PHILADELPHIA – Donald Trump won Pennsylvania early Wednesday, just hours before defeating Kamala Harris and collecting enough electoral votes to win the White House.

A victory in Alaska or any of the battleground states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada) would send the Republican former president back to the Oval Office.

Pennsylvania, part of a once reliable Democratic stronghold known as the “blue wall” along with Michigan and Wisconsin, was carried by Trump when he first won the White House in 2016 and then flipped back to Democrats in 2020. Trump also flipped Georgia, which voted Democratic four years ago and holds the closely contested state of North Carolina.

Trump’s gains sharply limited Harris’ path to victory.

The crowd at the viewing party at Harris’ alma mater, Howard University in Washington, began to disperse after midnight after a top Harris ally sent her supporters home with no plans for the Democratic vice president’s speech.

“We will continue to fight through the night to make sure every vote is counted. Every voice speaks,” said Cedric Richmond, co-chairman of the Harris campaign. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you’ll hear from him tomorrow. He’ll be back here tomorrow.”

Trump addressed supporters at his campaign watch party in Florida earlier Wednesday.

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

Trump’s campaign argued that this would diminish Democrats’ traditional strength with Black and Latino voters, with the former president releasing male-centered podcasts and making overtly racist appeals to both groups. Nationally, Black and Latino voters appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to support Joe Biden four years ago, and Trump’s support among those voters is up slightly from 2020, according to AP VoteCast.

The fate of democracy appeared to be the primary driver for Harris’ supporters; It was a sign of the Democratic candidate’s persistent messages denouncing Trump in the closing days of his campaign. being a fascist You may have achieved that feat, according to a comprehensive survey of more than 110,000 voters across the country. It also resulted in a country mired in negativity and desperate for change. Trump’s supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation; two issues the former Republican president has focused on since the start of his campaign.

During his recent visits to North Carolina, Trump assessed the severe damage caused by Hurricane Helene, spread false claims about the federal government’s response, and used GoFundMe to raise millions in donations for affected residents. Trump initially extolled Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, hailing him as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” but distanced himself after a CNN report alleging that Robinson had made explicit racist and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board. ten years ago.

Robinson, who lost his race to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein on Tuesday, has denied writing the messages and filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN last month.

In another positive sign for the GOP, the party took control of the Senate after Trump-backed Bernie Moreno unseated the seat in Ohio that Democrat Sherrod Brown had held since 2007. Republican Jim Justice picked up another seat when he won the open seat in West Virginia. It’s about Senator Joe Manchin’s retirement.

Those who voted on Election Day mostly encountered a problem smooth processWith isolated reports of disruptions occurring regularly, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors. Federal election security officials said there were minor disruptions throughout the day but there was no evidence of any impact on the election system. Authorities determined that none of the bomb threats reported in multiple states were credible and did not affect voters’ ability to vote.

Harris, 60, will be the first black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as president. He will also be the first vice president to win the White House in 36 years.

78-year-old Trump oldest president ever chosen. He will also be the first defeated president to win another term in the White House in 132 years and the first convicted felon to head the Oval Office.

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

Harris pointed to warnings from Trump’s former aides, calling him a “fascist” and criticizing Trump for Roe v. Wade nominated three of the judges who overturned his case and accused them of endangering women’s lives. He tried to strike a more positive tone in the closing hours of the campaign and went throughout Monday without mentioning his Republican opponent by name.

Voters across the country are also considering whether the Supreme Court will decide Roe v. in 2022. In response to the decision to overturn the Wade case, Congress was also deciding thousands of other races that would decide everything from control to state ballot measures on abortion access.

In Florida, a ballot measure protecting abortion rights in the state constitution failed because it failed to pass the 60% threshold; This marks the first time a measure protecting abortion rights has failed since Roe was overturned. Earlier Tuesday, Trump refused to say how he voted for the measure and lashed out at a reporter, saying, “You’ve got to stop talking about this.”

In reliably democratic New York, Colorado and Maryland, voters approved ballot measures to protect abortion rights in their state constitutions.