NewsTrump takes first swing state as AP calls North Carolina

Trump takes first swing state as AP calls North Carolina

Former President Donald Trump captured the first swing state on election night, with The Associated Press projecting he would win North Carolina.

The GOP nominee had led narrowly in the Tar Heel State most of the 2024 cycle, though one late-race survey gave Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, a slim lead. Trump won North Carolina in both 2016 and 2020, but both President Joe Biden, before he dropped out of the race in late July, and Harris spent ample time and money there trying to flip the state.

Yet, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’ campaign manager, made clear in an internal memo Tuesday night that the vice president’s team had concluded Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin would be her best path to victory.

“While we continue to see data trickle in from the Sun Belt states, we have known all along that our clearest path to 270 electoral votes lies through the Blue Wall states,” she wrote. “And we feel good about what we’re seeing.”

O’Malley Dillon indicated to her staff that she expects the presidential race would not be called until at least into the day on Wednesday. In the internal memo obtained by Roll Call, she walked staffers through the campaign’s understanding of where outstanding votes that could help the vice president had yet to be counted.

“We’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight. Those of you who were around in 2020 know this well: It takes time for all the votes to be counted — and all the votes will be counted. That’s how our system works. What we do know is this race is not going to come into focus until the early morning hours,” O’Malley Dillon wrote.

“This is what we’ve been built for, so let’s finish up what we have in front of us tonight, get some sleep,” she added, “and get ready to close out strong tomorrow.”

Harris and Trump closed their campaigning with rallies in two swing states, him in Michigan and her in Pennsylvania. Trump spoke for nearly two hours, doing his usual self-described “weave” approach to hop among semi-related topics. Harris delivered remarks similar to her Democratic National Convention speech to a crowd in Philadelphia, after her campaign put on a music concert.

Trump, who survived two assassination attempts in the race’s final months, surged in national and swing-state polls in recent weeks, but he and his surrogates stumbled repeatedly during the race’s final week. Team Trump said insulting things about Puerto Rico as it courted Latino voters and women as they tried to improve upon a gender gap in polling that put Harris well ahead with women voters.

The “momentum is on our side,” Harris declared at her final rally. Trump, meantime, spent part of Tuesday contending there had been “cheating” in places like Democrat-heavy Philadelphia — but offered no evidence as local officials denied the allegations.

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