For those just joining us (and to avoid the final post of this election being my attempt at mathematics) Donald Trump appears to have won the presidency after securing Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The presumptive president-elect gave his victory speech in Florida while Kamala Harris’s ersatz victory party at Howard University ended with the glum dismissal of the attendees and the hollow promise that she would speak to them in the morning. While the House races are trending toward a slim Republican majority, the Senate was won early and it appears that the GOP could enjoy 54+ Senators. Blessedly, Florida’s abortion amendment was voted down, a victory for Ron DeSantis and his now deep-red state.
For the rest of the crew here at NR, I’m the night editor thanking you for sticking with us long into the wee hours.
@dpino if I have my math right, Tammy Baldwin should gain a net 50k votes once Milwaukee is entirely counted (assuming the same ratio of 2:1 for Baldwin). With Hovde currently up around 70,000 votes and precious few places after MKE for Baldwin to collect the difference, I’m feeling better than I was a couple hours ago about the race.
It’s time to call Pennsylvania for Dave McCormick. He’s up by 82,000 votes over Democratic incumbent Bob Casey. Philly is in. Pittsburgh is in. Philly suburbs are nearly all in. It’s just about impossible to see a path for Casey to make up 82,000 votes with what’s left to be counted.
“He Celebrates Win Before Results Are Final” pouts a headline at the New York Times. Trump’s name recognition is apparently so good he can be referenced solely by the singular nominative pronoun.
In Wisconsin, we’re waiting on Milwaukee County and Racine County to finish reporting their results. Racine County will be slightly red, Milwaukee County will be very blue. Trump leads Harris by about 120,000 votes and looks safe to win. For Senate, Republican Eric Hovde leads incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin by about 70,000 votes. That could theoretically by overwhelmed by a major batch of Milwaukee ballots, but would be unlikely. Trump camp should be satisfied with Wisconsin; Hovde camp should be cautiously optimistic.
“It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump says. “Success will bring us together.”
Trump says God spared his life during the failed assassination attempt.
The AP only now has called Minnesota for Harris and Walz. Trump began his victory speech before the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee won his home state.
“It was a historic realignment, uniting citizens around a common core of common sense,” Trump says of the election.
Trump says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “going to help make America healthy again” in his victory speech. “Bobby, leave the oil to me,” Trump says, hinting at his environmentalist views. “Bobby, leave the liquid gold to me.” Otherwise, he says Kennedy is going to have strong influence in his administration on health issues.