DONALD Trump appears to have won two key battlegrounds in the contest to become the next US president, edging towards victory and narrowing Kamala Harris’s path to the White House.
Republican Trump is predicted to win in North Carolina and Georgia, two of the seven crucial swing states where the race is likely to be close.
Democrat candidate Harris’s hopes for the presidency now rely on winning in the five remaining battleground states – Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin – though the odds appear stacked against her in many of them.
The race initially appeared neck-and-neck as Americans went to the polls, but Trump pulled ahead as result predictions came in from solidly red states including Florida, Texas and Alabama throughout the night.
Democrat candidate Harris’s support came from her party’s strongholds on the east and west coast in states like New York, Delaware, and California.
His predicted victory in Georgia sees Trump claim back a state he lost to Joe Biden four years ago.
Harris is not expected to speak overnight amid the losses for her campaign, according to her campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond, who told the crowd at her election night party “we still have votes to count”.
The outcome of the US election will have a sweeping impact on global politics, including in the UK where Keir Starmer’s Government may have to grapple with upheaval in America’s security and defence approach if Trump wins.
If the voting results follow predictions by the Associated Press, Trump will have gained 247 votes in the electoral college, and Harris 210 with the current states which have been called.
Under the US voting system, a total of 270 votes in the college are needed to win the presidency.
The election has largely unfolded smoothly across the USA, despite some voters suffering delays in casting their ballots, and a spate of what the FBI described as non-credible bomb threats.
The economy is a key issue for Americans, but other areas of concern for voters include immigration, protecting democracy and abortion rights.
As they take part in the presidential poll, 10 states voted on whether to enshrine the right to abortion in law.
An amendment to Florida’s state constitution failed to pass, but New Yorkers voted in favour of a similar amendment.
Concerns about the future of American democracy have emerged largely as a result of Trump attempts to overturn his loss in 2020, and the actions of his angry supporters in January 2021, who stormed Washington DC’s Capitol building.
The UK Government has been working hard to win over Trump in case he is re-elected, after a trans-Atlantic spat developed in recent weeks over Labour Party volunteers heading to the US to campaign for his rival.
Starmer is expected to be following the results of the US election, but his official spokesman did not say whether the Prime Minister would stay up overnight to watch the results roll in.
The Republican candidate would likely chart a new US course on major conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, areas where Starmer has largely followed the lead of Biden.
Speaking to GB News from Florida, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described Trump’s lead in the race as “the most incredible political comeback in any of our lifetimes”.
In central London, Democrat supporters went virtually silent as a television network showed Trump ahead in swing states.
Some held their head in their hands as concern spread about Harris’s prospects, and there were shouts of “No, that can’t be right” as projections on CNN showed Trump strongly ahead among Latino voters in Michigan.
A spokesperson for Republicans Abroad has meanwhile claimed Democrats are on course for a “shellacking” and their path to victory is “getting narrower and narrower”.
Sara Elliot also told Times Radio: “It is definitely not what we expected in some ways, being that the polls were as close as they are.”
