US election: Trump declares victory; Harris yet to concede

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has declared victory over Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, after being projected to win the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.

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.

Democrat struggles to keep Senate seat in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania’s incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey remains tens of thousands of votes behind his Republican challenger Dave McCormick with 96 percent of the vote counted.

According to the latest official tally, Casey received 3,190,277 votes (46.3 percent) while McCormick got 3,262,239 (47.4 percent). Casey led throughout the campaign, but McCormick closed the gap in the homestretch.

“We’re going to make history tonight,” Allegheny Republican Committee Chair Sam DeMarco was quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer as saying, telling McCormick supporters in Pittsburgh he’s “very encouraged” by the results so far.

A victory for McCormick would mean an additional Senate seat for the Republican Party, which already secured a majority 51 of the 100 Senate seats earlier.

Young Wisconsin Republican votes for ‘America First’ agenda

Nolan Jackett, a Republican activist based in the battleground state of Wisconsin, says many young people his age voted for Trump because of economic struggles and “illegal immigration” over the past four years.

He’s not concerned at all about allegations that Trump will impose undemocratic policies if re-elected and seek revenge on his “enemies”, he said.

“The vengeance is going to winning, going back to the White House, and enacting the ‘America First’ agenda. That is going to be the ultimate revenge – that’s all we need to do,” Jackett told Al Jazeera from a watch party in Milwaukee.

Foreign policy is another major issue, he added. “I don’t want to go fight in foreign wars for lobbyists and special interests in Washington, DC. President Trump was the only president in so many years that didn’t have new wars.”

Democrat pulls off victory in Deep South Republican state of Alabama

A former aide to then-President Barack Obama won the election in Alabama’s Second Congressional District, which has long been held by a Republican.

Shomari Figures, who served as Obama’s domestic director of the Presidential Personnel Office, won in the district that has been redrawn by a federal court to give Black voters a greater voice in selecting their representative.

A federal court ruled Alabama illegally diluted the influence of Black voters – who make up 27 percent of the state’s population – and reshaped the district to give Black voters a fair opportunity to elect a congressional candidate of their choosing.

Adam Schiff wins California Senate seat
The California congressman has won

Senate seat long held by the late Senator Dianne Feinstein after what the AP described as a “lopsided, low-key” contest.

Schiff, who rose to national prominence as the lead prosecutor in then-President Trump’s first impeachment trial, defeated Republican former baseball player Steve Garvey.

Democrats were favoured to easily hold the seat in the liberal-leaning state where a Republican candidate hasn’t won a Senate race since 1988.