Friday, November 22, 2024

Trump Takes Early Electoral Lead as Race With Harris Takes Shape

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(Bloomberg) — Republican nominee Donald Trump jumped out to an early Electoral College lead over Democrat Kamala Harris, but pivotal battlegrounds — including the Blue Wall of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — remained tightly knit as polls closed in more than two-thirds of states.

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Republicans were buoyed when Trump took preliminary leads in Georgia and North Carolina, though none of the swing states likely to be decisive in determining the presidency have been called.

Other initial results went as-expected, with both candidates projected to win safe states and West Virginia’s open Senate seat flipping to the Republicans. Trump easily won his home state of Florida, including some key heavily Hispanic counties. Harris took Democratic strongholds including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Polls have closed in all of the battlegrounds, comprising Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada, though voting hours have been extended in small pockets where irregularities were reported.

Trump led by five percentage points in Georgia, with more than three-quarters of votes reported, and also was ahead in North Carolina. Democrats will be watching closely as results from the Rust Belt trickle in, with hopes that Michigan — which is expected to report faster than other states — can offer encouraging signs for Harris.

Angela Alsobrooks was named the winner of the Maryland Senate race, defeating the state’s Republican former governor, Larry Hogan, in a Democratic-leaning state. Fox News projected that Texas Senator Ted Cruz had won reelection, snuffing out what some Democrats had hoped was a longshot pickup opportunity.

With polls closed in in more than two-thirds of states, S&P 500 futures were up over 1%, US 10-year yields rose 15 basis points to a four-month high of 4.42% and Bitcoin rallied 5.1%, moves that together bore the imprint of trades linked to a Republican victory. Trump’s odds of winning the election were climbing on betting markets and on national forecasting sites.

Voters said democracy and the economy mattered the most when deciding their presidential vote in exit polls released Tuesday afternoon by a consortium of networks that included NBC News, Fox News, and CNN.

Around 35% of voters — including a plurality of both men and women — said democracy was their top issue and 31% said the economy, while 14% picked abortion. Immigration was the top issue for 11% of voters. Abortion was the top issue for 19% of women versus just 8% of men. Only 4% of voters said foreign policy was their biggest concern.

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