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UPDATE: This post was updated at 1:25 a.m. on Nov. 7, 2024

Former President Donald Trump has won the 2024 United States general election, the Associated Press declared at 5:34 a.m. Wednesday. After winning 10 electoral votes from the state of Wisconsin, he received 277 electoral votes — more than the 270 needed to win — beating Vice President Kamala Harris.

The AP called Trump’s victory after declaring him the winner of many of the seven battleground states — including Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The former president had a lead ahead of Harris throughout election night.

In Onondaga County, Harris beat Trump by around 16 percentage points, winning 57.5% of the vote. Trump received around 41% of the votes, according to unofficial data from the Onondaga County Board of Elections. As of 3 a.m. Wednesday, Onondaga County reported 100% of early voting and Election Day votes.

The AP also declared Harris the winner of New York state’s 28 electoral votes at 9 p.m. Tuesday — just as polls closed — with around 16% of the vote counted.

Republicans also claimed the party majority in the U.S. Senate, the AP announced at around 12:20 a.m. Wednesday.

Trump, who defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, lost to President Joe Biden in 2020. The Republican announced his 2024 presidential bid shortly after the 2022 midterms.

He is the first convicted felon to be elected president and continues to face legal issues, including 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and multiple federal cases related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and alleged election interference. He has also been named in a number of civil cases and has been found liable of sexual abuse.

Before any major news sources projected his victory, Trump took the stage at the Palm Beach Convention Center just after 2:30 a.m. to claim victory.

During his speech, the president-elect thanked his campaign and supporters. He also said the result was an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” for the MAGA cause, as Republicans took control of the Senate. As of Wednesday night, the race for control of the House of Representatives remains a toss up.

Trump said his team had “achieved the most incredible political thing,” and called his campaign “the greatest political movement of all time.”

The former president spoke for approximately 25 minutes, in which he also promised to deliver on immigration and economic policies he’s advertised since the earliest days of the campaign. He also thanked many in his inner circle, including entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former UFC fighter Dana White and his running mate, J.D. Vance.

Trump said Vance “turned out to be a good choice.” The vice president-elect received backlash from many within his party throughout the campaign. Trump and Vance have a complex history, as the Ohio senator once compared his future running mate to Adolf Hitler.

Harris spent nearly two decades as a prosecutor and as California’s Attorney General before joining the U.S. Senate in 2016. The vice president entered the 2024 presidential election after Biden announced his decision to drop out of the race on July 21.

At Howard University, Harris’ alma mater, the vice president took to the podium on Wednesday afternoon, where she thanked her family, staff and supporters for their work over the course of the campaign. Harris said she had spoken with the president-elect and congratulated him on his victory, demonstrating a return to democratic cooperation that Trump didn’t initially reciprocate in 2020.

The president-elect has still not officially acknowledged Biden’s victory four years ago.

During her short concession, Harris told supporters that their fight was not over, and that her dedication to the pursuit of a better future would not waver. Biden and Harris will continue to serve until Trump’s inauguration in January.

This story will be updated with additional reporting.

Published on November 6, 2024 at 3:07 am

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu