Trump vs Harris: Live election 2024 results map as Trump defeats Harris to win presidency

Follow along for live updates as Donald Trump surpasses 270 Electoral College votes needed to return to the White House

Donald Trump has clinched victory in the 2024 presidential election, sweeping several critical swing states to secure 277 Electoral College votes in a dramatic and historic night for America.

The Republican eliminated his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s chances of making history as the first female president, and will now return to the White House in January 2025 to serve a second term.

Trump cemented his win with Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, taking him over the line by surpassing the 270 needed to win the presidency.

While Harris was nowhere to be seen, there were jubilant scenes at Trump HQ in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the president-elect hailed “the greatest political movement of all time” and ushered in a “golden age for America.”

It was a dark night for the Democrats as Trump — who was rejected by a majority of Americans in 2020 during his re-election campaign after winning an unprecedented race in 2016 — flipped nearly every swing state that President Joe Biden won in 2020. In yet more bad news for Democrats, Republicans have also taken control of the Senate.

Trump won the battleground state of Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes, along with other swing states Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

The swing states of Nevada and Arizona are yet to be called.

Harris has not addresssed the nation or her supporters yet. She did not make an appearance from her watch party at her Howard University alma mater, where her supporters were pictured looking down-trodden as the results rolled in.

At 1:47 am, as Trump prepared to speak to supporters in West Palm Beach, and as votes were still being counted in several states that had not yet been decided, Fox News declared Trump’s victory.

“It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before. Nothing like this,” Trump told his supporters from a convention center stage at 2:30 am while surrounded by members of the Trump family and his closest allies.

Trump basks in his win at West Palm Beach, Florida, on election night (Getty Images)

Federal law enforcement agencies and election officials were prepared for disruptions this year after the chaotic aftermath of the 2020 election and Trump’s spurious efforts to overturn the results of a race he lost. Officials attributed non-credible bomb threats in several states to Russian actors. Voters ranked the state of democracy as their number one issue informing their voting decision, according to exit polls.

Trump has also won in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to preliminary results.

Harris, meanwhile, won the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state as well as Washington DC.

Of the swing states that Biden won in 2020, Harris was only projected to win Minnesota.

She also picked up electoral votes in Maine and Nebraska, two states with a unique split electoral vote scenario, rather than the winner-take-all outcome in other states.

Trump’s victory in Georgia reverses Democratic gains in the state after Biden narrowly defeated Trump there in 2020, when he became the first Democratic candidate to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

His victory in Florida marks his third consecutive win in the state, after Democratic former president Barack Obama carried the state in both 2008 and 2012.

Chairs and trash in an empty field following a Harris election night watch party at Howard University, Washington DC (Getty Images)

Trump is projected to win four of Nebraska’s five electoral votes in that state’s split electoral vote count. He’s projected to win at least one electoral vote in Maine, as well.

Media outlets made their projections for each state’s winner as election workers counted ballots and preliminary voting data was released.The Independent relies on projections from the Associated Press.

Outlets published their final projections in the early hours of November 6, with the Associated Press calling the race for Trump at 5:34 am Eastern time. However, their determination is only a projection. The results must be certified in each state and then certified by Congress on January 6, 2025.

Experts previously told The Independent that the timeline for calling the race largely depended on two things: How close the election is in individual states and the specific laws of those states regarding counting votes and potential recounts, which all vary.

Senate and House races

Republicans have seized control of the Senate for the first time in four years after flipping two seats, wresting a narrow majority in the upper chamber of Congress from Democrats.

House and Senate races across the country will determine the balance of power in Congress — where Democrats currently hold the narrowest majority in the Senate and Republicans maintain a slim majority in the House — and will determine whether the president-elect’s agenda has legislative support.

A Republican trifecta — with clear leadership in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives — could quickly usher through the GOP’s sweeping agenda that has largely been restrained by Democratic lawmakers and Biden’s presidency.

With 51 races left to call in the House, it is still on the table. As it stands at the moment, Democrats have 183 seats and Republicans have 201.

Meanwhile in the Senate, controversial Republican Tim Sheehy from Montana has been elected, beating incumbent Jon Tester.

Voters in Ohio have ousted Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and elected Republican challenger Bernie Moreno, who previously called the former president a “lunatic” but has since adopted his agenda.

West Virginia’s Republican Governor Jim Justice has won a seat in the Senate, flipping a seat previously held by now-former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who is not seeking re-election.

Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida defeated Democratic opponent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. And in Texas, Republican Ted Cruz fended off a challenge from Democratic candidate Colin Allred.

Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, is the only Independent candidate to hold his Senate seat so far.

In Maryland’s Senate race, Democratic candidate Angela Alsobrooks defeated the state’s former governor Larry Hogan, an anti-Trump Republican.

Alsobrooks is set to become the first Black person the state ever elected to the Senate.

Only 34 of the nation’s 100 seats in the Senate are currently up for election, as senators serve six-year terms with a third being elected every two years. Eighteen of those seats were previously held by Democratic senators, posing a threat to their slim majority.

But all 435 seats in the House are up for election.

Voters in Delaware have elected Democratic candidate Sarah McBride to fill the state’s single House seat, making her the first openly transgender member of Congress in American history.

Results will be refreshed live as they come in. Check back for updates.