President Donald Trump won Florida, the nationâs most prized battleground state, as he and Democrat Joe Biden on Tuesday battled to the finish of an epic campaign that will shape Americaâs response to the surging pandemic and foundational questions of economic fairness and racial justice.
The two men were locked in tight races across the country, with Trump also claiming the battlegrounds of Ohio and Iowa while Biden won Minnesota and Iowa, two modest prizes the president had hoped to steal.
Races were too early to call in some of other fiercely contested and critical states on the map, including North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Speaking Tuesday night, Biden urged patience. “We feel good about where we are. Iâm here to tell you tonight, we believe weâre on track to win this election. We knew, because of the unprecedented early vote and mail in vote, that it would take a while. Weâre gonna have to be patient,” he said. “It ainât over until every vote is counted.”
The president, by early Wednesday, had retained many states he won in 2016 and, as long predicted, the race in part seemed to rest on the three northern industrial states where Trump most surprised the Democrats four year ago Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Millions of voters braved their worries about the virus â and some long lines â to turn out in person, joining 102 million fellow Americans who voted days or weeks earlier, a record number that represented 73% of the total vote in the 2016 presidential election.
Early results in several key battleground states were in flux as election officials processed a historically large number of mail-in votes. Democrats typically outperform Republicans in mail voting, while the GOP looks to make up ground in Election Day turnout. That means the early margins between the candidates could be influenced by which type of votes â early or Election Day â were being reported by the states. For more, see the Associated Press story.
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