US election live: Trump wins North Carolina and Georgia; Harris’ path to victory narrows | BreakingNews.ie
Summary
- The first exit polls have been released by the major US news networks
- Final polls show a tight race in the crucial battleground states
- Harris leads among women, Trump among men, polls show
- Donald Trump won eight states in Tuesday’s US presidential election while Democrat Kamala Harris captured three states and Washington, DC, Edison Research projected, but the outcome of the race remained uncertain with critical battleground states unlikely to be called for hours or even days.
- Trump may declare victory on election night despite uncounted ballots
- Control of US Congress also at stake with Republicans having easier Senate path
Results map
5.58am
Donald Trump has left his Mar-a-Lago home to address supporters at West Palm Beach Convention Center.
5.50am
Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond thanks the crowd at Howard University in Washington DC, and says she will not address them tonight. Mr Richmond said Ms Harris will address her supporters tomorrow.
5.38am
CNN has called Georgia for Donald Trump. It is the second swing state he has claimed, after he took North Carolina earlier. This means Kamala Harris’ path to victory has narrowed once again, and winning Pennsylvania is crucial if she is to stay in the race.
5.25am
Republicans have seized control of the US Senate after flipping Democratic-held seats, wresting away the majority for the first time in four years.
The unexpected battleground of Nebraska pushed Republicans over the top. Incumbent Senator Deb Fischer brushed back a surprisingly strong challenge from independent newcomer Dan Osborn.
Democrats watched their efforts to salvage their slim majority slip out of reach as tallies rolled in across a map that favoured Republicans.
Early in the night, Republicans flipped one seat in West Virginia, with the election of Jim Justice, who easily replaced retiring Senator Joe Manchin.
5.19am
Voters have defeated a measure to add abortion rights to the Florida state constitution but sided with abortion rights advocates on ballot measures in Colorado, Maryland and New York.
Results were still pending in six other states with abortion measures on the ballot.
Most voters supported the Florida measure, but it fell short of the required 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the state. Most states require a simple majority.
The result was a political win for Republican governor Ron DeSantis that will keep in place the state’s ban on most abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy.
5.05am
Trump was earning a bigger share of the vote than he did four years ago in nearly every corner of the country, from suburban Georgia to rural Pennsylvania.
By 11pm ET, officials had nearly completed their count of ballots in more than 1,200 counties – about a third of the country – and Trump’s share was up about 2 percentage points compared to 2020, reflecting a broad if not especially deep shift in Americans’ support for the president they ousted four years ago. He had improved his numbers in suburban counties, rural regions and even some large cities that are historically bastions of Democratic support.
Control of both chambers of Congress is also up for grabs. Democrats had only a narrow path to defend their Senate majority after Republican Jim Justice flipped a West Virginia seat on Tuesday. The House of Representatives looked like a toss-up.
In Florida, a ballot measure that would have guaranteed abortion rights failed to reach the 60 per cent threshold needed to pass, according to Edison, leaving a six-week ban in place. Nine other states have abortion-related measures on the ballot.
Nearly three-quarters of voters say American democracy is under threat, according to the exit polls, underscoring the depth of polarisation in a nation where divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race.
Trump employed increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric while stoking unfounded fears that the election system cannot be trusted. Harris warned that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.
Hours before polls closed, Trump claimed on his Truth Social site without evidence that there was “a lot of talk about massive CHEATING” in Philadelphia, echoing his false claims in 2020 that fraud had occurred in large, Democratic-dominated cities. In a subsequent post, he also asserted there was fraud in Detroit.
“I don’t respond to nonsense,” Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters.
A Philadelphia city commissioner, Seth Bluestein, replied on X, “There is absolutely no truth to this allegation.”
‘Am I going to win?’
Trump, whose supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021, after he claimed the 2020 election was rigged, voted earlier near his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’m gonna be the first one to acknowledge it,” Trump told reporters.
Millions of Americans waited in orderly lines to cast ballots, with only sporadic disruptions reported across a handful of states, including several non-credible bomb threats that the FBI said appeared to originate from Russian email domains.
Trump was watching the results at his Mar-a-Lago club before speaking to supporters at a nearby convention center, according to sources familiar with the planning. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, a prominent Trump backer, said he would watch the results at Mar-a-Lago with Trump.
Trump attended a morning meeting about turnout but appeared bored by the data talk, according to one source briefed on the meeting. All Trump wanted to know, the source said, was: “Am I going to win?”
Harris, who had previously mailed her ballot to her home state of California, spent some of Tuesday in radio interviews encouraging listeners to vote. Later, she was due to address students at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington where Harris was an undergraduate.
“To go back tonight to Howard University, my beloved alma mater, and be able to hopefully recognise this day for what it is, is really full circle for me,” Harris said in a radio interview.
Tuesday’s vote capped a dizzying race churned by unprecedented events, including two assassination attempts against Trump, president Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal and Harris’ rapid rise.
No matter who wins, history will 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 more than a century.
4.48am
Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris in the battleground state of North Carolina in Tuesday’s US presidential election, Edison Research projected, moving him one step closer to completing an improbable political comeback.
The outcome remained uncertain in six other states expected to determine the winner.
But Trump was showing strength across broad swaths of the country. He had won 227 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 165 as of 11.30pm ET (0430 GMT on Wednesday). A candidate needs a total of at least 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College to claim the presidency.
Decision Desk HQ projected Trump would also win Georgia, narrowing her path to victory through the Rust Belt trio of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, though she was behind in all three states.
Trump picked up more support from Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and among lower-income households that have keenly felt the sting of price rises since the last presidential election in 2020, according to exit polls from Edison.
Trump won 45% of Hispanic voters nationwide, trailing Harris with 53% but up 13 percentage points from 2020.
Voters whose top issue was the economy voted overwhelmingly for Trump, especially if they felt they were worse off financially than they were four years ago.
About 31% of voters said the economy was their top issue, and they voted for Trump by a 79%-to-20% margin, according to exit polls. Some 45% of voters across the country said their family’s financial situation was worse off today than four years ago, and they favoured Trump 80% to 17% for Harris.
US stock futures and the dollar pushed higher while Treasury yields climbed and bitcoin rose, a sign that investors were reading early results as favouring Trump. Still, investors said it was too early and the trades lacked conviction.
“Everyone’s trying to take the few inches of data we’ve got right now and turn it into a mile,” said Alex Morris, president and CIO of F/M Investments in Washington.
Supporters react to election results during an election night event for US vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at Howard University in Washington, DC, on November 5th, 2024. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
4.21am
AP has called North Carolina for Donald Trump, the first swing state to be won.
4.06am
Republican Donald Trump was leading in the US presidential election on Tuesday, broadly drawing more support than he did in his failed 2020 campaign, though the result remained unclear in battleground states that will decide the winner.
Trump, bidding to become the first former president to return to the White House in more than 100 years, had won 211 Electoral College votes compared with 145 for his Democratic rival, vice president Kamala Harris, with a third of the vote counted.
With Trump holding leads in battleground states Georgia and North Carolina, Harris’ clearest path to victory remained through the “Blue Wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. A candidate needs a total of at least 270 votes in the 538-member, state-by-state Electoral College to claim the presidency.
Decision Desk HQ was alone in projecting Trump would win Georgia and North Carolina. Other media outlets and Edison had yet to call the two races.
Trump picked up much more support in the polls from Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and among lower-income households that have keenly felt the sting of price rises since the last presidential election in 2020.
Trump won 45% of Hispanic voters nationwide, trailing Harris with 53% but up 13 percentage points from 2020, according to the provisional exit polls.
Currency and bond markets appeared to bet on Trump returning to power.
But the race, as expected, was coming down to seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
A pro-Trump campaign signs sit across the intersection from the voting location in Benders Mennonite Church on Election Day in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania on November 5th, 2024. Photo: Samuel Corun/AFP via Getty Images
Supporters wave US flags during an election night event for US vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at Howard University in Washington, DC, on November 5th, 2024. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
3.40am
The New York Times’ Live Presidential Forecast now gives Donald Trump an 88 per cent chance of winning the presidency.
3.30am
CNN has called Iowa for Donald Trump.
3.15am
Donald Trump appeared to take an early lead over his presidential rival Kamala Harris as polls closed across US states.
The Republican candidate inched ahead in the early hours of the race, with predicted wins in solidly red states including Florida, Texas and Alabama outnumbering Ms Harris’ wins in Democrat strongholds including New York and Illinois.
There have been no major surprises in the election so far, but crucial battleground states including Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina are yet to be called, and could tip the balance in the contest to be the next US president.
Seven states are considered so-called swing states in this year’s election, with Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin also among them.
If the results of voting follow predictions by the Associated Press, Mr Trump will have gained 198 votes in the electoral college, and Ms Harris 99 with the current states which have been called.
Under the US voting system, a total of 270 votes in the college are needed to win the presidency.
Members of the Navajo tribe participate in the event “Ride to the Polls” in Kayenta, Arizona, on November 5th, 2024. Photo: Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images
Buildings of the New York skyline, including the Empire State Building (C R), and viewed from West New York, New Jersey, are illuminated in red, white and blue to mark Election Day, November 5th, 2024. Photo: Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images
2.45am
Following are preliminary results from an exit poll conducted by Edison Research. Results will be updated as additional poll responses are gathered.
* Harris wins 53% of women voters in Georgia; Trump wins 46%. Trump’s share is up 1 percentage point from a 2020 exit poll.
* Trump wins 71% of white voters in Georgia; Harris wins 28%. Trump’s share is up 2 percentage points from a 2020 exit poll.
* Harris wins 86% of Black voters in Georgia; Trump wins 12%. Trump’s share is up 1 percentage point from a 2020 exit poll.
* Trump wins 74% of white men voters in Georgia; Harris wins 24%. Trump’s share is up 2 percentage points from a 2020 exit poll.
* Harris wins 31% of white women voters in Georgia; Trump wins 69%. Trump’s share is up 2 percentage points from a 2020 exit poll.
2.35am
The Electoral College vote count currently stands at 178 for Donald Trump, and 99 for Kamala Harris, according to AP.
An Amish man stands next to a horse and buggy outside a polling location in the Leacock Township Municipal building in Intercourse, Pennsylvania, on Election Day, November 5th, 2024. Photo: Ryan Collerd/AFP via Getty Images
2.20am
Democrat Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Edison Research projected on Tuesday, winning election to Delaware’s at-large seat.
McBride, a 34-year-old state senator, won a competitive primary for Delaware’s at-large congressional district, considered safely Democratic, in September.
She became the first openly transgender person to serve as a state senator when she was elected in 2020, first to speak at a U.S. national political party convention in 2016, and first to intern at the White House in 2012, under Democratic former president Barack Obama.
2.02am
In battleground Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris currently leads with 64.4 per cent of the vote, to Donald Trump’s 34.7 per cent of the vote.
2.02am
CNN has projected Donald Trump will win Texas (40 electoral votes).
Women with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc sit together ahead of an election night event held by Democratic presidential nominee, US vice president Kamala Harris at Howard University on November 5th, 2024 in Washington, DC. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, attends the election night watch party for Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump at the Palm Beach County Convention Center on November 5th, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Democratic presidential nominee, US vice president Kamala Harris drops by a phone bank event at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on Election Day November 5th, 2024 in Washington, DC. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
1.09am
Republican Donald Trump won eight states in Tuesday’s US presidential election while Democrat Kamala Harris captured three states and Washington, DC, Edison Research projected, but the outcome of the race remained uncertain with critical battleground states unlikely to be called for hours or even days.
The early results were as anticipated, with the contest expected to come down to seven swing states: Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin. Opinion polls showed the rivals neck and neck in all seven going into Election Day.
As of 8pm ET (0100 GMT on Wednesday), polls had closed in 25 states.
Trump had 90 electoral votes after winning Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee; Harris had gained 27 electoral votes from Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington, DC. A candidate needs a total of 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College to claim the presidency.
Nearly three-quarters of voters say American democracy is under threat, according to preliminary national exit polls from Edison, reflecting the nation’s deep anxiety after a contentious campaign.
Democracy and the economy ranked by far as the most important issues for voters, with around a third of respondents citing each, followed by abortion and immigration. The poll showed 73 per cent of voters believed democracy was in jeopardy against 25 per cent who said it was secure.
12.45am
Democrat Josh Stein won the North Carolina governor’s race on Tuesday, Fox News projected, defeating Republican Mark Robinson, whose candidacy imploded following a CNN report that he had called himself a “Black Nazi” and made other offensive remarks on a pornographic website.
Robinson, the Southern state’s lieutenant governor, has denied the allegations and filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN.
Robinson was endorsed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who previously praised him as “Martin Luther King on steroids” but whose campaign distanced itself after the scandal broke in September.
12.40am
Republican Donald Trump won Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia in Tuesday’s presidential election while Democrat Kamala Harris captured Vermont, Edison Research projected, as polls closed in the first nine US states, including critical Georgia and North Carolina.
The early results were expected, with the race likely to come down to seven battleground states: Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Opinion polls showed the rivals neck and neck in all seven going into Election Day.
Nearly three-quarters of voters say American democracy is under threat, according to preliminary national exit polls from Edison, reflecting the nation’s deep anxiety after a contentious campaign.
Democracy and the economy ranked by far as the most important issues for voters, with around a third of respondents citing each, followed by abortion and immigration. The poll showed 73 per cent of voters believed democracy was in jeopardy against 25 per cent who said it was secure.
The data underscored the depth of polarisation in a nation where divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race. Trump employed increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric while stoking unfounded fears that the election system cannot be trusted. Harris warned that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.
12.32am
CNN has projected Donald Trump as the winner of West Virginia, worth four electoral votes.
12.25am
Polls have closed in the swing state of Georgia.
Donald Trump currently has 19 Electoral College votes with Indiana (11 electoral votes) and Kentucky (8 electoral votes), while Kamala Harris has 3 electoral votes from Vermont.
A dog looks on as people vote at a polling station in New York City on Election Day, November 5th, 2024. Photo: Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images
12.10am
Donald Trump is in the lead in George with 50 per cent of the vote, according to CNN.
12.06am
Donald Trump is projected to win Indiana (11 electoral votes) by CNN, Edison Research and AP.
11.50pm
Both candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, have posted on X, formerly Twitter, ecnouraging voters to “stay in line” even if they are still waiting as polls close.
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November
5, 2024
If you are in line before the polls close, stay in line.
It is your right to make your voice heard. If you have any trouble casting your ballot, call our Voter Assistance Hotline: 833-336-8683. pic.twitter.com/Y6KeIDU4lq
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 5, 2024
11.30pm
Nearly three-quarters of voters in Tuesday’s presidential election say American democracy is under threat, according to preliminary national exit polls from Edison Research, reflecting the nation’s deep anxiety after a contentious campaign between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
Democracy and the economy ranked by far as the most important issues for voters, with around a third of respondents citing each, followed by abortion and immigration at 14% and 11%, the data showed. The poll showed 73% of voters believed democracy was in jeopardy, against just 25% who said it was secure.
The data underscores the depth of polarization in a nation whose divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race. Trump has employed increasingly dark and apocalyptic rhetoric while stoking unfounded fears that the election system cannot be trusted. Harris has urged Americans to come together, warning that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.
11pm
A senior US cyber official on Tuesday said her agency had not seen any major incidents reflecting foreign interference in Tuesday’s presidential election as voting moved into its final hours.
As of 1.30pm ET (1830 GMT), there was little evidence of significant disruption to election infrastructure, Cait Conley, a senior official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters.
“At this point, we are not currently tracking any national level significant incidents impacting security of our election infrastructure,” said Conley, whose agency is responsible for protecting critical American infrastructure, including election infrastructure, which can include voter databases, tabulators and vote counting software.
Earlier Tuesday, the FBI warned Americans about two new fake videos falsely citing terror threats and voter fraud, the latest in a string of disinformation that officials expect will intensify, especially if uncertainty over the winner lingers past Election Day.
One fabricated video purporting to be from the federal law enforcement agency falsely cited a high terror threat and urged Americans to “vote remotely,” while another video includes a fake press release alleging to be from the agency and claiming rigged voting among inmates in five prisons.
Both are inauthentic, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
Hoax bomb threats hit a series of polling locations in three battleground states, the bureau said later Tuesday.
“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” the FBI said. At least two polling sites targeted by the hoax bomb threats in Georgia were briefly evacuated on Tuesday. Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger blamed Russian interference for the Election Day bomb hoaxes.
“They’re up to mischief, it seems. They don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election, and if they can get us to fight among ourselves, they can count that as a victory,” Mr Raffensperger told reporters.
10.35pm
Initial exit poll results for some of the key swing states are in, conducted by Edison Research.
- 47% of voters in Pennsylvania said they had a favourable view of Trump, while 46% said they had a favourable view of Harris
- 30% of voters in Pennsylvania said the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote in the presidential election. 12% said immigration, 15% abortion, 33% the state of democracy, 3% foreign policy.
- 46% of voters in Georgia said they had a favourable view of Trump, while 49% said they had a favourable view of Harris
- 40% of voters in Georgia said the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote in the presidential election. 11% said immigration, 14% abortion, 28% the state of democracy, 3% foreign policy.
- 45% of voters in Michigan said they had a favourable view of Trump, compared to 48% with a favourable view of Harris
- 25% of voters in Michigan said the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote in the presidential election. 13% said immigration, 18% abortion, 35% the state of democracy, 5% foreign policy.
- 47% of voters in Nevada said they had a favourable view of Trump, compared to 44% of voters who said they had a favourable view of Harris
- 33% of voters in Nevada said the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote in the presidential election. 14% said immigration, 11% abortion, 34% the state of democracy, 4% foreign policy.
Exit polling reflects just a slice of the tens of million of people who have voted, both before and on Election Day, and the preliminary results are subject to change through the course of the night as more people are surveyed.
National exit-poll results provide an important window into the thinking of the nation, but may not directly align with the seven battleground states expected to decide the presidential election.
Exit polls capture variations among turnout in various demographic groups, such as men vs women voters or college-educated vs non-college-educated voters, and can provide insights into how turnout has changed from past elections.
One key advantage of exit polls is all the people surveyed, by definition, are people who cast ballots in this election.
10.10pm
The first exit polls have been released by the major US news networks.
Unlike in European elections, US exit polls don’t indicate results but instead reveal how voters are feeling on a wide range of issues.
The state of democracy and the economy were top of mind for voters as they cast ballots in the presidential election, according to early results from the NBC News poll.
Democracy was ranked first by voters, with 35 per cent saying it was the issue that mattered most in deciding how they voted for president, followed by the economy at 31 per cent. Voters ranked abortion (14 per cent) and immigration (11 per cent) as next important, while just 4 per cent named foreign policy.
National exit-poll results provide an important window into the thinking of the nation, but may not directly align with the seven battleground states expected to decide the presidential election.
9.55pm
Welcome to our live coverage of the US presidential election.
Millions of Americans lined up at polling stations today to choose between two sharply different visions for the country – Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.
After a race marked by unprecedented events – two assassination attempts against Trump, president Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal and Harris’ rapid rise – the two candidates have remained neck and neck throughout, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenetic campaigning.
The first exit poll is expected at 10pm Irish time. The ballot boxes will begin to close in some states from 11pm Irish time, with more to follow after midnight.
Follow along here as we find out who will be the next president.
Results map
With reporting from Reuters and PA.
