Trump on Cusp of Victory After Pennsylvania Win
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was on the verge of clinching the presidency Wednesday after winning Pennsylvania, putting him just three electoral votes shy of defeating Kamala Harris to secure his return to the White House.
Trump has 267 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the Oval Office. A win in Alaska or any of the outstanding battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada — would send the Republican former president back to the Oval Office.
Trump is leading in Michigan and Wisconsin, where his two clearest paths to victory rely on Harris not winning enough of the outstanding votes in Wayne and Milwaukee counties. The Associated Press is waiting on the next updates from both locations to determine whether Harris has any path to overtake Trump in either state.
Pennsylvania, a part of the once-reliable Democratic stronghold known as the “blue wall” 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 had voted for Democrats four years ago, and retained the closely contested state of North Carolina.
Trump’s gains sharply curtailed Harris’ path to victory.
Addressing his supporters early Wednesday from his campaign’s watch party in Florida, Trump said, “Every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future.”
Trump added he was going to make people “very happy” and “very proud” of their vote.
Trump, someone whose political career has been defined by division and acrimony, told the audience at his election night party early on Wednesday that it was “time to unite” as a country.
“It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump said. “It’s time to unite.”
“We have to put our country first for at least a period of time,” he added. “We have to fix it.”
“We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly,” Trump said. “We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country.”
Trump would be the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. He also stands to be the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president and, at 78, would be the oldest person elected to the office. His vice presidential nominee, 40-year-old Ohio Sen. JD Vance, would become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the U.S. government.
Pictured at top: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump greets Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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