Former President Donald Trump regained control over three swing states to be elected the nation’s 47th president early Wednesday morning.
The Associated Press declared Trump winner just after 2:30 a.m. After holding a 43-electoral vote lead over Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Republican candidate tallied 277 votes — more than the 270 needed to win — when he captured Wisconsin, which had voted Democrat in the last presidential race. Hours before, Trump had also won over Georgia and Pennsylvania, states that he had won in 2016 but voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.
Alaska, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Maine’s second congressional district are still undergoing vote count. Harris currently holds 224 electoral votes and less than 48% of the popular vote.
Republicans are also projected to retake control of the Senate, with 51 seats already called for the party, compared to 42 for Democrats. Several races in the House of Representatives remain too early to call, but Republicans currently lead with 198-180 at the time of publication, as they look to defend their current slim majority.
Trump is set to become the second ever president in U.S. history to hold nonconsecutive terms and the first previously impeached president to return to office.
He took the stage for an early victory speech at his Mar-a-lago property in Florida shortly after Pennsylvania was called. He said his projected win was a “magnificent victory for the American people,” and he promised to lead the “golden age of America.”
The former president, rallying voters behind the slogan, “Make America Great Again,” centered his campaign messaging on a pledge to rectify what he condemned as the failings of the Biden administration, attributing high inflation rates and illegal border crossings to Democratic leadership.
His platform promised stricter immigration policies, higher tariffs and an aggressive foreign policy approach. He has vowed to “end inflation,” “seal the border” and “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” Protectionist trade policies he promised to implement could destabilize global markets and alliances and raise the prices of consumer goods, economists say.
In 2020, after losing the presidential election to Biden, Trump and many of his allies falsely claimed the election had been “stolen,” a fabrication that motivated an attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Trump has leveled threats against political rivals, threatening to punish opponents and entertaining violence against journalists.
Polls remained extremely tight leading up to the election, with states like Nevada and Pennsylvania appearing split 50/50 on FiveThirtyEight polls as of Tuesday morning. Many students were surprised by Trump’s victory.
“I knew it was going to be tight, but I didn’t think it was going to be this,” Keven Victoria ’24 M.A. ’25, who attended an election watch party at On Call Cafe, told The Daily. “I thought there was going to be a possibility of him winning, but I didn’t think it was going to be to this extent.”
At various locations across campus, students came together to watch TV broadcasts of the historic election, which included the nation’s second female presidential nominee from a major political party.
After a lively watch party that drew hundreds of students disbanded around 10:30 p.m. at Tresidder Union, some students like Victoria moved to On Call, a late-night student-run café, where they discussed election results with friends while doing homework. Many community members at On Call expressed grief, concern and shock at the apparent Trump win after several media outlets called the state of Pennsylvania for the former president.
Steven Wan ’28, an international student, said that while his personal perspective on the election was “neutral,” he could “certainly feel the grief [of] a lot of friends and people around [him].”
Katya Bigman ’27 also found herself surprised by “how big it seems the Republican sweep is.”
Bradley Hu ’24 M.S. ’25 believes that Harris’s loss echoes Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016.
“It shows that again, this country wasn’t ready for a female president,” he said. “Especially not a female [person of color] president, which is unfortunate.”
Sterling Davies and Julie Christine Abreu contributed reporting.