Former President Donald Trump, twice impeached, acquitted and impeached, defeated Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, marking a return to an unprecedented style of government that could include mass deportations of millions of illegal immigrants and a self-proclaimed “era of retribution.” .

Trump basked in his victory in West Palm Beach, Florida, early Wednesday, declaring, “I think this was the greatest political movement of all time.”

The Associated Press called the race early Wednesday. As of Wednesday morning, Harris had yet to concede.

While polls had shown the race to be close in key states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina, the math, as in 2016, was in Trump’s favor. Harris appeared to underperform in Blue Wall states like Michigan and Wisconsin, considered must-win states.

Trump announced his 2022 campaign and Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the ticket in late July, showing a stark contrast in the campaign. Trump’s ultimate defeat included unconventional events, such as tending the french fry station at a McDonald’s and dancing to music for 40 minutes at a town hall, both in Pennsylvania.

The former president described the country as a dark place that only he can fix and often derailed Harris with misogynistic and racist attacks. In a divided country, those words seemed to work with voters who were angry and wanted change, and exit polls have shown that men were their strongest supporters.

Whatever the strategy, it appeared to work against Harris’s swift, well-funded ground operation, which included rallies in key battleground states, hundreds of endorsements from current and former Republican officials, and a media avalanche of ads and interviews. .

Questions likely to arise about Democrats’ strategy

The campaign postmortem will call into question whether Democrats should have held an open primary when Biden dropped out of the race and why the Blue Wall crumbled for Harris. Some will point to Biden for not leaving the race sooner.

In traditionally blue Illinois, the Associated Press called the race for Harris an hour after polls closed. Harris led 2,511,624 to Trump’s 2,088,349 votes with 78% of expected votes counted. And even though Robert F. Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, his name still appeared on the Illinois ballot, with more than 66,249 votes for him.

Trump, who stayed at the Trump International Tower and Hotel in Chicago between trips to campaign events this year, held two events in Chicago during the campaign: an Economic Club of Chicago event in October before a receptive crowd where declared that January 6 was “love and peace,“ and a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists in which lied about Harris’ racial identity.

At the October event, Trump once again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

While Harris focused her efforts on key battleground states, she was stumped in suburban Glencoe in May. and she accepted the Democratic nomination for president in Chicago on August 22, a feat brought to the city by Pritzker, Senator Tammy Duckworth and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Governor Pritzker’s role in the campaign

Governor JB Pritzker, who was in the race to serve as Harris’ running matebecame a key surrogate for both Biden and Harris, and he also put his money where his mouth was, most recently contributing $923,000 to Harris’ campaign in late September. Pritzker also focused his efforts on abortion rights ballot initiatives in eight states, including Arizona, Florida and Arizona.

The official election results will cap an unpredictable and headline-grabbing cycle, which this year alone included two assassination attempts on Trump and Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York. Even with Harris’ loss, Trump still faces possible sentencing on those charges on Nov. 26. But his victory could result in federal charges being dismissed and state criminal cases could be frozen until he leaves office.

Harris jumped into the race on July 21 after President Joe Biden held a disastrous debate against Trump on June 27. A Harris victory would have marked a monumental moment in American history for women in a country that has been ruled by men for 235 years.

Harris, along with Biden, raised more than $1.8 billion with their presidential campaign committee. Trump and his allied committees have raised more than $1 billion since announcing his candidacy for president in November 2022.

That long campaign meant that Harris’ jump into the race in late July was a huge boost of energy for Democrats, many of whom did not trust Biden to lead a second term, due to his age, and also policies that angered the party leaders. more progressive voters.

Trump on abortion

After repeatedly taking credit for naming three U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Trump’s stance on abortion has become soft. During the only presidential debate, Trump said: “I’m not going to sign a ban, and there’s no reason to sign a ban, because we got what everyone wanted, the Democrats, the Republicans and everyone else, and all the jurists wanted us to do it.” so it was.” brought back to the states.”

Trump has also criticized Florida’s six-week abortion ban and said he favors exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk. In an interview with NBC in September, he said six weeks is “too short” and that he is “going to vote that we need more than six weeks.”

On immigration, Trump has said he will carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history, rounding up millions of immigrants living in the country illegally for detention and deportation.

During the election campaign, Trump has told his supporters to see it as “his retribution.” He promised that, if re-elected, he would use his power to remake parts of the federal government. He has promised to hinder perceived enemies, including the Justice Department.

And in June, he promised he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” the Bidens and said he would “totally destroy the deep state.”

“This is the final battle,” Trump said in March. “…Either they win or we win.”