Donald Trump wins Wisconsin, propelling his return to the White House
For the second time in eight years, Donald Trump’s path to White House went straight through Wisconsin.
Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris in the state early Wednesday shattered Democrats’ blue wall and completed one of the most stunning political comebacks in the country’s history.
The Associated Press called the race for Trump shortly after 4:30 a.m. local time. Unofficial results showed Trump with about a 0.9-point edge — approximately 29,000 votes — on Harris with more than 99% of the vote tabulated in Wisconsin. The state’s 10 electoral votes pushed him over the 270 threshold and cemented his unprecedented return to the White House.
With the call, Trump extended his lead to 277-224 in the Electoral College, though several states had yet to be called as he picked up more electoral votes later in the morning. He was poised Wednesday to win nearly every key battleground state.
Harris called Trump Wednesday afternoon to concede the race.
“This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump told supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, during his victory speech. “Frankly this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country and maybe beyond. And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance.”
“And to every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future,” Trump added, after saying he would help the country heal. “Every single day I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.”
Trump maintained a lead in Wisconsin even after Milwaukee reported its approximately 108,000 absentee votes, which were overwhelmingly Democratic.
And even though Harris gained nearly 40% of the vote in suburban Waukesha County, Trump outperformed his 2020 race in many rural areas. He also extended his lead in Brown County as of early Wednesday and won more votes in the Democratic stronghold of Dane County than he did in his previous run.
The result for Trump means Wisconsin has flipped from Republican to Democratic to Republican in the last three presidential elections. Trump won the state by about 22,000 votes in 2016 but lost it to President Joe Biden by a little more than 20,000 votes in 2020. Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes pushed Trump over the victory threshold, making the state the tipping point state for the third presidential election in a row.
It was a bleak night for Democrats across the country. Trump crumbled Democrats’ blue wall as he won Pennsylvania and was projected to win Michigan. Republicans on Tuesday also took control of the U.S. Senate, though Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin appeared to hang on to her seat.
Both Trump and Harris campaigned aggressively in Wisconsin since Biden dropped out of the race and Harris effectively became Democrats’ new presidential nominee when she launched her campaign on July 23. The Republican National Convention was held in Milwaukee in mid-July.
In the time since the two presidential nominees and their running mates made more than 40 individual stops in Wisconsin. Harris and the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, made 25 separate stops. Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, meanwhile, made 18 separate visits.
More: Trump, Harris are ramping up their travel in Wisconsin. See all the places they've been
The race culminated with dueling rallies Friday night in the Milwaukee area. Harris and Trump spoke at nearly the same time and just six miles apart.
Harris, rallying at Wisconsin State Fair Park, struck a unifying tone in her Wisconsin finale. She pledged to “seek common ground and common sense solutions” and reiterated her promise to give those who disagree with her “a seat at the table.”
Trump, meanwhile, described the current state of the country in dark terms in his rambling remarks at Fiserv Forum as he railed against the Biden administration and hurled insults at Harris. He promised the U.S. would be “bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before” if he is elected.
Both campaigns poured tens of millions into the Wisconsin contest.
Between the beginning of March and Election Day, the two campaigns spent more than $150 million combined on advertising across the state, according to AdImpact. That figure includes about $84 million for Democrats and $73 million for Republicans.
Republicans bombarded Harris over the Wisconsin airwaves on social and culture war issues. They zeroed in on transgender people as they pushed the line: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
Harris and Democrats cut ads featuring Republicans who claimed they would never vote for Trump again, painting him as unfit for office after thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the 2020 election.
The Harris campaign touted Republican support for the vice president throughout Wisconsin. Former Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, a top Trump critic who sat on the House panel investigating the attack on the Capitol, made two stops in Wisconsin with Harris.
Trump has continued to falsely claim he won the 2020 election, including in recent visits to Wisconsin.
Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond as votes rolled in for Trump late Tuesday evening told supporters at Howard University in Washington, D.C., that Harris would not address the crowd.
Richmond said there were still votes to count and states that had not been called.
“We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted,” he said. “That every voice has spoken.”
Trump, however, declared victory just hours later.
He boasted of winning the battlegrounds of North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
And he proclaimed: “This will truly be the golden age of America.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Donald Trump wins Wisconsin presidential vote in 2024 election