She wins the key states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania // Her voters valued inflation and migration as priority issues // Harris remains silent and waits
Jim Cason and David Brooks
Correspondents
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, November 6, 2024, p. 20
Washington and New York. Donald Trump is about to be the next president of the United States. Although there are no final results, at the close of this edition everything indicated that the routes for a possible victory for Kamala Harris had been closed, and while the Republican was about to celebrate with his followers in Florida, the Democrats announced at night that they would not do more comments.
Trump did not wait for the final results to declare his victory. He declared to his followers that this was a triumph of the greatest political movement of all time. He added: “We are going to help heal our country. We are going to fix our border… seal our border,” and we are going to “make America big again.”
The Republican candidate won three of the seven pivotal states, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania. The forecast model New York Timeswhich has not always been accurate, showed a 95 percent probability that Trump will be the next president at the end of the night.
Previously, advisors to the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, pointed out that the margins remain very narrow and that she still has a route to victory. We still have votes to count, we still have states that have not been defined, we will continue tonight to fight to ensure that every vote is counted, that every voice has been expressedHarris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said in a statement shortly after midnight in Washington.
Although the undercount in those states is favoring Trump, ballots from absentee and early voters have historically favored Democrats, and final results could take a day or two.
The Republicans have won the majority and thus regain control of the Senate after four years under Democratic control. It is not expected to know who has the majority in the lower house for a few days.
The first polls by the AP agency, with 110,000 voters, revealed that those who cast their vote for the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, identified the future of democracy in the country as their greatest motivation, while those who did so for the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, considered inflation and migration as priority issues; half of them expressed concern about the situation on the border with Mexico. Other issues, including abortion rights, health services and the environment, were secondary.
These exit polls also reveal that Trump garnered the highest level of support among Latinos of any Republican presidential candidate in the last 50 years, winning 45 percent of the Latino vote and 53 percent of the Latino male vote. In some key states like Michigan, Trump enjoyed even higher levels among this sector.
At midnight, Harris in Washington, and Trump in Florida, were meeting with their respective families and advisors, and neither of them had come out to declare anything to the media or their supporters, who were waiting to celebrate them.
During the day, the Democratic candidate and vice president of the country, Harris, visited the Democratic Party headquarters in Washington in the morning to thank them for their work and encourage them to continue with the last push to get voters to their polls.
Harris, who is from California, sent her remote vote by mail from this capital weeks ago and remained at the official vice presidential residence yesterday, before arriving at her alma materHoward University, where he would await the results with his team and supporters in the evening.
▲ Reaction of supporters of candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris upon seeing preliminary results, yesterday. Those of the Republican (below), in West Palm Beach, Florida. Those of the Democrat, at Howard University, in Washington.Photo Ap and Afp
Former President Trump, the Republican candidate, and his immigrant wife, Melania, cast their votes in a polling place in Palm Beach, Florida, near their Mar-a-Lago mansion/club, where they remained awaiting the results. In voting comments, Trump said he was receiving reports of high turnout in Republican areas of the country and expressed confidence in his victory. When asked by a reporter if he was willing to accept the results – he has avoided committing to this basic rule of a race – he responded yes. Yes it is an impartial election. So far it has been impartial.
sow doubt
However, Trump’s operatives have launched a major national effort to sow doubts about the fairness of the election for months by denouncing alleged electoral fraud as they did in 2020. This time, the effort is much more organized than the small fringe group which fueled the falsehood that Trump won the previous election. That movement in 2024 now It is an organized army, widely promoted and nurtured by an ideology that prevails in the republican bases.reported the Washington Post. A big driver of this movement is billionaire Elon Musk, who was already using his cyber platform X to report alleged fraud.
Officials in Washington and other parts of the country have also expressed concerns about threats of violence on Election Day and over the next 11 weeks, when a new president will (presumably) take office. Shops in the center of the capital placed wooden shields over their windows in case of violence and greater police security was deployed around the White House.
Isolated incidents of violence
In fact, some isolated incidents of violence were reported. Two men were arrested in Michigan for sending threats of violence in social media messages, police said, while a local elected politician was arrested in New York for breaking into a polling station. In Washington, a man was arrested while trying to enter Congressional buildings with gasoline and lighters. Later, bomb threats were reported in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, and although they were false, they caused evacuations and delays at polling stations and counting centers, many in Democratic areas such as Philadelphia and Atlanta.
In another area, it was curious that in the face of an election whose participants, analysts, political and cultural figures, experts and intellectuals have proclaimed as existential With the future of American democracy at stake, it is not noticeable in the streets. During a long walk through New York City, from the West Village to Wall Street, passing by university campuses, buildings and squares, there was nothing – except in a couple of schools that served as boxes with a very discreet presence – that indicated that a political act was happening that will determine the future of the most powerful country on the planet. Not a sticker, blanket, t-shirt, hat, poster and even fewer activists encouraging participation.
In this national election, all seats in the lower house (435) and a third of the Senate are also at stake, but final results are not expected to determine which party will control the House of Representatives.
