Former President Donald Trump won a second term in office early Wednesday, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 race for the White House.
It was a decisive win after polls showed Trump and Harris competing in a razor-close election. But enough Americans in pivotal states were won over by Trump’s focus on inflation and immigration to propel him back to the White House. Trump’s victory also comes after he faced two shocking assassination attempts over the summer.
Early in election nigh Tuesday, the nominees picked up their respective strongholds, with Harris winning much of the West Coast and Northeast and Trump clinching victories in the South. But Trump picked up North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the Badger State pushed him over the threshold of 270 electoral votes to win the race.
It was also a good night for other Republicans. GOP candidates picked up several pivotal Senate seats across the country, including in West Virginia and Ohio, reclaiming the upper chamber.
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How Kamala Harris lost the election
An appearance on ABC’s “The View” last month provided a friendly forum for Harris to introduce herself to Americans unfamiliar with her story. But Harris struggled to explain what she would do differently than President Joe Biden. “Not a thing that comes to mind,” the incumbent vice president told the hosts.
Following Trump’s victory over Harris, that television moment underscored a fatal flaw of Harris’ campaign that doomed her election bid – an inability to separate herself from an unpopular president whose approval ratings have hovered around 40% for most of his four years in the White House. Read more details on why her pitch as a “new generation of leadership” failed to win over the nation.
− Joey Garrison
