USA Election 2024 live updates: Republicans win Senate and Trump takes Georgia in second battleground victory
What to know on Election Night
- Former President Donald Trump secures the first battleground victories of the evening by winning North Carolina and Georgia. Other swing states, including Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are too close to call.
- Vice President Kamala Harris takes California, New York and other traditionally Democratic states, while Trump put Florida, Texas and several other Republican-leaning states in his column.
- Republicans will control the Senate after flipping some Democratic-held seats. The House is still up for grabs.
- Separately, Democrat Angela Alsobrooks became the first Black woman elected to represent Maryland in the Senate, while Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester will be Delaware’s first Black female senator.
- Several governor’s races are also being decided, in addition to a number of crucial ballot measures on issues like abortion and marijuana.
Washington state Sen. Emily Randall won the race to represent her state’s 6th Congressional District, NBC News projects, making her the first out LGBTQ Latina elected to Congress and the first LGBTQ member from Washington.
Randall, a Democrat, defeated Republican Drew MacEwen for the open seat, which is currently held by Democrat Derek Kilmer.
Randall focused on “fighting climate change,” “lowering costs for families” and “safeguarding access to abortion,” according to her campaign website.
There are currently 12 openly LGBTQ members of Congress: three senators and nine representatives. Ten of the current members are running for re-election, along with seven nonincumbents. All but one of the 17 candidates are Democrats.
NBC News has projected that 10 of those 17 candidates, including Randall, have won their races. Delaware’s Sarah McBride made history as the first out transgender person elected to Congress, and Texas’ Julie Johnson made history as the first LGBTQ person elected from the South.
Ballot measures targeting noncitizen voting approved in 8 states
Voters approved Republican-backed constitutional amendments designed to make it clear that only American citizens can vote in elections in all eight states they appeared on the ballot, NBC News projects.
Clear majorities of voters in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin passed constitutional amendments making it explicitly illegal for noncitizens to vote in state and local elections — even though it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections in those states and at the federal level and even though it rarely happens
NBC News Exit Poll: America’s political ‘education gap’ grows wider
Harris is on track to win 57% of the votes of Americans with four-year college degrees this year, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. If that number holds, it will be the best performance of any Democratic presidential candidate among college graduates in the past five elections.
At the same time, the exit poll indicates Trump will win 54% of those who do not hold bachelor’s degrees. If so, that will the GOP’s best performance among the group in the past five elections.
