Donald Trump Wins US Presidential Election

Donald Trump on Wednesday, November 6, made a stunning comeback to reclaim White House after winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election. 

Trump was elected the 47th U.S. president after beating his closest competitor, Kamala Harris.

The Republican Party candidate passed the minimum threshold of 270 Electoral College votes after surpassing that number.

Speaking in Florida on Wednesday before he was formally declared the winner, a hopeful Trump thanked the Americans for taking to the ballot to elect him as president.

"I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president," Trump remarked.

He added," This was, I believe, one of the greatest political movements of all time and now it’s going to reach a new level of importance because we’re going to help our country heal. Our country needs to help, we are going to fix our borders and fix everything about our country." 

For one to be elected U.S. president, he/she needs at least 270 electoral college votes across the 50 states. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors.

Trump won the swing states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

A swing state is a state where there's no overwhelming preference for Republicans or Democrats, and therefore voters in these states are less predictable.

The seven key swing states in the U.S. include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Pennsylvania has the highest electoral college votes in the swing states at 19, followed by North Carolina and Georgia at 16 college votes each.

Michigan has 15 electoral college votes, Arizona 11, Wisconsin 10, and Nevada 6, bringing the total number of electoral college votes in the swing states to 93.

Apart from the swing states, Trump won key states with high electoral college votes, including Texas, which has 40 electoral college votes.

Other candidates who were in the presidential race were Jill Stein of the Green Party, Robert Kennedy (independent), and Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party.  

Electoral votes are allocated among the states based on the census, and every state is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of Senators and Representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation. 

The United States general election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Trump will now take over from Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race to support Kamala Harris. 

Congratulatory messages have started trickling in;