As a result of his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, Donald Trump will join Grover Cleveland as the only presidents to serve non-consecutive terms.
With a handful of states still waiting to be called, the former president has secured 277 Electoral College votes, more than the 270 needed to win, according to Associated Press projections.
The 2024 Electoral College map closely resembles the results of the 2016 election, the year Trump defied pollsters and pundits by defeating Hillary Clinton.
2020 Electoral College Map
Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020, winning 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232.
In 2020, Biden flipped the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan—states Trump won against Clinton.
The electoral map in the 2020 election.
270 To Win
But this year, Trump took back Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia, and he’s leading in Michigan and Arizona, which are yet to be declared. He is also leading in Nevada, a state that he did not win in either previous election.
Biden also won Arizona and Georgia in 2020, two traditionally red states that have become more competitive in recent years.
In Maine, which allocates its Electoral College votes by district, the 2024 results are pending. However, the projected results appear to follow the pattern of 2020 and 2016, with Trump winning one of the state’s votes and the Democratic candidate taking three.
In 2020, Biden also won Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which Clinton did not win in 2016, but Vice President Kamala Harris did this year.
2016 Electoral College Map
Trump’s surprise 2016 victory saw him secure 304 Electoral College votes over Clinton’s 227.
Trump’s win in the three “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan—states that Democrats had consistently won from 1992 to 2012—played a large role, securing 46 votes to take him over the threshold of 270.
The electoral map in the 2016 election.
270 To Win
In 2016 Trump also won Iowa and Florida, which had been won by President Barack Obama in the previous two elections. Trump held those states in the next two elections.
So far, Trump’s only loss in 2024 compared to 2016 is a single electoral vote from Nebraska’s 2nd. Like Maine, the state splits its votes by district.
As in 2020, Trump won the presidency in 2016 without winning the popular vote, which he lost by nearly 2.9 million votes (more than 7 million in 2020). In 2016, he became the fifth president in U.S. history to win the Electoral College while losing the popular vote, joining George W. Bush against Al Gore in 2000, Benjamin Harrison against Cleveland in 1888, Rutherford B. Hayes against Samuel Tilden in 1876 and John Quincy Adams against Andrew Jackson in 1824.
Trump and Clinton’s overall Electoral College tallies were slightly reduced in 2016 as a result of a handful of “faithless electors” who did not vote for their state’s winning candidates as pledged and instead voted for others not on the ballot.
