WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump won the battleground state of North Carolina on Tuesday against a challenge from Kamala Harris, who wanted to flip the state and extend their path to 270 electoral votes.

The former Republican president had dropped by the state on each of the final three days of the campaign to deprive Harris of the delivery.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Democratic vice president’s campaign chair, said in a memo to staff after the polls closed: “blue wall” Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were now in Democratic hands “the clearest way” He cruised to victory, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

Polls have also been closed in other battleground states such as Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, but it is too early to announce results in all remaining swing states.

Trump won Florida, a one-time battleground state that swung heavily in Republican favor in the last election. 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 the Electoral College vote in Nebraska, which Republicans contested.

The crowd at the watch party at Harris’ alma mater, Howard University in Washington, began to disperse after midnight Wednesday. Harris did not speak at the party. Cedric Richmond, co-chairman of Harris’s campaign, spoke instead, telling the crowd there were still votes to be counted and states to be called.

“We will continue to fight throughout the night to make sure every vote is counted. “Every voice spoke” he said. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from him tomorrow. He’ll be back here tomorrow.”

Trump was expected to speak at an event in Florida early Wednesday.

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, according to the sweeping poll of more than 110,000 voters nationwide; It was a sign that the Democratic candidate’s persistent messaging accusing Trump of being a fascist in the closing days of his campaign may have succeeded. . 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 announced and saluted Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. “Martin Luther King uses steroids” but remained distant following a CNN report alleging that Robinson had made explicit racist and sexual posts on a pornography website message board more than a decade 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 cast ballots on Election Day experienced a mostly smooth process; There were regular reports of isolated disruptions, including long queues, 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.

At 78, Trump will be the oldest president ever elected. 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 drew attention to the warnings of Trump’s former aides and called him ” “fascist” and Trump, 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 need to stop talking about it.”

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