- Donald Trump won the 2024 election, scoring a slew of swing state victories.
- Republicans won back the Senate, while the House remains undecided and could take days to be called.
- Investors rallied around the Trump trade for the rest of the week.
Former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris after sweeping victories in four swing states.
In Congress, Republicans retook the Senate, although it may take days to know the outcome for the House.
CNN, ABC News and NBC News all called the race for Trump around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, following a Fox News call several hours earlier.
The victory in Wisconsin gave him the final Electoral College votes he needed.
Trump swept the swing states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania before reaching Wisconsin.
Taken together, the results foreshadowed a crushing defeat for Harris.
On Wednesday morning, hours after the race was announced, Trump’s lead widened when CNN and Fox News announced that he would win in Michigan, one of three remaining battleground states. On Friday, the Associated Press and Fox News called the race for Trump in Nevada, and as the final results of the presidential election came in on Saturday, the Associated Press and NBC announced that he would skip the final battleground states by winning Arizona.
Trump won with a final tally of 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226, according to The Associated Press and NBC News.
Investors rallied around the “Trump trade” during the week after the results came in.
Stock futures were up ahead of the open, with Tesla and Trump’s social media company making strong gains.
All three benchmark indexes rose in morning trading on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing over 1,200 points, marking its biggest one-day gain in two years.
Bitcoin rose to a record high above $75,000 before falling slightly. The US dollar gained against other major currencies.
Cheers from Trump, silence from Harris
Harris did not address her supporters at a party at Howard University in Washington, DC, on Tuesday night. She was expected to speak sometime on Wednesday.
Trump spoke to a crowd of cheering supporters at an election night event at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, resort.
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he said. He went down the list of issues he tackled during his campaign, including border security and strengthening the economy.
His running mate, JD Vance, called Trump’s electoral performance “the greatest political turnaround in the history of the United States of America.”
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, described his electoral performance as the “greatest political turnaround” in US history. AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Trump also praised Elon Musk, one of his biggest supporters in this election. “We have a new star, a star is born,” Trump said. “Elon. He’s a great guy.”
Business and world leaders congratulated Trump
Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor and a top Harris surrogate, congratulated Trump on his election victory.
“You won fair and square,” Cuban wrote, before any network had even called the race. “Congrats to @elonmusk too. #Godspeed.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Trump on his “impressive” victory early Wednesday, saying his country “will rely on the continued strong bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States.”
Trump has been significantly more skeptical of US support for Ukraine than President Joe Biden.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister and a longtime Trump ally, also issued a statement saying his victory “offers a new beginning for America and a powerful re-commitment to the great alliance between Israel and America “.
Other world leaders followed suit, including Emmanuel Macron of France, Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom and Narendra Modi of India.
Republicans have retaken the US Senate, but the House of Representatives remains in play
Republicans are projected to win at least 52 seats in the US Senate, ending four years of Democratic rule.
It comes after Republicans won Senate seats in Ohio, West Virginia and Florida.
Republican Sen. Deb Fischer also held off a stronger-than-expected challenge from independent Dan Osborn in Nebraska.
In Montana, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester was facing an uphill battle from his GOP opponent.
It is not yet clear who will control the House of Representatives.
Democrats picked up two GOP-held seats in New York’s 19th and 22nd congressional districts.
Republicans, meanwhile, flipped Pennsylvania’s 8th district, North Carolina’s 6th, 13th and 14th districts and Michigan’s 7th district.
It could take days to know who controls the House of Representatives, with several competitive races taking place in California, which historically takes a long time to count votes.
Voters line up to cast ballots in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on November 1, 2024. Anadolu/Anadolu via Getty Images
Trump and Elon Musk were spotted chatting at the Mar-a-Lago night watch party
Billionaire Elon Musk posted a photo of himself huddled with Trump on a table at Mar-a-Lago, where the former president hosted his election-watching party.
Musk has emerged as a key, if not key, advocate for Trump’s campaign.
He has poured millions into a super PAC backing the former president, joined him at rallies and campaigned loudly for him at X. The Tesla CEO tweeted as the results came in, celebrating Trump’s performance.
States are voting on ballot measures, with abortion rights being defeated for the first time since Dobbs
Reproductive rights were a key issue this election, with voters deciding on abortion issues in 10 states, including battleground states Arizona and Nevada.
Referendums to protect the right to have an abortion passed in New York, Maryland, Colorado, Montana, Arizona and Nevada. The measure also passed in Missouri, overturning a near-total ban in the first state to outlaw the procedure. Voters in suburban areas turned out to pass the measure in large numbers, propelling it to a projected victory.
In Florida, the attempt to guarantee the constitutional right to abortion failed. However, the referendum faced a tougher uphill climb in the Sunshine State than is typical – it needed to garner 60% of the vote rather than a simple majority, as in other states.
The failure of Florida’s abortion referendum is particularly notable, given that abortion rights advocates have racked up a string of unbroken victories in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. As a result, the ban Florida’s ban on nearly all abortions after six weeks will remain in place — one of the most restrictive policies in the country.
South Dakota’s attempt to protect abortion rights also failed, meaning its ban remains in place with no exceptions except when it would prevent a woman’s death. Nebraska, meanwhile, rejected a measure to expand abortion rights and instead enshrined the state’s current 12-week abortion ban.
History made: Two black women elected to the Senate and Trump wins Miami-Dade
Tuesday’s election also saw some historic results.
In just one election cycle, Democrats doubled the number of black women who won election to the US Senate.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester were projected to defeat their Republican opponents in Maryland and Delaware, respectively. It will be the largest number of black women to serve in the upper house at one time.
Maryland Democratic Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks was projected to win the Maryland Senate race. AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel
Only three black women have served in the Senate: former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Vice President Kamala Harris and Senator Laphonza Butler.
Meanwhile, Trump made history in Florida. He is the first GOP presidential candidate to win Miami-Dade County since 1988, and his victory there illustrates the Sunshine State’s phenomenal rightward shift.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade by 30 percentage points; in 2020, Biden won it by 7 percentage points. Trump is projected to win the district by double digits, the Associated Press reported, with 95% of the vote counted.
There is a sizable Latino population in the county, and the key demographic is beginning to swing Republican. Harris’ campaign did not spend much money in Florida, finding the state, once a battleground, unreachable.
Correction: November 6, 2024 – An earlier version of this story misstated Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s headline. He is the president of Ukraine, not the prime minister.