Republican presidential nominee and former President, Donald Trump has been projected to win the battleground state of North Carolina, the first result from one of the seven key battleground states.
This boosts his chances of reclaiming the presidency.
It is too early to call the other battleground states; Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada, which are seen as pivotal to Trump’s and Kamala Harris’ paths to victory.
Trump is projected to receive the North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes after defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Trump also won the state in 2016 and 2020. Democrats had been optimistic they could reverse previous outcomes with campaign spending, canvassing and Harris rallies. They also tried to link Trump to embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.
However, Trump and running mate JD Vance visited North Carolina often during the fall campaign, pushing a more protectionist economic agenda and promises to crack down on illegal immigration and the southern border.
At Trump’s election night watch party, the crowd erupted in cheers, with some supporters pumping fists in the air and others jumping when the screen showed that Trump won North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes.
Some were yelling “fight, fight, fight.”
By winning North Carolina, Trump maintains options to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold.
Trump can reach the magic number by carrying Georgia and Pennsylvania or by carrying Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. He also can win by carrying Wisconsin and Arizona, as well as other combinations involving Nevada.
However, that would require him to crack the blue wall of northern states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump blitzed North Carolina in the final days of the campaign, stopping in four cities over four days and finishing his North Carolina campaign in Raleigh on Monday, November, 4, 2024.
The state is one of the most evenly divided in the country and while Barack Obama won the state in 2008, Republicans have won it narrowly every election since, even as states like Georgia and Arizona have moved away from them.
Donald Trump is also showing strong returns in most of the battleground states reported so far.
He is leading in Georgia and Pennsylvania, where the majority of votes have been counted.
In Arizona and Wisconsin, he is inching slightly ahead. More than half of votes have been counted in those two states.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is leading in Michigan, though only 32% of the votes have been reported there.
None of these states have been called so far, and it’s important to note that things can change quickly as more votes are counted.
At the moment, AP News has Harris with 210 electoral votes and Trump with 230. Meanwhile, CNN has Harris with 182 electoral votes and Trump with 246.
Analysts React To Trump’s Projected North Carolina Win
Kaitlan Collins, an analyst said that Trump winning the battleground state would be a “gut check” for the party.
“North Carolina is an important benchmark for the Trump campaign because they were watching it to get a gut check for how they believe the rest of the evening could go.”
Kaitlan Collins
She said that Trump campaign sources told her that they are “increasingly confident as the night is going on.”
Following the projected North Carolina win, Chris Wallace opined thar the election is currently feeling more like the 2016 election rather than the 2020 race.
Wallace acknowledged that there still are plenty of votes to still count. “Generally speaking, he is over-performing what he did in 2020 and she is under-performing what Joe Biden did in 2020,” Wallace said.
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