Donald Trump has staged a remarkable comeback, reclaiming the White House by defeating Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
In a tightly contested race, the Republican candidate surpassed the crucial 270 electoral votes needed to secure the nation’s highest office.
Addressing supporters in Florida on the morning of Wednesday, November 6, a triumphant Trump expressed his gratitude to Americans for heading to the polls and choosing him as their leader once more.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump remarked.
He added,” This was, I believe, one of the greatest political movements of all time and now it’s going to reach a new level of importance because we’re going to help our country heal. Our country needs to help, we are going to fix our borders and fix everything about our country.”
To win the U.S. presidency, a candidate must secure at least 270 electoral votes out of the total 538 across all 50 states.
In this election, Donald Trump clinched victory by winning critical swing states, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Swing states, where voters do not have a strong, consistent preference for either party, are often pivotal in U.S. elections. This year, the key swing states were Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, totaling 93 electoral votes. Pennsylvania leads among these with 19 votes, followed by North Carolina and Georgia with 16 each, Michigan with 15, Arizona with 11, Wisconsin with 10, and Nevada with 6.
Beyond swing states, Trump also won Texas, a state with a substantial 40 electoral votes, further solidifying his path to victory. Other contenders in the presidential race included Green Party candidate Jill Stein, independent Robert Kennedy, and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver.
Electoral votes are distributed based on each state’s congressional representation, calculated from the U.S. census. The general election is held every four years on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
Trump will now succeed Joe Biden, who exited the race to endorse Kamala Harris. Congratulatory messages from world leaders are already starting to pour in as Trump prepares to reclaim the presidency.
