Election 2024 updates: With Arizona, Trump sweeps all 7 swing states

The final electoral college count is Trump: 312, Harris: 226.

By538 and ABC News via five thirty eight logo
Last Updated: November 9, 2024, 9:00 PM EST

Just days after former President Donald Trump was projected to have won the presidency, Trump's transition team operation has begun, with transition co-chairs confirming that he will be selecting personnel to serve under his leadership in the coming days.

Trump is also the projected winner in Arizona, a state the former president flipped after losing it to Joe Biden in 2020.

Trump's projected win in the vital swing state marks a sweep of the battleground states.

Nov 05, 2024, 2:12 PM EST

Education is on the ballot, as 3 states weigh in on school choice

Compared to other issues (like the economy and immigration), education ranks lower as a priority for Americans. According to recent polls from The New York Time/Siena College and Emerson College, less than 2% of likely voters said it was their most important issue. But 92% of adults still said education was an important issue, while just 8% said it wasn't, in an October YouGov/The Economist poll.

Within education, a hot-button topic is school choice, specifically vouchers and educational savings account programs that direct government funding toward alternative and private education. Opponents fear these programs would take funding from public schools; supporters say they critically support parents' right to choose their kids' education.

National polls show that public opinion on the topic is mixed. In an October Noble Predictive Insights/Center Square poll, only 11% of registered voters ranked school choice as the top policy that would improve public education in America, coming in fourth among eight options, after focusing on core subject areas, increasing teacher pay and reducing classroom size.But according to a September Morning Consult/EdChoice poll, over 60% of adults supported school vouchers and ESA programs (although it's worth noting that EdChoice is an advocacy organization that supports voucher programs). A similar poll of only teachers showed a little less than half of them support the same programs.

In November, three states will vote on ballot measures related to school choice. In Nebraska, Referendum 435 will ask voters if they want to uphold or repeal Bill 1402, which sets aside $10 million annually to fully or partially pay for students to attend non-public schools. While an August poll from SurveyUSA/Split Ticket showed respondents to be divided, but largely undecided, on the ballot measure, an Emerson College/Midwest Newsroom poll last month showed almost two-thirds of registered voters are opposed to "using state taxpayer funds to help fund private schools," while only 29% are in favor.

In Colorado, Amendment 80 aims to enshrine a "right to school choice" in the state constitution, including language that opponents believe could lead to a voucher system. And in Kentucky, Amendment 2 asks whether public money should be allowed to go toward private schools. Similar to Colorado, opponents fear Amendment 2 could lay the foundation for a voucher program.

While there are no public polls of the ballot measures in Colorado and Kentucky, OpenSecrets has tracked fundraising by the committees that support and oppose them. In Kentucky, the vast majority of spending has been in support of expanding school choice, whereas in Colorado and Nebraska, those opposing school choice have far exceeded their opponents. Overall, across the three elections, committees against ballot measures to expand school choice have outraised supporters by over $1 million.

Meanwhile, Florida voters will weigh in on another education-related measure: Amendment 1 could make Florida's education system more partisan by requiring candidates for local school board to disclose their political party. Opponents of the amendment say it would bring politics into schools through partisan campaign contributions — although others argue that schools have been a political battleground for many years already. An average of the polls on Amendment 1 show that Floridians are divided on the issue, with 36% in favor of partisan school board elections, 37% in opposition and 27% undecided.

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Nov 05, 2024, 2:04 PM EST

2 more governor races to watch in 2024

There's a lot more on the ballot today than just the presidential race. A little bit ago, I posted about two governors' races that could flip from red to blue this year. Well, there are also two governors' races that Republicans entered 2024 hopeful that they could flip — but neither has quite gone according to plan.

Initially, North Carolina looked like it was going to be the most competitive gubernatorial race of the cycle. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper was term-limited, and North Carolina is obviously a major swing state. However, Republicans nominated Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who had alienated voters with a litany of sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments. He was already trailing badly in the polls when news broke in September about racist and salacious messages he allegedly posted on a pornography website's message board. These days, Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein leads Robinson by 10-20 points in most polls.

Finally, in Washington, Republicans have a strong candidate in moderate former Rep. Dave Reichert. However, Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson still has the inside track to succeed retiring Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. In an average of six polls conducted since Oct. 1, Ferguson led Reichert 53% to 39%.

Nov 05, 2024, 2:01 PM EST

Elon Musk to spend election night with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, sources say

Elon Musk is expected to spend election night with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks during a town hall event hosted by America PAC in support of former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Oaks, Pa, Oct. 18, 2024.
Ryan Collerd/AFP via Getty Images

As ABC News has previously reported, Trump is hosting multiple dinners at his private club tonight, including one with his close friends and large donors and another with Mar-a-Lago club members, sources have told ABC News.

Musk is expected to participate in at least one of the events taking place at Mar-a-Lago tonight, according to sources.

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Nov 05, 2024, 1:53 PM EST

Immigration issues take center stage for Republican voters

Concerns about the state of the economy continue to be top of mind for voters as a whole, but in recent months another policy issue has emerged as an almost-equally high priority for Republicans in particular: immigration.

According to an August/September Pew Research Center poll, the most important issue for Trump voters are the economy (93%), immigration (82%), and violent crime (76%). Harris supporters, by comparison, said they were most concerned with health care (76%), Supreme Court appointments (73%) and the economy (68%).

It makes sense that immigration issues take center stage for Trump supporters specifically. Racist and xenophobic messaging toward immigrants fueled most of Trump's 2016 campaign and he's now promised that, if elected, he would conduct the largest deportation in American history. Republican elected officials have taken actions to amplify voter concerns about immigrants. Several GOP governors, for instance, have spent millions of dollars busing migrants out of their states and into Democrat-led cities, a move many liberals decried as dehumanizing. And during the Republican National Convention this summer, speakers spent much of their time railing against Biden's immigration policies. Perhaps the most succinct summary of where the party is now came from Kari Lake, the Republican Senate nominee from Arizona. The goal of the GOP, she said, must be to "stop the Bidenvasion and build the wall."

This rhetoric aligns with where Republican voters are on the issue of immigration. While a majority of Americans (61%) told pollsters this summer that immigrants from other countries have a largely positive effect on American society, an equal percentage of Republicans instead felt that immigrants had a negative influence.

These findings might be due to the fact that migrant counters at the U.S.-Mexico border hit a record high at the end of last year. And even though they've since decreased, the perception that there's a so-called "invasion" at the Southern border has appeared to hurt Democrats: September polling from YouGov found that voters trust Trump over Harris on handling immigration. It's unclear, of course, just how much this will buoy Trump's campaign, as 538's final forecast essentially shows the presidential candidates in a tie.

Plus, voters also place high importance on providing a path to legal status to undocumented immigrants, a policy more aligned with Harris and Democrats. In a tight race like this, it's possible that whoever can signal to voters that they have a plan to address border security while helping to develop a path to citizenship could be given the chance to implement said plans as the next president.