Republican Donald Trump declared victory in the 2024 presidential race after Fox News projected his defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, marking a remarkable political comeback four years after his departure from the White House.
"America has bestowed upon us an extraordinary and powerful mandate," Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Centre early Wednesday. Other news outlets had not yet called the race for Trump, but he seemed poised to win after securing key battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia, according to Edison Research.
Harris, who did not address her supporters gathered at her alma mater Howard University, was expected to speak publicly on Wednesday. Her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, briefly addressed the crowd after midnight, stating, "We still have votes to count."
Trump demonstrated significant strength across various regions of the country, outperforming his 2020 results in both rural and urban areas. Republicans secured a majority in the US Senate by flipping Democratic seats in West Virginia and Ohio, while the House of Representatives remained closely contested.
Entering Election Day, Trump had a 50-50 chance of reclaiming the White House, a dramatic turnaround from January 6, 2021, when many analysts believed his political career was over. On that day, a mob of his supporters violently stormed Congress in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
Exit polls from Edison indicated that Trump gained more support from traditionally Democratic voters, including Hispanics and lower-income households, who have felt the impact of rising prices since the last presidential election. Trump won 45% of Hispanic voters nationwide, a 13-point increase from 2020.
About 31% of voters cited the economy as their top concern, with 79% of them voting for Trump. Additionally, 45% of voters said their family's financial situation had worsened in the past four years, with 80% of them favoring Trump.
Global investors increasingly anticipated a Trump victory, leading to higher U.S. stock futures, the dollar, and Treasury yields, as well as a rise in bitcoin, all of which analysts identified as indicators of a Trump win.
At Howard University, where a large watch party was held for Harris, supporters began to leave, expecting the vice president would not address the crowd on Tuesday night. Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of the Harris campaign, briefly addressed the crowd, stating that Harris would not speak and that "we still have votes to count."
Trump outperformed his 2020 results in nearly every part of the country. By 12:30 AM ET, officials had nearly completed counting ballots in over 1,600 counties, representing about half the country. Trump's vote share was up approximately 2 percentage points compared to 2020, reflecting a broad shift in support.
Trump improved his numbers in suburban counties, rural regions, and even some large cities historically supportive of Democrats. He also saw gains in both high-income and low-income counties, as well as areas with high and low unemployment rates.
Harris had hoped for strong support from urban and suburban voters, but her performance in these areas fell short compared to President Joe Biden's in the 2020 election. Nearly three-quarters of voters said American democracy is under threat, highlighting the deep polarization in the nation.
Trump used increasingly dire rhetoric, fueling unfounded fears about the election system's integrity. Harris warned that a second Trump term would jeopardize American democracy. Hours before polls closed, Trump claimed without evidence on his Truth Social site that there was "a lot of talk about massive CHEATING" in Philadelphia, echoing his false claims from 2020.
Trump voted earlier near his home in Palm Beach, Florida, stating, "If I lose an election, if it's a fair election, I'm gonna be the first one to acknowledge it." Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a prominent Trump supporter, watched the results with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Millions of Americans waited in orderly lines to cast their ballots, with only sporadic disruptions reported across a few states, including non-credible bomb threats that the FBI said appeared to originate from Russian email domains.
Tuesday's vote concluded a tumultuous race marked by unprecedented events, including two assassination attempts against Trump, Biden's surprise withdrawal, and Harris' rapid rise. Regardless of the winner, history would be made.
Harris, 60, the first female vice president, would become the first woman, Black woman, and South Asian American to win the presidency. Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in over a century.
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