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Kentucky election results: Donald Trump wins first state in 2020 race

State carries eight electoral college votes

Matt Mathers
Wednesday 04 November 2020 01:33 GMT
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President Donald Trump has won his first state in the 2020 race for the White House with victory in Kentucky.

Kentucky is the first state to declare for president Donald Trump in the 2020 race for the White House.

Mr Trump was expected to win the conservative Bluegrass State, which has not backed a Democrat presidential hopeful since Bill Clinton in 1996.

A win for Mr Trump in Kentucky means he collects the state's eight electoral college votes.

He won the state with 62.5 per cent of the ballots in 2016, securing almost 600,000 more votes than then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump held a strong poll lead over Mr Biden in Kentucky throughout the election campaign.

Some surveys had the incumbent ahead by as much as 14 points. Kentucky was always likely to declare for Mr Trump and he spent little time campaigning there.

While the state's eight electoral college votes help the president in his quest for the 270, they are not crucial to his chances of winning.

Mr Trump will need victory in some of the key battleground states such as Florida, Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin if he is to hold onto power.

Key to the president's path to victory is the Sunshine State, with its 29 electoral college votes. If Mr Biden wins the state then he will most likely end up in the White House.

Final polling numbers showed Florida on a knife-edge heading into election day and the state is expected to go down to the wire.

Voting in Florida ends at 7pm and an preliminary result is expected to be announced soon after.

America's third-most populous state has been a toss-up over the past few decades, choosing Richard Nixon in 1972, Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2016, before swinging back to the Republicans in 2016.  

Again, Mr Trump's victory in the Sun Belt state was narrow - he secured just 100,000 more votes than Ms Clinton. 

If Mr Biden wins the state back for the Democrats, then it is difficult to see a path to victory for the president because of the large number of electoral college votes he will lose out on. 

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