US election: Harris’s path to White House narrows, Georgia, NC called for Trump

Republican Donald Trump has been projected to win North Carolina and Georgia, the first two battleground states to be called in the US presidential election, leaving his rival, Kamala Harris with a narrow path to the White House.
The Republican Party is also projected by AP to win control of the Senate back.
Polls in the November 5 election have closed across the country, with voting going largely smoothly.
To win the presidency, a candidate needs at least 270 Electoral votes.

Analysis
Harris must now win Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to take White House
Joi Chanei, a Democratic political strategist, says the path to victory for Harris has narrowed after Trump’s projected wins in North Carolina and Georgia.

“We have to win some combination of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania – would also help to have Nevada – we need to have those states, there is no other way around it,” Chanei tells Al Jazeera. “The thing that is disappointing and the reason why you have such long faces among Democrats [is that] we wanted it to be more of a blowout,” she says.

But regardless of who wins, the analyst says, Americans will have to deal with the fact that the country is deeply divided.

“I am concerned over the health of a nation where there is such a diametric view on the path forward, no matter who wins tonight. That is something we are gonna continue to have to grapple with,” she says.

I suspect that Donald Trump isn’t going to wait for those final results and he’s going to appear very shortly and declare victory.

That would seem to be what his team want him to do, simply because they believe that there’s no path left in Pennsylvania for Harris. And if she can’t win Pennsylvania then she’s not going to the White House.

The Trump campaign has been pretty buoyant since the results started to come in, particularly in North Carolina and Georgia. They thought their man was outperforming in those areas and certainly it seems to have been replicated in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, and in Michigan.

It seemed in the last few days that Harris had all the momentum, but it’s clear that Trump is the one with all the momentum. Trump is the one who’s delivered the significant punches in this fight and will start planning his transition into the White House very shortly.

The big-money donors who spent a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and his family and his closest advisers have now arrived here at the convention centre and they’re simply waiting for Trump to speak.

Maine district called for Trump

The AP has called Maine’s 2nd Congressional District for the Republican Party, giving Trump one Electoral vote.

‘Democratic wave’ did not happen in Georgia

All night long, people have been watching the numbers get closer and closer.

Many observers noted that last time, this race was decided by fewer than 12,000 votes.

The Harris campaign thought they had a shot in this state even though polls had shown that she was slightly behind rather consistently within the margin of error.

But the Democrats were not able to pull it off in the South – something they’d really hoped would happen.

Ultimately, the wave across the country that they were hoping for did not happen here in Georgia.

‘Definitely a good mood’: Republicans feel confident in Nevada

As the national landscape tilts in favour of Trump, Al Jazeera correspondent John Holman says the mood is positive in the western swing state of Nevada.

“Definitely a good mood here,” Holman reported from a Republican watch party in Las Vegas, adding people are “happily watching their Fox News, having a couple of drinks, and enjoying the fact that things seem to be going quite well for the Republican Party so far”.

High unemployment and a rising cost of living have caused economic difficulties for many people in the state, Holman noted.

‘MAGA fighter’ Moreno helps Republicans retake the Senate

As we’ve been reporting, Republican businessman Bernie Moreno has been elected to the US Senate in Ohio, defeating Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown, paving the path for the Republicans to seize control of the Senate.

Moreno, 57, is a close ally of former President Donald Trump. Born in Bogota, Colombia, Moreno’s family brought him to the US at age five and he became a citizen at 18. Trump has called him a “MAGA fighter”.

Earlier, Republicans also flipped one seat in West Virginia with the election of Jim Justice, who easily replaced retiring Senator Joe Manchin.

The unexpected battleground of Nebraska also helped push Republicans over the top with incumbent GOP Senator Deb Fischer brushing back a surprisingly strong challenge from independent newcomer Dan Osborn.

Democratic efforts to remove firebrand Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida collapsed.

Aljazeera