Elections in the United States: Donald Trump narrowly beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Florida in 2016.
Washington:
President Donald Trump appeared on Tuesday to win the Florida grand prize in the first results of his battle against Democrat Joe Biden for the White House after a mammoth turnout in the most polarized US election in decades.
Florida is widely viewed as a must-have win for Trump to retain the presidency, but opinion polls had shown that Biden was on par or ahead, offering the Democrat the tempting prospect of knocking out his opponent early in the countdown.
The Trump campaign was victorious there after US media reports showed him capturing swaths of the Latino vote that had previously been loyal to Democrats, though the state had yet to call any of the candidates.
“President Trump wins Florida,” the campaign tweeted about a photo of Trump giving the thumbs up.
Biden’s team has long insisted that he doesn’t need to win Florida, and analysts pointed to gains for the Democrat in some Trump areas of the state that could bode well in other large states.
Attention quickly turned to the results that began to emerge in Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, a traditional Republican stronghold where Biden hopes to achieve a surprising surprise.
Another major battlefield, Pennsylvania, was expected to be somewhat behind in posting meaningful vote counts.
With a record of more than 100 million Americans voting before Election Day due to the Covid-19 pandemic, final final results could easily take hours or even days to tabulate.
– Trust on both sides –
Trump, 74, expressed his confidence as the evening approached, tweeting in all his capital letters: “WE SEE YOU VERY GOOD ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. THANK YOU!”
It was unclear if Trump, who was holding a White House surveillance party, would speak to the public at some point, but he said Tuesday that he was not yet “thinking of a concession or acceptance speech.
“Winning is easy,” he said. “Losing is never easy, not for me.”
Biden, huddled with his family at their home in Delaware, also said voting patterns during the day seemed to favor his side.
“What I hear is that there is an overwhelming turnout. And an overwhelming turnout, particularly from young people, from women, and an overwhelming turnout from African American voters, particularly in Georgia and Florida, over 65,” he told reporters.
“The things that are happening bode well for the base that has been supporting me.”
– Accepting the results? –
Trump has repeatedly refused to confirm that he will accept the election results, a first for a US president. He argues, without offering evidence, that the large number of mail-in ballots could be used to rig the polls against him.
In the run-up to Election Day, Trump was especially focused on Pennsylvania, which allows ballots postmarked on Election Day to be counted, even if they arrive later.
“The whole world is waiting,” Trump said early Tuesday.
“You can’t delay these things for many days,” he continued, disturbingly adding that “a lot of bad things can happen.”
“We should have the right to know who won on November 3,” he said.
However, he did dampen fears that he will try to declare victory prematurely, telling Fox News that he will only declare “when there is victory.”
“There is no reason to play,” he said.
– ‘Scary’ –
Americans couldn’t be more divided on Trump.
For some, it represents a breath of fresh air that brought their entrepreneurial instincts to shake the Washington establishment. For the other half of the country, he is a corrupt leader who ruined America’s reputation abroad and fueled dangerous racist and nationalist sentiments at home.
In Miami, Juan Carlos Bertran, a 60-year-old Cuban-American mechanic, said that Trump “seems better to me for the country’s economy.”
“Now I have two jobs,” he said. “Before I only had one.”
But while voting in New York, Megan Byrnes-Borderan, 35, said that Trump’s threats to question the election results in court were “terrifying.”
“I think Trump will go through all the difficulties to try to win the election,” he said.
Fearing riots, store owners boarded up windows in Washington and other major cities.
– Question of Covid –
Biden has taken advantage of widespread public disapproval of Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 230,000 Americans.
Trump, who quickly recovered from his own attack with the virus in October, is betting that Americans want to leave the crisis behind and reopen the economy entirely. Biden, by contrast, preaches caution and accuses the president of having abandoned his basic responsibilities.
“We end the chaos! We end the tweets, the anger, the hatred, the failure, the irresponsibility,” Biden said at a rally on the eve of the election in Cleveland, Ohio.
Covid-19 fears fueled the large influx of early voters, encouraged by Biden. Trump has responded by holding dozens of mass election rallies without social distancing, underscoring his message that it is time to move on.
Roughly a third of the Senate is up for grabs, and Republicans risk losing their 53-47 majority.
A notable early victory went to Senior Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who easily ignored a challenge from former Kentucky fighter pilot Amy McGrath. However, if the Democrats capture the majority, he will lose his powerful position as Senate leader.
And Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a political newcomer who has promoted the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, won a seat in the United States House of Representatives, giving the widely discredited movement a voice in The congress.
All 435 House seats are up for grabs, but Democrats are confident of expanding their majority in the House.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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