Donald Trump Reelected to the Presidency

Former President Donald Trump is the 47th President-elect after achieving a Tuesday night popular and electoral victory over Vice President Kamala Harris by holding onto key battleground states.

The Associated Press called the national election at 4:35 a.m. CST after Trump took Wisconsin, pushing him over the 270 electoral vote threshold for victory.

Several key swing states pivoted to Trump by the end of the night, including North Carolina with 16 electoral votes, Georgia with 16 and Pennsylvania with 19. While North Carolina was a closely contested race, he managed to win the state again after first being victorious in 2016 and 2020. Trump also flipped Georgia back to red after the state voted for Biden in 2020.

The old Democratic stronghold “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin didn’t deliver for  Harris with Michigan and Wisconsin both leaning towards Trump late into the night and early into Wednesday morning.

Trump came out on stage just before 1:30 a.m. several of his family members, Vice President Elect J.D. Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson to address a crowd of supporters at his Palm Beach Mar-a-lago resort to chants of “USA, USA.”

“We’re going to help our country heal, we have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly,” Trump said during the address. “We’re going to fix our borders, we’re going to fix everything about our country and we made history for a reason tonight and the reason is going to be just that.”

Illinois voters selected Harris over Trump, with Harris receiving over 53% of the votes as of 1:15 a.m., the AP reported. 

The AP called the race in Illinois at 7:38 p.m. Tuesday night, giving Harris Illinois’ 19 electoral votes.

Illinois voters rejected Trump in both the 2020 election and 2016 election, and the state has gone blue since 1988 when former President George W. Bush was elected. 

Harris won Cook County, home to Loyola and over half of Illinois’ total population, with over 68% of the total votes as of 1:15 a.m.. Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign, addressed a crowd of her supporters gathered outside Howard University just before 1 a.m. to say the Vice President wouldn’t speak Tuesday night, but would wait till Wednesday to address her supporters and the country.

“We still have votes to count,” Richmond said. “We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken.”

Republicans regained control of the Senate after the reelection of Senator Deb Fischer in Nebraska just after 11 p.m CST, pushing them over the required 51 seat threshold for a majority, the AP reported. 

Control of the House of Representatives remained up for grabs into the early morning, with 63 seats still unfilled as of 2:28 a.m. AP reported. A majority in the House would offer Democrats a last bastion against both a Republican Senate and White House to hinder GOP policy, but for Republicans a House Majority would complete a sweep into power with full control of Congress.

The final balance of the House will also help determine whether Johnson keeps his current position as Speaker — he would have to be re-appointed to the role when House Republicans elect their speaker Nov. 13, the AP reported.
Several international leaders congratulated Trump early Wednesday before the race was officially called, the AP reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy all offered statements around 2 to 3 a.m..