Trump leading in key states as Harris’ path narrows; Democrats hope to retake House, with GOP poised to win Senate majority

WASHINGTON – As presidential election results came in Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump led in several key states and Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to victory appeared to be narrowing, as she relied on a few swing states where her Republican opponent held a slim lead.

Meanwhile, Republicans had secured the Senate majority by flipping seats held by Democrats in Ohio and West Virginia, and another GOP win in Montana appeared possible. Control of the House of Representatives, which could give Democrats a check on Republican power should Trump return to the White House, may take days or weeks to determine.

Speaking to supporters in Florida early Wednesday morning, Trump said his return to the White House would “truly be the golden age of America.”

“Frankly this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,” Trump said. “And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance, because we’re going to help our country heal.”

Harris did not address her supporters Tuesday night, with her campaign saying she would speak Wednesday morning.

Election Day marked the end of a presidential race unlike any the nation had seen before.

Some Republicans seemed eager to move on from Trump after he refused to admit he lost the 2020 election and was impeached for inciting a riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But after an unusually early campaign launch just following the 2022 election, the former president sidelined his primary challengers and made it clear that he still dominates the Republican Party.

In contrast, Harris ran a truncated campaign after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 following an abysmal debate performance a month earlier, suddenly under pressure from a Democratic Party that had stifled internal doubts about the 81-year-old president’s fitness to serve another term.

The 78-year-old Trump has faced no such questions from within his own party, even as the final stretch of his campaign saw him repeatedly veer off message, once taking a roughly 40-minute dance break during a town hall event. His choice of 40-year-old Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, however, was widely seen as a way to pass the torch of his populist political movement to a new generation.

Much was made of Harris’ pick of a running mate, partly because the brief vetting process was the closest thing Democrats had to a presidential primary after the party’s official nominating contest turned into a coronation for Biden. She eventually chose Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, widely seen as an avatar of the working-class men who had flocked to Trump.

As of Tuesday night, Trump had won enough votes to secure victory in North Carolina and Georgia, leaving Harris to rely on a sweep in the so-called “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where the Republican held narrow leads.

Results in Nevada and Arizona were expected to take longer, but Trump could reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the electoral college even without those westernmost swing states.

Democrats entered Election Day with only a faint hope of holding their majority in the Senate, needing incumbent Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio to hold onto seats in states that Trump has dominated in recent years.

As expected, Republicans also flipped the Senate seat in West Virginia vacated by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin. Even if Tester wins a race that was too close to call on Tuesday night, a Republican win in Ohio ensured that the GOP would retake control of the upper chamber for the first time in four years.

The outcome in the Senate and the possibility of Trump’s return to the White House put more pressure on Democrats to take control of the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority of just four seats. With more than half of expected votes counted on Tuesday night, Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez held a narrow lead over Republican Joe Kent in southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, one of the “frontline” races that could determine control of the House.

“We are going to win back the United States House of Representatives,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in a speech at the Washington Democrats’ election night party in Seattle. “We have a lot of votes to count, and we are going to have faith that things are going to work out and that we are not going back.”

It will likely take days, if not weeks, to get final results in some House races, especially in several California districts that could determine control of the lower chamber. If Democrats manage to regain the majority, it would be a major success for Rep. Suzan DelBene of Medina, who took the reins of House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, after the 2022 election.