US election live: Kamala Harris says ‘do not despair’ in concession speech; Trump to meet Biden at White House, campaign says | US elections 2024

Make no mistake about it – tens of millions of Americans voted to return Donald Trump to the White House, and are happy he has won.

In the hours since polls closed and his victory was declared, they have celebrated all over the nation. Here’s what that looks like:

I’ve just returned to Howard University’s campus, where just over 12 hours ago Kamala Harris’s supporters learned that she would not be the next president of the United States.

Students, sorority sisters and supporters have teamed into the venue, once again amassing on the Yard.

But unlike last night, the mood is somber. There is no music playing. There’s a lot of stone-faced supporters and exhausted staff.

Harris is expected to speak here shortly, after her election night defeat to Trump, a somber end to a lightning-fast campaign that many here believed would finally catapult a woman to the White House.

Joe Biden will address the nation tomorrow, the White House said, after Donald Trump won the presidential election and Republicans gained control of the Senate for the first time in four years.

In his speech on Thursday, the president will “discuss the election results and the transition”, the White House said.

If there’s a glimmer of hope for Democrats after an election that counts as one of the party’s biggest disasters in recent years, it’s in the House of Representatives. Though Republicans appear to be holding their own in the races that will decide control of the chamber, counting is ongoing, and Democrats could still seize a majority that will probably be small.

Joe Biden has called Donald Trump to congratulate him on his election victory and invite him to the White House.

The president “expressed his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition and emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together”, the White House said, adding that the date of the president-elect’s visit will be announced later.

Biden also called Kamala Harrisand “congratulated the vice-president on her historic campaign”.

Just how exactly did Donald Trump win the White House?

With ballot counting ongoing in many parts of the country, we still do not have a complete picture of which groups broke for Trump, which declined to support Kamala Harris and which decided not to vote at all. But we do have some idea from the results that have been called so far, and FiveThirtyEight has analyzed them to gain some insights into why the vice-president came up short in her bid for the White House.

The toll of inflation played a big role in souring voters on Democrats, the polling site finds:

According to the exit poll, 35 percent of voters nationally rated the ‘state of democracy’ as the most important factor to their vote. Eighty-one percent of these people voted for Harris and just 17 percent for Trump. But the economy was the next-most-influential issue. Among these voters, Trump led 79 percent to 20 percent. In the end, abortion did not rate as highly as Democrats might have hoped; only 14 percent rated it as their biggest concern.

So, too, did the increasing popularity of Republicans among voters of color:

Initial exit poll estimates also suggest Democratic support declined among non-white voters and rose among white voters (especially college-educated ones). The exit poll indicates Trump won white voters by 12 percentage points, 55 percent to Harris’s 43 percent. Compared to the 2020 exit poll, that is a 5-point improvement for Democrats.

…

The Republican’s gains with nonwhites was particularly acute among Hispanic and Latino voters. Democrats’ vote margin with the group fell by 26 points, according to the exit poll, to just a 53-percent-to-45-percent margin. Trump’s vote share with Latinos looks like it could be the best since George W Bush’s 44 percent in 2004. Latino men moved 33 points toward Trump, one of his biggest swings.

Finally, it appears not as many Democrats came out to vote as Harris needed:

So far, around 137 million ballots have been counted for the 2024 presidential race. Predictions of final turnout are hovering somewhere in the neighborhood [of] 152 million votes. That would be a decrease from the 158 million who voted in 2020 and would be equivalent to about 61 percent of eligible voters. That would be a decline from 66 percent in 2020.

It is also likely that the drop in turnout disproportionately affected Democrats. While we can’t be sure until we can review records of who actually voted (states will release those over the next few months), the drop-off in turnout is currently greater in the most Democratic counties across the battleground states. That is something that would uniquely hurt Harris; if you’re a Democrat, then lower turnout in the suburbs is bad, of course, but not so bad as missing the mark in Philadelphia or Milwaukee, where you’re relying on a lot of votes to carry you to victory.

Donald Trump’s campaign has released details of his phone call with Kamala Harris today, in which the vice-president conceded the presidential election.

“President Donald J Trump and vice-president Kamala Harris spoke by phone earlier today where she congratulated him on his historic victory. President Trump acknowledged vice-president Harris on her strength, professionalism, and tenacity throughout the campaign, and both leaders agreed on the importance of unifying the country,” campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Donald Trump has already decisively won the electoral college but appears on course for another triumph that no Republican has pulled off in years: victory in the popular vote.

It was something Trump failed to do even when he was first elected in 2016, which heightened complaints among Democrats that the electoral college is an anti-democratic enabler of unpopular candidates. But the dynamic has plagued the GOP for years – the last Republican to win the popular vote is George W Bush in 2004, when he was re-elected after winning only the electoral college four years earlier.

While all ballots nationwide have not yet been counted, Trump currently has a lead in the popular vote over Kamala Harrisdefying forecasts that the vice-president would be the choice of a majority of voters, even if she did not ultimately become president.

The Associated Press reports that as of 2.11pm ET, Trump won 71,930,743 votes, or 51% of the popular vote, and Harris 67,086,484 votes, or 47.5%. The totals are expected to change as counting continues, particularly in states with lots of Democratic voters, such as California.

Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump shared a “wish to work together for the return of peace and stability” at a time when the world faces “major ongoing international crises”, the French president’s office said on Wednesday after Macron’s first call with the US president-elect.

The two leaders had a “very good 25-minute discussion”, the Élysée Palace said, in which Macron “highlighted the importance of Europe’s role” and offered to work together on questions including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Middle East “once (Trump) has taken office” in January.

Macron’s entourage described the call as “warm”, saying the two men had known each other for a long time.

Macron was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on Wednesday and among the first to have a phone conversation with him.

Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin has won re-election in Wisconsin, the Associated Press reports, staving off a total disaster for the party in a swing state that was crucial in returning Donald Trump to the White House.

While Democrats have already lost control of the Senate thanks to Republican victories in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, Baldwin’s defeat would have made it even harder for them to regain the majority in the future.

That said, things could still get worse for Democrats. Two of their incumbent senators are locked in tight races for re-election in Pennsylvania and Michigan – both swing states that Trump won.

Kamala Harris has called Donald Trump to congratulate him on winning the 2024 presidential election, an aide to the campaign confirmed.

The call formally ends the bitter contest between the vice-president and the former president.

The aide said she emphasized the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and being a president for all Americans.

Harris is expected to deliver her concession speech at Howard later this afternoon.