Republican candidate Donald Trump has taken an early lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in the ongoing United States presidential election.
As of 4:00 a.m., Trump had secured more Electoral College votes than Harris, with 198 votes across 20 states, while Harris had won in 10 states, gaining 109 Electoral College votes.
The states Trump has claimed so far include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Harris, meanwhile, has won Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Colorado.
Trump’s early lead includes a key victory in the swing state of Georgia, giving his campaign momentum. Both candidates need to reach 270 electoral votes to secure the presidency.
President Joe Biden, who has been observing the election from the White House, has made congratulatory calls to several Democrats who have won their races, including Senator-elect Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware. Biden, who met with Rochester last week during early voting in Delaware, also called Delaware Governor-elect Matt Meyer and Wilmington’s incoming mayor, former Governor John Carney. Biden reached out to New Jersey’s Governor-elect Representative Andy Kim and North Carolina’s Governor-elect Attorney-General Josh Stein.
Vice President Harris is in Washington, D.C., watching the results from her alma mater, Howard University. If elected, Harris would make history as the first U.S. president to graduate from a historically Black college or university (HBCU), a milestone she acknowledged by telling supporters at Howard, “I am ready to be the next president.”
