Former President Donald Trump has gained 266 electoral votes — just four away from the 270 he needs to be elected 47th President of the United States.
Here’s what happened overnight:
Trump’s speech in Florida: The former president addressed supporters in Florida in the early hours of Wednesday morning and thanked the American people for their support. “We have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders and we’re going to fix everything about our country,” Trump said, promising Americans that “every single day I will be fighting for you” and said he would usher in the “golden age of America.” CNN has not yet called the presidential race and votes are still being counted in several states.
Republicans will control the Senate: Republicans will win the US Senate majority, CNN projects, shifting the balance of power in Washington. The Republican march to control started early on election night when West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was projected to pick up the Senate seat vacated by retiring Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin. In Ohio, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has served in the chamber for three terms, will lose his reelection bid, CNN projects, in a state that has gone from a perennial political bellwether during his tenure to a deep red stronghold. The new Republican senator will be businessman Bernie Moreno, a vehement Trump supporter.
Battleground projections: Early on Tuesday evening, Trump swept reliable red states and Vice President Kamala Harris picked up blue strongholds. Later on, Trump picked up North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and Harris’ path to 270 shrank considerably.
Harris will speak later today: The campaign’s co-chair Cedric Richmond told supporters the vice president wasn’t going to speak Tuesday evening, but is expected to speak today. In brief remarks to the hundreds of supporters who remained on Howard University’s campus, Richmond said there were still “votes to count” and the campaign was committed to making sure “every vote is counted.”