Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump were locked in a tight race for the White House late Tuesday night as she sought to make history as the nation’s first woman president while he vied to pull off an epic political comeback.
With the nation bitterly divided over a host of issues, Trump led early results in the battleground states of Georgia and North Carolina by a small but significant margin.
Harris was still hoping to win the three Rust Belt swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that could give her the path to 270 electoral votes.
As tens of millions of Americans went to the polls from coast-to-coast, Trump was holding his own in rural and exurban areas that he won in his previous two races.
Harris was making inroads in some of the populous affluent suburbs that have shifted to the left in recent years, but it was far from clear that she was doing well enough.
Americans went to the polls to cast their ballots after a tumultuous campaign in which the White House and control of both houses of Congress were up for grabs.
While Harris sought to etch her name in history, Trump aimed to flip the script after he lost his reelection bid in 2020.
The presidential race has been extraordinarily stable since Harris exploded onto the political stage when President Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 and handed the Democratic baton to her.
Harris quickly forged a modest polling lead and by all accounts beat Trump handily in the only face-to-face debate on Sept. 10. But the race settled back into a virtual dead heat and has barely shifted ever since.
For months, Trump has hammered home an angry message that Harris and the unpopular Biden have presided over record inflation and an “invasion” of millions of undocumented immigrants.
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Donald Trump campaigns in Michigan last week. (Getty)
Harris stressed kitchen-table issues and especially abortion rights, while vowing to work across the aisle to solve issues like immigration
As votes started to pour in, the election was expected to feature the widest gender gap in history. Harris was eyeing a landslide win among women with Trump holding a huge edge with men, especially white men without a college degree.
Harris could win the presidency by holding three Rust Belt states Biden won in 2020: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Victories in any of the Sun Belt states open up many relatively easier paths to a win for her.
Trump had hoped to sweep all the Sun Belt swing states, including Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, and pick off one of the Blue Wall states, with Pennsylvania being his best shot there. His path to victory is much narrower if Harris can wrap up one or more of the Southern swing states.
A few polls detected a bit of movement toward Harris in the campaign’s final days, notably a shock poll of Iowa predicting a Harris win in the red-trending Hawkeye State.
But other pollsters warned that surveys could be repeating their infamous misstep of underestimating Trump’s appeal, especially with working-class white voters in the Midwest.
Harris is vying to make three historic firsts as the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office. But she has not stressed the trailblazing nature of her run, instead focusing on burnishing her image as a can-do leader.
A Trump win would amount to another stunning comeback after he tried to overturn that loss with his “Stop the Steal” effort that culminated in a crowd of his supporters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The former reality-TV star and real estate mogul was also running to stay out of prison. Already a convicted felon, Trump likely needs a win to stave off conviction and potential imprisonment in four criminal cases.
