PHILADELPHIA — Donald Trump won Pennsylvania early Wednesday, putting him just three electoral votes shy of defeating Kamala Harris to win the White House and effectively ending her chances at becoming the 47th president.
Trump has 267 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. A win in Alaska or any of the outstanding battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada — would send the Republican former president back to the Oval Office.
After losing Georgia and North Carolina, the Harris campaign said the traditional "blue wall" states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin would be her clearest path to victory. Without Pennsylvania, there are no viable paths to a Democratic win.
The former president declared victory in a speech to supporters early Wednesday morning.
Trump is leading in Michigan and Wisconsin, where his two clearest paths to victory rely on Harris not winning enough of the outstanding votes in Wayne and Milwaukee counties.
Pennsylvania, a part of the once-reliable Democratic stronghold known as the “blue wall” with Michigan and Wisconsin, was carried by Trump when he first won the White House in 2016 and then flipped back to Democrats in 2020. Trump also flipped Georgia, which had voted for Democrats four years ago, and retained the closely contested state of North Carolina.
“We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted. That every voice has spoken,” Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign said.
Trump, 78, would become both the oldest person ever elected president and the first former president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to return to office after a defeat. If successful, he would also be the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.
