Donald Trump clinched victory in all seven battleground states that were expected to decide the presidential election’s outcome.
Trump’s unexpectedly easy victory in Pennsylvania, a crucial strategic battleground with 19 electoral votes, decisively tipped the race in his favor.
According to AP on Wednesday, Trump secured victories in North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, overwhelming Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
As of 3 PM Eastern Time that day, with 61% of votes counted in Arizona and 85% in Nevada, the remaining battleground states, Trump was leading Harris by approximately 5 percentage points. Barring any unforeseen changes, he is set to sweep all seven battleground states.
The Rust Belt, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin—the states surrounding the Great Lakes with declining industrial bases—was once a Democratic stronghold known as the Blue Wall.
However, as manufacturing industries declined, Republican support grew, turning these states into battlegrounds.
Trump has already secured more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the election, confirming his victory.
Vote counting still continues in some states, including the Republican stronghold of Alaska and the Democratic-leaning Maine.
Once all votes are tallied, Trump is expected to secure 312 electoral votes, while Harris will receive 226. This surpasses the 304 electoral votes Trump won in the 2016 election, his first presidential win.
Unlike in 2016, when Trump lost the popular vote to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he leads with 51% of the popular vote compared to Harris’s 47.5%. This marks the first time since George W. Bush in 2004 that a Republican candidate has won both the electoral and the popular vote.
