We’ve taken US back -Trump

The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has claimed victory in the 2024 presidential election after polling the highest popular votes and lead in the Electoral College with 266 votes as against his rival and Vice President, Kamala Harris, who had lesser votes.

Trump’s victory against Harris, who was expected to have sustained the Democrats hold on to power, capped a stunning political comeback four years after he left the White House.

Trump, the former president of the US, has been going head-on-head with Harris on their campaigns focusing on key battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.

This intense competition is reflected in the polling averages, which show a tight race between the two candidates with Trump leading with 68,539,378 votes and Harris on 63,361,243 votes.

Trump went into Election Day with a 50-50 chance of reclaiming the White House, a remarkable turnaround from Jan. 6, 2021, when many pundits pronounced his political career over.

The result was a quicker-than-expected set of returns that placed Trump on the cusp of securing the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.

“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he said on Wednesday to a roaring crowd of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, flanked by his vice presidential running mate, JD Vance.

He also spent several minutes praising Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who pumped some $120 million into backing Trump’s campaign. Trump has said he will appoint Musk to lead a government efficiency commission.

Republicans won a U.S. Senate majority after flipping Democratic seats in West Virginia and Ohio.

Neither party appeared to have an edge in the fight for control of the House of Representatives where Republicans currently hold a narrow majority.

He picked up more support from Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and lower-income households that have keenly felt the sting of price rises since the last presidential election in 2020, according to exit polls from Edison.

Trump won 45% of Hispanic voters nationwide, trailing Harris with 53% but up 13 percentage points from 2020.

However, Harris did not speak to her supporters, who had gathered at her alma mater Howard University. Her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, briefly addressed the crowd after midnight, saying Harris would speak publicly on Wednesday.

” We still have votes to count,” he said.