Former President Donald Trump has officially secured the presidency, hitting the magic number of 270 electoral votes early Wednesday morning. He found crucial support in a string of swing states, including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
A blue state for two decades before 2016, Pennsylvania was widely considered to be a must-win for Harris this election. No Democrat has secured the presidency without claiming the Keystone State since 1948.
Adding to the state’s significance this election cycle was the attempted assassination on Trump while he spoke at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The gunman, a Pennsylvanian recent community college graduate, shot at the former president and grazed his ear, leaving him visibly bleeding but ultimately unharmed. One audience member was killed, and two others were injured by the gunfire.
Trump made gains early Wednesday morning when he won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. The state flipped after President Joe Biden won by a margin of just under 12,000 votes in 2020.
This follows extensive campaigning by both parties in Georgia over the weekend, with events held by Trump in Middle Georgia and Harris in Atlanta. Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz (D-MN), First Lady Jill Biden and former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Harris throughout metro Atlanta on Sunday, just two days after early voting in Georgia came to an end with a record 4 million ballots cast.
The Associated Press called the race at 5:36 a.m. after projecting Trump as the winner of Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, pushing him over the edge to 277 votes.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Trump faced stark criticism on a series of policy decisions he made during his first presidency, including his travel ban targeting nearly all travelers from five majority-Muslim countries, as well as North Korea and Venezuelan officials; his response to the coronavirus pandemic, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history; his proposal to build a wall on the southern border and his efforts to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May, 2024 for falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult star Stormy Daniels. He also was ordered to pay $85 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for calling her a liar after she accused him of sexual assault.
At Cornell, some conservative student groups have seemingly turned away from Trump, with The Cornell Review and the Cornell Republicans not endorsing the candidate this election cycle.