Just after 2:30 on Wednesday morning, the Associated Press declared that Donald Trump had won Pennsylvania. And Donald Trump emerged at the West Palm Beach County Convention Center to declare victory.
“Frankly, this was I believe the greatest political movement of all time,” Trump told the crowd at his election night party. “And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance, because we’re going to help our country heal.”
The race has not officially been called, but Kamala Harris’ path to victory is now virtually closed off. Better-than-expected support for Trump in deep red rural areas has pushed the GOP to projected victories in North Carolina and Georgia.
Addressing a crowd gathered at Howard University for Harris’ election night party, campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said the campaign was still waiting for all the votes to be tabulated. Harris, he added, would not make a public comment until later on Wednesday.
“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.”
In a memo to Harris campaign staff obtained by NOTUS, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said she still saw a path to victory for the vice president through those states, but that was before Pennsylvania was projected for Trump.
“We’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. “Those of you who were around in 2020 know this well: It takes time for all the votes to be counted — and all the votes will be counted. That’s how our system works. What we do know is this race is not going to come into focus until the early morning hours.”
Shortly after O’Malley Dillon sent the memo, the Associated Press called North Carolina for Trump, a blow to Harris’ chances in a state her campaign had aggressively targeted.
Trump’s allies paraded around the Palm Beach County Convention Center as Tuesday became Wednesday. The mood was pure exhilaration. The crowd celebrated every race call in exaggerated fashion, and the lines at the multiple bars at the watch party were getting longer and longer.
Actor Jon Voight was taking pictures with Trump supporters. Billionaire David Sacks told NOTUS he was feeling “good” about the state of the race. And Roger Stone told reporters that Trump’s performance was “the greatest comeback in American political history.”
Trump had been huddled with a small group of senior staff in his office at Mar-a-Lago analyzing the results, per a source familiar with the situation. The former president has been with members of his club and guests in the grand ballroom, chatting with supporters like Elon Musk, Dana White, Steve Witkoff and Steve Wynn, according to the source.
House Speaker Mike Johnson came from his district in Shreveport, Louisiana, and joined Trump and many others on stage Wednesday morning.
Harris and Trump have battled each other for months against a backdrop of high inflation that has left many Americans sour about the economy and widespread anger at a Supreme Court decision revoking the constitutional right to an abortion, both of which have weighed heavily on voters’ minds. The vice president has accused Trump of embracing an authoritarian agenda — including his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election — that favors wealthy billionaires. Trump has tried to tie Harris to an unpopular sitting president in Joe Biden, while accusing her of mismanaging the southern border and allowing transgender athletes to play in women’s sports.
Polls have indicated that the race is one of the most unpredictable in recent American history, with both candidates within just a few percentage points of each other in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.
If Trump wins, he’d be the first former president to win reelection in more than a century, proving his remarkable political resilience and positioning himself to leave a lasting mark on the country. He would also be the first convicted felon to win the presidency, following his May conviction that he illegally paid hush money to a former porn star.
If Harris is still able to win, the vice president would be the first woman and first Indian American to claim the presidency, justifying the Democratic Party’s decision to back her as its nominee after Biden stepped down. Harris would also be the country’s second Black president, after Barack Obama.
For most of the election cycle, the 2024 race was expected to be a rematch of the 2020 contest, pitting Trump against Biden. But the president’s halting performance in June during a debate with Trump caused panic among Democrats and ignited a monthlong effort — egged on by party leaders like Nancy Pelosi — to persuade the president to drop out of the race.
When Biden did step aside in July, the party coalesced behind Harris, backing the vice president to unite Democrats and take on Trump in what became an unprecedented three-month campaign for the White House.
After claiming the nomination, polls showed Harris jumping out to a small but significant lead against Trump, boosted by Democratic enthusiasm. But Trump appeared to gain ground on Harris through much of the fall, as he made the case that the vice president would be nothing more than a continuation of Biden’s unpopular policies, and Harris at times struggled to separate herself from the president.
Democrats, however, were hopeful that they had gained momentum in the race’s final weeks, buoyed by a firestorm of criticism over Trump’s New York City rally in October, during which a speaker called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
This story will be updated as results come in Tuesday night.