the video to their followers.

Those who remember the 2020 election will recall that it took a few days before we knew for sure that Joe Biden had beaten Donald Trump.

But the result of previous elections was known much sooner, as the below chart shows:

The year 2000 was when a very close race between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W Bush came down to the state of Florida and a supreme court case that was decided in Bush’s favor, sending him to the White House.

Reporting from Fulton county, Georgia:

“We’re stuck in a position where we have to affirm this challenge,” said Aaron Johnson, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections board’s vice-chair.

“A lot of people are getting caught up now.” Johnson said he knew this would happen. “We didn’t make the rule. The general assembly made the rule. Whether I agree with it or not, we have to follow the rule.”

“I’ve been voting with this address for years,” said Chante Knox, whose voter registration was challenged. She was homeless when she first registered. She’s a Republican and a Donald Trump voter, and has been skeptical of the county’s election administration, but this issue is separate from those concerns, she said.

“I’m still a Fulton County resident. I still want my vote to count,” she said. “I want a non-provisional vote for the president.”

Jack Samuels from the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and the ACLU, said Swanson’s denial was the product of inadequate notice.

“Many of the persons being challenged have not received notice,” he said. “They did not know that they needed to oppose the challenge before today. Like all of us, they have work, family, child and senior care obligations that do not generally permit people to drop everything and drive as far as 40 miles across the county to appear. A hearing on insufficient notice deprives them of the right to vote in violation of their due process rights and equal protection and should not be occurring.”

Samuels demanded the right for Swanson to cast a provisional ballot, laying the groundwork for a legal appeal. “This hearing is not practical” for voters, he said.

Reporting from Fulton county, Georgia:

“I’ve been trying to vote since eight in the morning,” said John Whitfield, an entertainer who goes by DC Young Fly, animatedly contesting his removal from the voting rolls in Fulton County before the elections board.

He stood. He paced the room. His indignation radiated. He – and dozens of others – packed the hearing room in south Fulton on election day, thoroughly pissed off.

“I’m just trying to exercise my right to vote. This is critical,” he said aloud as the hearing proceeded. “If my ancestors didn’t fight for me to vote, I wouldn’t give a damn.”

The Georgia legislature changed election laws after the 2020 election, to bar voters from registering at commercial addresses like UPS stores.

One by one, bewildered people who showed up to vote this morning to find that they were de-registered under this law protested their removal at the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, hoping to vote today.

Sheree Swanson, an actor from Sandy Springs, was challenged because she initially used a UPS store address as the address on her voter registration, the same address as a trucking company she owns, she said. Her vehicle insurance company required her driver’s license to have the same address as the address for her vehicle registration, she said. Swanson tried to change her addresses to match her home address last week, she said. That was too late.

“Her status is challenged because she listed her business as her residence,” said Katheryn Glenn, the board’s registration officer. “Don’t swear or affirm if you don’t live there.”

The board, by a 3-0 vote, denied her appeal.

Updated

How do we know who won? A guide to calling this election

Now that the first polls have closed, it’s a good time to talk about who the Guardian uses to determine the outcome of today’s vote.

The Guardian relies on the Associated Press to determine the outcomes of elections across the United States. The New York-based global news agency has a presence in every US state and a long and authoritative history of determining the winners of elections at the presidential, congressional and state level. Here is more information about their process.

Updated

Voting finishes in parts of Kentucky and Indiana as first US polls close

The first polls have closed in the US, with voting wrapping up in most Indiana counties and in Kentucky’s eastern half.

Voting will finish in the rest of the two red states at 7pm, at which point it will also conclude in a handful of other states – including swing state Georgia.

Updated

First polls soon to close in US election

We’re minutes away from the first polls closing anywhere in the United States.

Most counties in Indiana and several in eastern Kentucky will wrap up voting at 6pm ET. Both generally vote Republican and not considered swing states this year. Voting in the remaining counties will finish at 7pm.

Reporting from Milwaukee, Wisconsin:

Serina Jones, 30, pulled over her minivan in West Milwaukee and flagged down a canvasser walking down the street in a reflective jacket.

“Are you all doing voter stuff?” she asked.

Jones, who is a mother of three, had not registered to vote yet but was determined to cast a ballot – and had plans to get her husband to the polls, too.

After plugging in her address and making a plan to vote, she told me she has “mixed feelings” about the election.

“I’m fired up,” said Jones, who is voting for Kamala Harris and said she worried about the consequences of a second Donald Trump presidency for her three children’s education and livelihood.

“But I have a lot riding on this,” she said. “I’m trying to make sure we got a future for our babies.”

Updated

Republican Philadelphia official says 'no truth' to Trump's claim of election fraud

Seth Bluestein, a Republican Philadelphia city commissioner, called Donald Trump’s claim of “cheating” in the city “disinformation”, and said the vote so far has been “safe and secure”.

Bluestein is one of three officials on the board tasked with overseeing voting in Philadelphia. Here’s what he had to say:

Harris campaign sees high Puerto Rican turnout in Pennsylvania

Philadelphia neighborhoods where many Puerto Ricans live have seen high voter turnout, the Harris campaign says, after a speaker at a Donald Trump rally last month referred to the US territory as “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean”.

It could be a positive sign for the vice-president’s chances of winning Pennsylvania, perhaps the most vital of the three “Blue Wall” swing states along the Great Lakes. Victories in the Keystone state along with Michigan and Wisconsin would probably provide enough electoral votes to make Harris the next president.

The campaign also sees high turnout by students at universities nationwide, including in Pennsylvania. In battleground state North Carolina, fewer rural Republicans appear to have voted, but many people have cast ballots in the Democratic-leaning city of Durham.

Updated

Democrats are counting on young voters to turn out at the polls today to help deliver wins for not just Kamala Harris but congressional candidates and ballot measures across the country.

“Young people will decide this election. From local ballot initiatives to federal races, we know this critical bloc is showing up for their futures and making their voices heard,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of the youth voting group NextGen America.

According to NextGen’s data, the group registered more than 130,000 young voters this election cycle, while more than 171,000 young voters signed pledges to vote.

“We are proud of our work this cycle on-the-ground and online to educate, mobilize, and empower young voters, contributing to a culture of civic engagement that will extend beyond this election,” Ramirez said.

“Young people are showing up, turning out, and using their collective power to elect leaders that represent our values – today and into the future.”

Fears for democracy and state of economy top issues for voters, exit polls suggest

The state of American democracy and the economy were the top issues on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election, according to an NBC News exit poll.

The poll’s preliminary results show 35% of voters said democracy mattered most to their vote, while 31% said the economy.

Abortion (14%) and immigration (11%) ranked as the next-most important issues, while just 4% named foreign policy.

ABC News’ preliminary exit poll also shows that the state of democracy prevailed as the most important issue to voters. More voters said they see American democracy as threatened than secure – 73% to 25%, the poll shows.

Voters described the economy as being in “bad shape” by 67%-32%, with 45% of respondents saying that their own financial situation is worse now than four years ago.

Updated

Reporting from Phoenix, Arizona:

Alison Folsom has cast her ballot at the same library in downtown Phoenix for years. This is the first year, Folsom said, that she had to wait in line – for 40 minutes.

But Folsom was delighted, especially because so many of the other people in line seemed to be between the ages of 18 and 25.

“We know that they’re one of the most important, consequential voting blocks, but seeing them come out and vote on election day that was special,” said Folsom, who wore a purple shirt that read “ABORTION RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS” and works for the Movement Voter Project, which helps Democratic and progressive donors give to grassroots campaigns.

Arizona State University students Joy Leon, a 19-year-old Arizona voter, and Kaya Clark, a 18-year-old Idaho voter, said that they had both voted for Kamala Harris in large part because of their support for abortion rights.

“I like having the choice. It’s kind of strange that stuff about human rights and the choice of your body is considered controversial,” said Clark, who carried a handmade flag that read “VOTING IS BRAT” in green and black.

She added: “I don’t really want to vote for a convicted felon. I’m for the girlies.”

New York City mayor Eric Adams has named Kamala Harris as his candidate of choice in the presidential election, in what the New York Times said is the first time in recent memory.

Wall Street rose on a quiet last day of trading before polls close. The benchmark S&P 500 finished up 1.2% on Tuesday.

While trading was broadly muted, there was a notable exception: it was another volatile day for Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), owner of the former president’s tiny Truth Social media empire.

Trading in TMTG was repeatedly halted. The stock – which has been on a wild ride in recent weeks – surged by nearly 18% during early trading, before falling into the red. It finished the day down 1.2%.

The economy has taken center stage in this campaign. While the last few months have been filled with great news, according to economists, many Americans still think the economy stinks, as Lauren Aratani reported.

It’s a disconnect that could ultimately decide who takes the White House.

First election result in tiny New Hampshire village sees a Trump-Harris tie

The traditional first tally of the 2024 US presidential elections in the tiny village of Dixville Notch, in New Hampshire’s northern tip, ended in a deadlock: three votes to Kamala Harris and three for Donald Trump.

It took approximately 12 minutes to count and certify the votes of the six residents of this tiny community near the Canadian border, which has been casting its ballots at midnight on election day for decades.

The result marks a significant shift from four years ago, when all five votes went to Joe Biden – even though this year four of the registered voters are Republicans and the other two are independents, according to the Washington Post.

Dixville Notch, in the White Mountains, started its early voting in 1960. The tradition originated in the nearby town of Hart’s Location, to accommodate rail workers who had to be at work before normal voting hours.

Although the town’s result doesn’t always predict the eventual winner – in 2016, Hillary Clinton beat Trump here by four votes to two – this time the result chimes with what most polls say is an extremely close election and evenly divided electorate.

Nevada is one of 10 states with abortion is on the ballot – and reproductive rights could be a deciding issue in this key swing state.

Outside the library voting site on the University of Nevada Las Vegas campus, both Alexis Rivera-Valenzuela, 18, and his partner Jasmine Mata, 19 said abortion rights were at top of mind as they cast their ballots.

Both voted for Nevada’s abortion ballot measure, and for Kamala Harris – because she had promised to protect access.

Donald Trump, who appointed three of the US supreme court justices who overturned Roe v Wade and has branded himself as “the most pro-life president”, could further restrict abortions or enact a de-facto national abortion ban by prohibiting the mailing of abortion medication and materials.

Rivera-Valenzuela said he wasn’t too worried, as a Nevada resident. “If Trump wins, he might change things at the federal level, but I think if we get the protections passed here, it won’t matter as much what he does,” Rivera-Valenzuela said.

Sairy Cruz, 21, who was about to cast her first vote, said she hoped Harris would pull through in this deadlocked swing state.

“I feel like a woman deserves to have the right to her own bodily autonomy, and no man should have a say in that. That’s the bare minimum,” said Cruz. “I feel like as a person of color and also a woman, I’d like to see another woman of color in the office.”

Clark County, Nevada is a bellwether in this election – with polls showing Harris and Donald Trump virtually tied. About 50% of Nevada’s electorate lives here, and they could determine the outcome in this key swing state.

Though several students said they weren’t particularly worried. “To be honest I’m so focused on finals, so we don’t have much time to really think about,” Cruz said. She had, however, avoided looking at the polls.

Reporting from Las Vegas, Nevada:

The line of students waiting to vote snaked all around the third floor of the University of Nevada Lied library.

School staff were on hand to hand out candy, chips and drinks to have while they waited. The wait time was upwards of an hour, and students occasionally dipped out of line to sprint to class – with the intention of perhaps returning later.

Alexis Rivera-Valenzuela, 18, said it was quite a thrill when he finally cast his ballot. “Everyone cheered because I was a first time voter,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty good right now.”

Meanwhile Darcy Morales, 18, was bracing herself for the wait. “I’m nervous and I’m excited,” she said. “It’s my first time, so I’m just like, ‘Oh am I making the right choices?’”

She’s planning on voting for Kamala Harris, as well – because she believes the vice president has better policies to address rising costs. “And the fact that she’s a woman – that’s also really exciting. It’d be a really big change if she does end up winning the election.”

Here some of the key images sent from the newswires on Election Day:

When do the polls close tonight?

The first polls tonight will close at 6 pm ET and are in the eastern counties of Indiana and Kentucky.

At 7pm ET, polls will close in Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, parts of Florida, and the rest of Indiana and Kentucky.

Thirty minutes later, at 7:30pm ET, polls in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia will close.

At 8pm, polls will close in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Missouri, parts of Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas, and the whole of Florida.

By 9pm ET, polls will close in Arkansas, as well as Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the whole of Texas, Michigan, South Dakota and North Dakota.

At 10pm ET, polls in Montana, Nevada and Utah will close. At 11pm ET, polls in California will close, as well as Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

At midnight ET, polls in Hawaii will close and finally, at 1am ET, polls will close in Alaska.

Voting enters final hours as Harris and Trump hope to win presidency

Hello US politics readers and welcome to our live coverage of the 2024 election, where the first polls will close in about an hour on the east coast.

Here’s our hour-by-hour election guide for what to expect tonight and our complete guide to everything you need to know about the 2024 presidential election.

In the meantime, here’s a recap of the main developments so far:

  • Before the polls opened on Tuesday morning, more than 80 million Americans had already voted and cast early ballots, with just under 45 million voting early in person and about 38 million voting early by mail.

  • Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have tied with three votes each in Dixville Notch, the tiny New Hampshire town which traditionally kicks off voting on election day.

  • Harris, who voted by mail ahead of election day, made a surprise visit to the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier she told a radio interview that her first order of business if elected would be “bringing down the cost of living for folks”.

  • Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, said the election was “razor close” but said he was feeling “good about this.” America has “the fairest, the freest, the safest elections,” Walz said as he visited a diner in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania earlier on Tuesday.

  • Trump and his wife, Melania, cast their ballots in Florida, earlier on Tuesday. Asked if he would call on his supporters not to engage in violence, Trump said: “I don’t have to tell them that there will be no violence,” adding his supporters “are not violent people”. He added that he felt “very confident”.

  • Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, cast his ballot in Cincinnati, Ohio, earlier on Tuesday. Vance said his attitude “is the best way to heal the rift in the country is to try to govern the country as well as we can”.

  • The FBI said they are aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which, they said, appear to “originate from Russian email domains”. The bureau said none of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.

  • A man was arrested by US Capitol police officers during a screening process at the Capitol visitor center in Washington DC, police said. The man “smelled like fuel” and had “a torch” and “a flare gun”, police said.

  • Trump has been told by some advisers that he should prematurely declare victory on election night if he’s sufficiently ahead of Harris in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, according to people close to him, though whether he will heed that advice remains unclear.

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