The final electoral college count is Trump: 312, Harris: 226.
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.
ABC News is projecting that Harris is expected to win Washington D.C., Maryland, and Massachusetts. That will add 24 electoral college votes to her column, but these results shouldn’t be a surprise — both states, and Washington D.C., are overwhelming Democratic.
At poll-closing time, ABC News also projects that Republicans will win Florida's Senate race and its 13th and 27th Congressional Districts. The story here is the same as the statewide call: Republican turnout is simply too high for Democratic candidates to overcome the deficit with the votes that our outstanding.
At 8 p.m., with 76% of the expected vote reporting, Harris is trailing 538's benchmarks for a tied race in the state in every single county. That's not surprising in and of itself; Florida voted for Trump in 2020, after all. But the deficit is large enough for ABC News to project that Trump will win the state's 30 Electoral College votes at the time polls have closed.
With 76% of the vote in, Harris' margin in Miami-Dade County is especially poor, lagging 538's benchmarks by 22 points.
In the Lone Star State, most political observers will be keeping an eye on the Texas Senate race (which I previewed here. But I'll also be keeping an eye on three congressional races taking places in TX-15, TX-28 and TX-34.
Two of these three seats are represented by Democrats — Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen are the incumbents for TX-28 and TX-34, respectively. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report suggests suggests that these two seats should remain Democratic, but the races could still be competitive. Cuellar was indicted in May on charges of bribery and money laundering, which could hurt him in the polls. Gonzalez, on the other hand, faces a comeback bid against former Republican Rep. Mayra Flores. As a result, national Republicans are pouring a ton of money into this seat to help clinch her victory. What's more, these two have gone head-to-head once before. Gonzalez unseated Flores in 2022 after serving three terms in the neighboring 15th District, which was redrawn during the 2021 redistricting process to be more favorable to Republicans.
In the 15th District, meanwhile, Democrat Michelle Vallejo is making another run against freshman Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican. In 2022, this was considered one of the more competitive congressional races in Texas and De La Cruz's win was viewed as a watershed moment in Texas Republicans' outreach to Latino voters. With her victory in 2022, De La Cruz became the first Republican to ever represent the district. This year, however, it looks as though De La Cruz is more-certain to win reelection, as the Cook Political Report named this a "likely Republican" seat. But Vallejo has somewhat abandoned some of the progressive stances that made her a darling of the left just two years prior. This year, she's joined Rep. Colin Allred (the state's Democratic Senate candidate) in criticizing so-called "chaos" at the Texas-Mexico border — a pivot to the middle that angered some of her past supporters. Given that border security and immigration-related issues are top of mind for Texans, it makes some sense that Vallejo would try to moderate her views in order to attract some disaffected Republicans or independents. But it's unclear if this move will ultimately help her reach the 50% vote threshold. The available polling and fundraising we have, at least, suggests that this race is still very much De La Cruz's to lose.
