Trump elected as the United States’ 47th president following wins in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania

Donald Trump, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted former president who survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, has been voted back into the White House.

Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris marks an extraordinary political comeback after he lost to President Biden in 2020, attempted to overturn the election results, and left Washington in disgrace after his most ardent supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on his behalf during the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump’s third campaign as the Republican presidential nominee was defined by dark, meandering speeches, promises to deport millions of people in the country illegally with the help of the National Guard and local police officers, and threats to use the U.S. military against his domestic foes and “radical-left lunatics,” including Democrats he has called the “enemy from within.”

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly called the U.S. “a failing country.” While railing against illegal immigration in October, he said the country is “like a garbage can for the world.”

Two weeks before the election, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, warned that his former boss fit the “definition of fascist,” that he lacks empathy, and that he had made admiring statements about Adolf Hitler. Soon afterward, Harris began blatantly calling Trump a fascist.

If he serves a full term, Trump, who is 78, will become the oldest U.S. president in history, eclipsing Biden, 81, who dropped out of the race this summer amid concerns about his age and electability following his disastrous debate performance against Trump.

Donald Trump has defeated Kamala Harris in Wisconsin, according to projections by the Associated Press, giving him the battleground state’s 10 electoral votes in the race for the White House.

The result comes four years after President Biden eked out a victory in Wisconsin, defeating former President Trump by 0.63% of the vote. In 2016, Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 0.77% — the first time a Republican presidential candidate had won the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Both Trump and Vice President Harris campaigned extensively in Wisconsin and barnstormed the state in the final days of the campaign, with polls showing the race to be essentially tied.

Before a rally in Green Bay on Oct. 30, Trump, a former reality TV star, donned a bright orange safety vest and climbed aboard a MAGA-branded garbage truck — a stunt meant to highlight a remark by Biden that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage.

The same day, Harris rallied in Madison, where her speech was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters objecting to the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.

In April, before Biden dropped out of the race, about 48,000 Democrats who voted in the presidential primary chose “uninstructed delegation” in order to protest the administration’s support for Israel and to call for a permanent cease-fire. Voting “uninstructed” in the primary means choosing to send a delegate to the party’s nominating convention who is not instructed to vote for a specific candidate.

A tumultuous first term in office for Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón ended in a failed reelection bid Tuesday night, with challenger Nathan Hochman defeating him by a wide margin.

Hochman, who polls long predicted would oust Gascón, held a commanding 23-point lead based on early returns, outpacing the progressive incumbent by more than half a million votes. Gascón called Hochman to concede early Wednesday morning.

The polls that inundated TV news in recent months projected the 2024 presidential race was going to be close. And they were right for most of election night.

In the first few hours of coverage of the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump it appeared that viewers would have at least one more day of red, white and blue graphics whooshing across their screens.

All of the networks were cautious as the results came in for the seven swing states that are the path to the 270 electoral votes needed for a White House victory.

But NewsNation, which used data from Decision Desk HQ, called the race for Trump at 1:22 a.m. Eastern after giving the Republican 19 electoral votes from Pennsylvania and three from Alaska. Scripps News and Newsmax, which also used Decision Desk HQ, called the race within minutes.

Standing at the precipice of another term, former President Trump declared victory early Wednesday in his race for president of the United States, in what appeared to be a stunning comeback for a candidate who had been counted out many times by the nation’s political establishment.

Trump appeared to have been locked in a close race with Vice President Kamala Harris during their whirlwind 107-day campaign, but he overtook the Democrat on Tuesday in the crucial swing states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, leaving virtually no path to victory for Harris.

Read more here.

California voters on Tuesday rejected an effort to allow stronger rent control laws in California, the third time such a measure was turned down in recent years.

Proposition 33 would have allowed cities and counties to pass stricter rent control laws than they can now.

Donald Trump has defeated Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania, according to projections by the Associated Press, giving him the critical battleground state’s 19 electoral votes — a top prize in the race for the presidency.

The result comes four years after President Biden defeated Trump by just over 1% in Pennsylvania. In 2020, the AP did not call Pennsylvania until four days after election day. Biden’s narrow victory in his native state pushed him past the 270 electoral votes to clinch the presidency.

Trump did not concede and still falsely claims he won the 2020 election because of widespread voter fraud, the existence of which has been thoroughly debunked.

This year, Vice President Harris and former President Trump campaigned extensively in Pennsylvania, which lost a single electoral vote after the 2020 Census.

Pennsylvania was one of seven closely-watched swing states — including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin — that each candidate deemed critical to winning this year’s election.

Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania by less than 1% in 2016.

The California Constitution will no longer include outdated language that defines only marriages between a man and a woman as valid, after voters approved Proposition 3 on Tuesday.

The measure amends the state Constitution to recognize a “fundamental right to marry, regardless of sex or race.”

A measure to increase California’s minimum wage to $18 was trailing according to early polling results as of Tuesday night but remained too close to call.

Early results showed a slight majority of voters statewide opposed Proposition 32, which would raise the minimum wage to $17 immediately for larger employers and to $18 starting in January. Smaller employers will be required to do the same but at a slower rate.

Donald Trump has defeated Kamala Harris in Georgia, according to projections by the Associated Press, giving him the Southern battleground state’s 16 electoral votes in the race for the presidency.

The campaigns for both former Trump and Vice President Harris have invested heavily in Georgia, which became more competitive after President Biden, who was lagging in polls there, dropped out of the race this summer after a disastrous debate performance in Atlanta.

Harris, speaking at a July 30 rally in Atlanta, said: “The path to the White House runs right through this state.”

Four days later, Trump said: “If we lose Georgia, we lose the whole thing, and our country goes to hell.”

In 2020, Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes — the second-closest vote margin of any state. (Arizona’s race was decided by 10,457 votes.)

Biden’s victory was the first for a Democratic presidential candidate in Georgia in nearly three decades. In 2020, the AP did not call the race in Georgia until more than two weeks after election day, after the state released the results of a hand-conducted audit of ballots.

Last year, Trump was indicted in a sweeping racketeering case in which he was accused of conspiring with allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. After turning himself in at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Trump was booked and photographed, making him the first former U.S. president to receive a mug shot.

WASHINGTON —  Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate late Tuesday after flipping Democratic-held seats, holding onto GOP incumbents and wresting away the majority.

The unexpected battleground of Nebraska pushed Republicans over the top. Incumbent GOP Sen. Deb Fischer brushed back a surprisingly strong challenge from independent newcomer Dan Osborn.

California voters on Tuesday approved a November ballot measure that will impose stricter penalties for repeat theft and crimes involving fentanyl, steering away from recent progressive policies that critics blamed for increased lawlessness.

The Associated Press declared the passage of Proposition 36 about an hour after polls closed, an indication of the strong voter support for the measure.

WASHINGTON  —  Kamala Harris, a Howard alumna, would become the first president to graduate from a historically Black college or university.

But as television networks called several key states for Donald Trump — and showed him leading in others — the partygoers’ enthusiasm was soon blunted.

Donald Trump has defeated Kamala Harris in North Carolina, according to projections by the Associated Press, giving him the Southern battleground state’s coveted 16 electoral votes in the race for the White House.

In North Carolina, elections officials scrambled to ensure voters were able to cast their ballots in counties devastated by Hurricane Helene in September. The federal response to the deadly storm turned into a political issue, with misinformation so widespread that the Federal Emergency Management Agency — whose workers faced threats and harassment by people with guns — published a fact sheet to debunk rumors and lies about disaster funding.

Still, both former President Trump and Vice President Harris campaigned aggressively in North Carolina, one of seven closely watched swing states — including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — that each candidate deemed critical to winning this year’s election.

In 2020, Trump defeated Joe Biden in North Carolina by just over 1% in a race that the AP did not call until 10 days past election day because mail and provisional ballots were still being counted.

North Carolina gained one electoral vote after the 2020 Census.

Republicans have carried the state in 12 of the last 14 presidential elections, with Democrats Jimmy Carter winning there in 1976 and Barack Obama winning in 2008 before losing to Republican Mitt Romney four years later.

Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, who rose to national prominence as a key antagonist of former President Trump, easily beat Republican and former Dodgers All-Star Steve Garvey on Tuesday night to win California’s open seat in the U.S. Senate.

The Associated Press declared Schiff, 64, the winner shortly after polls closed, an indication of the congressman’s substantial support in a state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.

Republicans are expected to retake control of the U.S. Senate, creating obstacles for Vice President Kamala Harris if she is elected president and a potential glide path for former President Trump’s agenda if he wins the White House.

The GOP’s edge is created by a number of factors. Several of the Democratic senators up for reelection were initially elected during years favorable to their party, such as the 2006 backlash to then-President George W. Bush or during then-President Obama’s successful 2012 reelection campaign — and are facing headwinds for the first time.

BERKELEY  —  As the sun set on election day, people across the country seemed to be holding their breath. Waiting to find out, after one of the wildest and most expensive political campaigns in American history, who would be president.

Perhaps nowhere in the country was this waiting more acute — or the excitement and anxiety higher — than in the Bay Area.

In the exceptionally close race for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris has won California and its 54 electoral votes — a major boost, although the race remained too close to call.

The presidential race has been called in more than 30 states in an election that will make history either way by sending either the first woman or the first convicted felon to the White House.

In early states called Tuesday by the Associated Press, former President Trump won 214 electoral votes while Harris secured 179 electoral votes.

The early states — including Florida, where Trump won 30 electoral votes, and New York, where Harris won 28 — were not considered battleground states. On the West Coast, Harris also carried Washington, which has 12 electoral votes.

This story updated at 8:14 p.m.

All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election. According to the Cook Political Report’s House Ratings. 69House races are competitive.

Voters in potential swing congressional districts in Orange County, the Inland Empire and Central Valley could help tip the balance of power in the house.

Democrats need to gain four seats to win a majority.

The fight for control of the U.S. House of Representatives remained unresolved Wednesday as votes were still being counted in several competitive races in California that could determine whether Democrats or Republicans win the majority.

Golden State voters held unusual power in the national fight this year, with the suburbs of Orange County, the Central Valley’s farm belt and desert communities around Palm Springs and Lancaster playing an outsized role in shaping the next Congress.

In the long run, a Trump victory is likely to spark more violence for two key reasons. First, history shows that groups permanently shut out of political power are the most likely to rise against the government. Trump has told people they won’t have to vote again if he wins. If he followed through on that and the GOP maintained white voters’ power even after white people became a minority of the electorate, many groups would increasingly resent their lack of representation, a recipe for violence.

Second, violence often breaks out when peaceful protests face harsh government crackdowns — and Trump has signaled a willingness to use military force against Americans who demonstrate.

Election day is finally here, but don’t expect to enjoy a sense of relief and finality anytime soon because it will likely take some time to get the final results of the local, state and national elections.

On election night in California, county elections officials must begin reporting results to the secretary of state within two hours after the polls close and they begin tallying votes.

WASHINGTON —  Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of six victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.

Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado and Maryland. Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they’ll need to pass it again it 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York.

WASHINGTON —  The results on election day will come down to seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump have visited them the most. Together, these states are likely to deliver the Electoral College votes needed for the winning candidate to get a majority of 270.

It will be a game of hopscotch to keep up with key times in each of the states, which stretch across four different time zones.

Politics

Trump elected as the United States’ 47th president following wins in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania

The presidential race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Trump is at the top of the ticket tonight. Follow our live coverage.

Nov. 6, 2024

Despite reports of ink-spoiled ballots and challenges to how votes are tallied, election officials up and down California said they are confident they can accurately count and certify the millions of votes that are expected to be cast this week.

“I am feeling pretty good. Every bit of our operation has gone very smoothly,” Natalie Adona, the registrar of voters in Nevada County, said Monday morning, despite having to buy a jeweler’s loop to see the flea-sized ink specks spoiling as many as 10% of mailed ballots. She called it “an annoyance.”

The printing glitch, called overspray, also marred as many as half of the mailed ballots collected by Monday in Shasta County.

Such garden variety mishaps are common, and not expected to derail California’s election process, even as heated rhetoric and attempts to interfere with vote certification ratchet up across the country.

PHOENIX  —  Vice President Kamala Harris thinks she can win the election on an abortion rights message. Former President Trump thinks he can win on immigration.

In Arizona, they’ll find out who was right.

None of the seven swing states puts the two campaigns’ top issues in such stark relief. Arizona is the only border state among the battlegrounds and the only one where abortion access is on the ballot as a potential amendment to the state Constitution.

The text message that showed up on the phones of Eastside voters last month began with a warning: Forty years of Latino political representation is under threat.

The ad from Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León’s reelection campaign also featured a grainy, unflattering photo of his opponent, tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado.

“We need to protect Latino voices,” the message said, “and re-elect Kevin de León for city council.”

Those words brought into public view an issue whispered about for months: Voters in the 14th District, which includes heavily Mexican American neighborhoods such as Boyle Heights and El Sereno, could soon elect a council member who is not Latino for the first time since 1985.

Jurado, 34, has been looking to make history by becoming the first Filipino American on the council. She has spent much of the campaign slamming De León over his participation in a secretly recorded conversation punctuated by crude and racist remarks.

That scandal left De León so politically weakened that two Latino state Assembly members, Wendy Carrillo and Miguel Santiago, challenged him for his council seat. But they lost in the March primary, and now their Assembly seats are up for grabs.

That chain of events could reshape the political landscape of the Eastside, the birthplace of Chicano activism in L.A.

No matter who Americans cast a ballot for, election anxiety seems inescapable this year, exacerbated by razor-thin races in key swing states, the specter of another Donald Trump campaign effort to overturn the results and increasingly violent political rhetoric. Based on conversations among Times staffers, though, at least one contributing factor has been underappreciated: time.

Meaning, the amount of time it took for Joe Biden to be declared the winner in 2020. The amount of time we spent glued to TV news and social media watching the results trickle in. The amount of time we spent on tenterhooks, uncertain what might happen next.

If there’s one silver lining to a repeat performance, it’s that election night turning into election week won’t be quite so “unprecedented.” (Good news for those who’ve come to hate that word in recent years.) To help you navigate the 2024 edition, we asked a group of writers and editors from The Times to look back on each day of election week 2020, from the rise of the “chartthrobs” to Four Seasons Total Landscaping, and try to identify what lessons we might apply this time around.

So, here’s the L.A. Times guide to surviving election week 2024. Godspeed.

READ THE FULL STORY >

As millions of voters head down to cast their ballot for the White House and members of Congress, officials across the country are rapidly grappling with bomb threats, disinformation campaigns, and technical problems to keep polls open.

In Fulton County, Ga., officials said they received multiple bomb threats, including two incidents that forced officials to briefly close polling locations. In Indiana, text messages sent to voters falsely claimed friends and family could see who people voted for. And on the internet, the FBI warned that faked video clips were circulating telling Americans to “vote remotely” because of a terror threat.

READ THE FULL STORY

ATLANTA —  In the final stretch of her battle against former President Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris is counting on female voters as her most reliable path to the presidency. It is a group that has voted, so far, in greater numbers than men.

Nationally, women make up 53% of early voters — a turnout rate 9 percentage points higher than men. And the gender voting gap is even more pronounced in some battleground states, such as Pennsylvania, where women lead men by 13 percentage points.

“I think women will decide this election,” said Katherine Tate, a professor of political science at Brown University, arguing that women have long voted in greater numbers than men and were strongly against Trump. “Trump’s aggressive style has put off women.”

But robust early turnout among women does not guarantee a Democratic victory.

WASHINGTON —  Mykel Dicus, 54, is finished with the United States.

In September, the Hayward, Calif., resident toured Spain with a company that specializes in scouting trips for Americans looking to move abroad. Now he’s pursuing a specialized Spanish visa offered to remote workers, also known as a digital nomad visa, with a goal of moving within three years.

“If a regime like MAGA should win this election, I’m very scared,” he said. “I just feel like it’s time to enjoy a life that’s free from any American worry.”

In the months leading up to this week’s election, some agencies that specialize in helping Americans relocate abroad have noticed a spike in interest. Some clients are ready to leave the country, while others are looking for a contingency plan in case their preferred presidential candidate loses.

A broad swath of the California electorate is expected to cast ballots in this election, although some voters are concerned about the prospect of one of the presidential candidates not accepting the outcome, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

Presidential elections historically draw a far greater turnout than off-year elections, and 2024 is bound to be no different. The election is expected to turn out the usual participants: older, white people; homeowners and those with higher education or income levels.

But the election is also expected to draw turnout from lower propensity voter groups — including at least 65% of renters, voters of color and those with lower education or income levels, according to the poll conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.

So you are doing it the old-fashioned way — waiting till election day to cast your ballot.

You are not alone. Here is a guide for how to go to the polls, make sure your ballot gets in the right hands and survive this historic day.

In-person voting hours

All polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day.

Where to find your polling place

Polling place addresses are printed on sample ballots mailed to voters, but you can also find locations here by filling in your home address. For regional information:

• Orange County voting centers and drop boxes.
• Riverside County voting centers and drop boxes.
• San Bernardino County voting centers and drop boxes.
• San Diego County voting centers and drop boxes.
• Ventura County voting centers and drop boxes.
• Santa Barbara County voting centers and drop boxes.

In Tuesday’s election, voters in Los Angeles city and county will decide on several charter amendments and ballot measures.

While these proposals are not getting as much attention as the presidential race or the fight for L.A. County district attorney, they will affect how local government is run.

Here is what you need to know:

PHOENIX —  Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.

LAS VEGAS —  The cost of living is often mentioned by voters across the nation, as are reproductive rights, immigration and the border.

But economic pain — inflation, a lack of affordable housing, sticker shock when filling gas tanks and grocery carts, fears about steady employment and sustainable wages that can support their families — is acute in conversations with voters in Nevada.

The state, one of a handful of battlegrounds that are expected to determine control of the White House and Congress in today’s election, was devastated economically by the pandemic because of its reliance on tourism.