The Latest: Trump wins North Carolina while votes are still being counted in other key states

Republican Donald Trump won North Carolina, capturing one of the seven heavily contested battlegrounds while votes in six other swing states were still being counted. In the race for Senate control, Republicans picked up crucial wins in West Virginia and Ohio. Top House races are focused in New York and California, where Democrats are trying to claw back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years.

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Here’s the latest:

Bernie Moreno will be the first Latino that Ohio has sent to the U.S. Senate, thanks to his victory over Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Moreno was born in Bogota, Colombia. He moved with his family to the United States at age 5 and became an American citizen when he was 18.

He built his fortune as a luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur and will come to the Senate as one of its wealthiest members.

The daughter of late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee won a special election Tuesday night to finish her mother’s congressional term.

Erica Lee Carter defeated two Republican challengers in the race for the Houston-area district where her mother served for almost 30 years.

Jackson Lee died in July at age 74 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Her funeral was filled with high profile mourners, including Vice President Harris who gave Jackson Lee’s eulogy just days after declaring her candidacy for president.

The GOP’s victory in the Ohio Senate race puts them on track to gain a Senate majority as long as they keep their seats in Texas and Nebraska.

In Ohio, Republican Bernie Moreno defeated three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown.

The long-serving Ohio Democrat had tried to appeal to working-class voters and make access to abortion a top priority, but Moreno, a Cleveland businessman, cast Brown as too liberal for the conservative state, tying the long-serving Ohio Democrat to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

As long as Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Deb Fischer of Nebraska secure reelection, the GOP will have the Senate in hand.

By winning North Carolina, Trump maintains options to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold.

Trump can reach the magic number by carrying Georgia and Pennsylvania or by carrying Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. He also can win by carrying Wisconsin and Arizona, as well as other combinations involving Nevada.

But that would require him to crack the blue wall of northern states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Trump blitzed North Carolina in the final days of the campaign, stopping in four cities over four days and finishing his North Carolina campaign in Raleigh on Monday.

The mood at Harris’ election night party at Howard University shifted from electric to anxious as race calls began rolling in. The musical performances and triumphant speeches on display earlier in the evening have been replaced by occasional DJ mixes and broadcast race calls.

Anxious faces and hushed talk spread through the crowd as the night stretched on and the tightness of the race became apparent.

The still-packed crowd periodically went quiet as attendees watched returns come in on a giant projection of CNN. Rallygoers cheered and waved American flags as solidly blue states like Harris’ native California were called in her favor.

Harris’ campaign chair stressed patience and resolve in a message to all campaign staff obtained by The Associated Press, arguing that the “closeness of the race is exactly what we prepared for” and predicting the race won’t “come into focus until the early morning hours.”

The message from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon was meant for an audience beyond campaign staff, too, as nervous Democrats nationwide watch the race between Harris and Trump narrow to a handful of key battleground states.

“As we have known all along, this is a razor thin race,” wrote O’Malley Dillon, citing turnout in Philadelphia and early vote totals in suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania; outstanding votes in Detroit; and uncounted vote in Dane and Milwaukee counties in Wisconsin, two Democratic strongholds.

While the longtime Democratic operative noted forthcoming counting in Nevada and Arizona, the memo highlighted how central the so-called “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are to Harris’ path to victory.

“We’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight,” she wrote, adding later, “This is what we’ve been built for, so let’s finish up what we have in front of us tonight, get some sleep, and get ready to close out strong tomorrow.”

Trump turned the Colorado suburb of Aurora into part of his message against illegal immigration. In the end, he failed to capture the Mountain State, which has become increasingly Democratic in recent years.

Trump likened Aurora to a “war zone” overrun by a Venezuelan gang that had taken over multiple buildings. Authorities pushed back against that characterization, saying it was a single block and the area was once again safe.

Colorado is one of the several states Trump visited down the stretch outside the seven most competitive states. In recent weeks, he also campaigned in California, New Mexico and, memorably, in New York for the rally at Madison Square Garden.

Larry Hogan, a popular Republican who lost his bid for a U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, said in a speech to supporters that he congratulated Alsobrooks on her victory.

Hogan said “we can all take pride” in electing Alsobrooks as the first Black U.S. Senator from Maryland.

He said Americans are convinced that the country is “hopelessly divided” and that Washington is “completely dysfunctional.”

“No matter what happens in this election, we as a country must move beyond talking only with those we agree with, and we need to stop dismissing or even hating those we disagree with,” Hogan said.

“We have got to find a way to come together,” he said.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson refuted Trump’s social media claims of “heavy law enforcement” in Detroit on Tuesday before polls closed, calling them “not true.”

“The former president said there was a strong law enforcement presence in Philadelphia and Detroit,” Benson said. “That was not true. We quickly debunked it.”

At a news conference in downtown Detroit after Michigan’s polls closed, Benson praised the election as “very successful,” and noted minimal issues. She added that the state is on track for record-breaking turnout.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament on Wednesday that his government will forge a strong partnership with whoever becomes U.S. president.

“The election of a new President of the United States is always a moment of profound consequence for the world, for our region and for Australia,” Albanese said.

“Our government will seek and build a strong partnership with whoever the American people choose as their next president. The alliance between Australia and the United States has always been bigger than individuals,” he added.

A few minutes into his speech after winning his U.S. Senate race, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was joined on stage by his wife, children and grandchildren. But something was still missing.

The crowd at the Greenbrier Resort started chanting, “Babydog! Babydog!”

Soon, Justice’s English bulldog, wearing a purple bow, trotted onstage to applause and took her usual spot in a chair next to him.

Justice, a two-term governor, has regularly brought his 5-year-old dog to public appearances, including at his State of the State address in 2022 and at the Republican National Convention in July. Babydog even has her own bobblehead and appeared in new murals under the golden dome of the state Capitol.

“What an incredible, incredible time we’ve had together,” Justice said. “She absolutely can makes you smile, and she loves everybody.”

Republicans have picked up three seats in North Carolina that were redistricted by the state’s GOP-controlled General Assembly.

Republicans Addison McDowell, Brad Knott and Tim Moore all won seats that were previously controlled by Democrats.

The victories give Republicans an early and potentially crucial boost in their bid to keep control of the House.

But redistricted seats are not all favorable to the GOP. Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat each in Louisiana and Alabama thanks to redistricting.

A “pray and watch party” is underway at Detroit’s Historic King Solomon Baptist Church, which features a rotating group of pastors saying a prayer as results roll in and about two dozen attendees.

When TV coverage of the election goes to commercial, a pastor takes to the pulpit and says a few words.

“I am so glad we are here,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II, the event’s host. “If I was at home, I would turn off the TV and go to bed. “Because this is challenging,” Williams said, reflecting the anxiety in the room filled with Harris supporters.

Republicans have banked their bid for a Senate majority on defeating Sen. Jon Tester in red-leaning Montana.

There have been no surprises in congressional races so far, but polls are closing in the Treasure State, as well as in Arizona and Nevada.

Democrats are hoping to somehow run the table in all three states.

In Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy, a retired Navy SEAL and businessman, is looking to flip the only statewide office that Democrats still hold there.

In Nevada, Democratic Sen. Jackie Rosen is trying to win reelection over Republican Sam Brown. And in Arizona, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is looking to make the leap to the Senate over Republican Kari Lake.

Trump won North Carolinian Jordan Voigt’s vote because she believes he will make life safer for her children by curbing child sex trafficking and illegal immigration, the 34-year-old single mom told AP at a GOP watch party in Asheville, North Carolina.

“Any time we go to a playground, my senses are very up,” Voigt said.

Also at stake is the economy: Voigt said she has been feeling the squeeze financially in the last two and a half years, and Hurricane Helene made things worse. Voigt said she and her family spent 18 days without power after the storm.

“There is no wiggle room” in Voigt’s budget. “Christmas is going to be really tight this year,” she said.

Results could take a while since the state doesn't release anything until the last person in line has voted. First updates usually include mailed and early votes. The state will add mailed ballots that arrive through Nov. 9, and these have gone strongly Democratic in the past. In recent elections Nevada has added more than 15% of its vote after Election Day. In a closely-watched Senate race, Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen is facing Republican Sam Brown

A judge has ordered polling places to remain open two extra hours in nine precincts in an eastern Arizona county after a rocky start to Election Day that included malfunctioning equipment and a lack of printed ballots.

Apache County Superior Court Judge Michael Latham agreed to keep the polls open at the request of the Navajo Nation, which filed a lawsuit asking for extended hours due to the problems.

Meanwhile, bomb threats to polling places at schools in neighboring Navajo County prompted some to close momentarily and one to evacuate and send students home for the day.

Authorities said they received email bomb threats at four locations in Navajo County, including at least three polling sites. They determined the threats were not credible.

At 10 p.m. EST, polls will close in Montana, Nevada, and Utah.

Democrats deployed celebrities to keep their voters fired up while they wait in long lines to cast their ballots.

Paul Rudd handed out water to students at Temple University in Philadelphia. Jennifer Garner, Josh Gad, Mark Cuban and Demi Lovato communicated with voters via FaceTime in various battleground states.

Republicans have also encouraged their voters to stay in line, even after polls close.

“Hi, Republicans. We’re doing really well,” Donald Trump said in a social media video. “If you’re in line, stay in line.”

Johnson became speaker a little more than a year ago after eight Republicans joined with Democrats in booting Kevin McCarthy from the job.

The social conservative inherited many of the same troubles that plagued his predecessor when it comes to unifying the conference. He has had to rely on Democratic votes to keep the federal government open and needed their help to prevent the kind of mutiny that toppled McCarthy.

Johnson tied his political fortunes to Trump, showing up at the latter’s hush-money trial in New York and embracing his claims of political persecution.

Johnson will be favored to remain as speaker if House Republicans maintain their majority, but could face a serious challenge as the Republican leader should the Democrats take control of the chamber.

Only three Black women have held Senate seats in the nation’s history, but that is about to change.

Democrats Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland have won Senate seats, and they will be the first Black women to serve together in the Senate.

The other Black women who have served as senators are Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Laphonza Butler of California and current Vice President Kamala Harris of California.

Ohio is sending its electoral college votes to Donald Trump, but the state is also key to Democrats' bid to keep control of the Senate and win the House.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the only Democrat to win a nonjudicial statewide race in Ohio in over 10 years, is running for a fourth term by appealing to working-class voters and making access to abortion a top priority.

He is being challenged by Republican Bernie Moreno, a wealthy businessman backed by Donald Trump.

The state could have big consequences for the House as well. Democrats are defending a trio of House seats that are seen as competitive.

There has been little surprise in results so far with polls across most of the country having closed.

Trump won Republican-leaning states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, while Harris won a swath of New England and the Northeast including New Jersey and New York.

Meanwhile, attention is gravitating toward the Eastern battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Jeffries succeeded Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the lead House Democrat after Republicans gained control of the chamber in the 2022 mid-terms and Democrats looked for a generational change in leadership.

Jeffries made sure Democrats delivered the votes necessary to prevent a federal default and to subsequently keep the government open.

But he declined to provide Kevin McCarthy with the Democratic votes he needed to stay on as speaker when eight members of the GOP revolted against McCarthy.

If Democrats are able to gain the House majority, he would almost assuredly be elected the next House speaker.

Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who won election to Senate from New Jersey, said that "as a son of immigrants" he never imagined he would become the first Korean American to serve in the chamber.

“I’m deeply humbled and grateful to NJ and for everyone who got us here,” Kim wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “I promise I’ll serve with honor and integrity as a public servant for all.”

President Biden made a round of congratulatory calls to Democrats who have emerged victorious on Election Day.

According to the White House, he’s called Lisa Blunt Rochester, who won a U.S. Senate seat in his home state of Delaware, and Matt Meyer, who was elected the state’s governor. He also called the outgoing governor, John Carney, who was elected mayor of Wilmington.

Other calls went to Andy Kim, who will be a senator from New Jersey, and Josh Stein, the next governor of North Carolina.

Russian disinformation aiming to reduce trust in the U.S. election received some last-minute help from China, according to research from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Investigators identified several videos linked to Russia that made false claims about voting. Some of the videos mimicked legitimate U.S. news outlets and featured fake audio clips of law enforcement officials supposedly acknowledging widespread voter fraud.

The researchers found the videos were being amplified by a network of fake social media accounts that originated in China. The accounts had spread pro-China propaganda in the past and shifted their focus to the U.S. election only recently.

Mark Robinson, the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate rocked by a CNN report indicating he posted racist and explicit messages on a pornography site more than a decade ago, has lost his race against Democrat Josh Stein, AP projects.

The loss is a cap on a turbulent run for Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, who rocketed to conservative fame in 2018 by seizing on Trump’s MAGA movement.

His campaign was continually tagged with controversial comments Robinson made about everything from abortion to race to gay rights. Trump compared Robinson to Martin Luther King Jr. before his pornography site scandal, and did not explicitly back away from him after the scandal engulfed the North Carolina Republican’s campaign.

Stein, the state’s Attorney General, will succeed Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s popular two-term governor who was term-limited. The race was one of the most closely watched governor’s races in the nation this year.

State officials are preaching calm and patience in the counting of votes in the face of large voter turnout across the state and a spate of disruptive bomb threats at polling locations and government buildings.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said at a Tuesday night news conference that every legal, eligible vote will be counted. He says that takes time and that the state’s goal is to do it right and accurately.

Al Schmidt, the state’s top elections official, said in-person turnout numbers will not be available Tuesday night. He said the state’s counties could not even begin processing and opening the millions of returned mail ballots until 7 a.m. EST Tuesday and that the last of them would not have been received until 8 p.m. EST.

A measure that would have protected abortion rights in Florida’s state constitution failed Tuesday after not meeting the 60% threshold to pass.

The rejection of the measure makes Florida the first state where a measure protecting abortion rights failed after Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022.

The initiative would have prevented lawmakers from creating and enforcing restrictions or prohibitions on abortions before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health.

Amendment supporters were hoping to overturn Florida’s current six-week abortion ban.

The rejection of the measure makes Florida one of the first states where voters opposed protecting abortion rights after Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022.

The Associated Press declared the amendment was rejected at 9:06 p.m. EST.

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A previous version of this post said the amendment had failed to pass, but at the time of publication not enough votes had been counted to determine the result.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a Donald Trump loyalist, has won reelection to a 10th term in the House representing a conservative district in central Ohio.

Jordan has spent the run-up to the election campaigning for Republicans across the country. Many see his activities as a shadow race of sorts to become GOP leader, particularly if it loses the majority and members seek a fresh start.

Jordan denies he’s running for any leadership job.

Jordan made an unsuccessful bid to become speaker when eight Republicans joined with Democrats in ousting then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Trump endorsed Jordan, but more centrist Republicans viewed him as too extreme and objected to rewarding someone on the party’s right flank after some had helped oust McCarthy.

Florida voters are deciding whether to pass an abortion rights amendment and keep in place Gov. Ron DeSantis’ six-week ban. The measure faces an uphill battle in the deeply red state where Trump, a Florida resident, said during the campaign that he would vote against it.

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This post has been updated to correct that the abortion rights amendment had not yet been called at this time.

In comparison to 2020, nearly all of Florida has moved right during this presidential election cycle.

Miami-Dade County saw the greatest increase, with an 18 percentage point shift right. It was enough to move the county from the Democrats’ column in 2020 to the Republicans’ this year.

In Massachusetts, the group Lawyers for Civil Rights warned that multiple precincts in Boston ran out of ballots, including in the city’s Hyde Park, Roslindale and West Roxbury neighborhoods.

In some locations, ballots were replenished but only after wait times of up to two hours, the group said.

The secretary of the commonwealth’s office said the Boston Elections Department opted not to send all their ballots to polling places.

Secretary of State William Galvin told the department to send ballots using police cars. Poll workers were also told get contact information for voters who chose not to wait. Those voters have been contacted and anyone in line at 8 p.m. will be able to vote.

Florida is the third-biggest prize of the night in electoral votes, but Trump’s win is no surprise since Florida has been trending Republican for the past decade.

The last Democrat to carry Florida was Barack Obama in 2012, but it since has slipped decidedly into GOP ranks in statewide elections.

Ron DeSantis won reelection by nearly 20 percentage points in 2022, a political lifetime after the contested 2000 presidential election came down to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to stop the recount in the race between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush.

The election night event is channeling the spirit of HBCU homecomings with a kickoff from Howard’s “Showtime Marching Band.” The energy continued with various line dances including “Wobble” by rapper V.I.C., Beyoncé’s rendition of Maze & Frankie Beverly’s “Before I Let Go” and “Jerusalema” by Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode.

Homecoming season is a sacred tradition at many HBCUs. Although Howard had its homecoming in mid-October, the live music and dancing is reminiscent of the annual festival that fills the same yard on campus and brings students, alumni and community members together to celebrate.

Republicans holding control of Florida’s Senate seat means that the race for control of the chamber is still hotly contested.

Democrats are defending seats across the map, including in Michigan, Montana, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

If Republicans can win one of those, it will put them in prime position to take control of the chamber.

Democrats have a long-shot bid to win Texas if they can somehow unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, a firebrand conservative.

The FBI is warning that several fabricated videos are misusing its name and insignia to promote false claims of problems at the polls.

A written statement purported to come from the FBI urges media and bloggers not to publish information about attacks at polling stations, saying dissemination of stories about violence could cause such incidents to increase. The FBI says that statement is false and did not come from the bureau.

One fabricated video that impersonates the FBI and a federal government agency urges schools to suspend educational activities through November 11 because of the risk of violence, shootings and riots. Another claims the FBI received 9,000 complaints about malfunctioning voting machines. The FBI says neither video came from the bureau and the contents of both are false.

The FBI did not identify who might be responsible for the manufactured videos, but it’s the latest warning of disinformation that’s being spread and the latest instance of the FBI singling out the misuse of its name and insignia to promote false narratives.

Pennsylvania is not just a major player in the the presidential race.

It will also go a long way in deciding who controls the majority in the House next year.

Three Democratic incumbents look to fend off Republican challengers in competitive races.

Rep. Matt Cartwright is seeking reelection to a seventh term in a district that Trump carried in 2020. Another perennial Republican target is Rep. Susan Wild. They represent neighboring districts with similar geographies: small cities, suburbs and stretches of rural eastern Pennsylvania. First-term Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio is also in a competitive race in the western part of the state.

Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to unseat hard-right Republican Rep. Scott Perry, a Trump loyalist and the former chairman of the most conservative wing within the GOP majority — the House Freedom Caucus.

Two election workers in southern Missouri died when their cars were swept away by a fast-flooding creek. The deaths were among five in Missouri blamed on flash floods that followed torrential rains across the state.

In Wright County, vehicles driven by a 70-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman were swept away by flooding Beaver Creek around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. The bodies were found more than four hours later.

Pennsylvania: Many of the earliest results will include mailed ballots, which have tended to favor Democratic candidates in the past. The state reported almost twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans voted in advance this year. But any early advantage could change later as more Election Day votes are counted.

Michigan: Polls are about to close across most of Michigan. In the past, initial returns sometimes favored Republicans because Democratic-dominated Wayne County, the state’s largest and home to Detroit, was slow to report mailed votes. But this year, counties may process mailed ballots earlier. That’s expected to make the count go faster.

Maryland: The first results will include early in-person and absentee votes, which could mean an early lift for Democrat Angela Alsobrooks since those votes typically have favored Democrats in the past. That margin could shrink if Election Day votes arrive with a greater makeup of Republicans. Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan is trying to become Maryland’s first GOP U.S. senator in over 30 years.

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