Former President Donald Trump is returning to the White House after a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump won over frustrated voters with bold promises that his fiery brand of America-first economic populism and conservative culture would make their lives better.
Stay with the AJC for live updates, expert insights, opinions from influential AJC contributors and results from across Georgia and the United States.
Donald Trump’s victory means he is likely to name a U.S. attorney general who will halt the two federal prosecutions he is facing.
That means Fulton County’s election interference case could be the only criminal case left standing. And it will likely will be put on hold until at least 2029.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who won reelection to a second term Tuesday, has not directly addressed the question of what she will do with the case against Trump should he return to the White House.
But many legal experts believe even if the Democrat moves forward she will ultimately be stymied by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hoax bomb threats that the FBI believes originated in Russia targeted five battleground states on Tuesday, including Georgia.
The threats caused minimal disruptions, according to election officials. The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., denied any involvement.
The FBI did not release specifics about where the threats were made, but some election officials in areas targeted announced those locations.
In metro Atlanta, the bomb threats temporarily closed 13 precincts in Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties while law enforcement agencies searched the buildings.
With Donald Trump’s victory in Michigan, he completes a sweep of the Great Lakes “Blue Wall” states that Kamala Harris had considered her smoothest path to victory.
Trump managed the same sweep of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton. President Joe Biden outpaced Trump in those states in 2020.
Unlike Clinton in 2016, Harris campaigned heavily across the region through September and October.
The vice president spent all day Sunday in Michigan, but she was unable to match Biden’s level of support — most notably in Wayne County, where Detroit offers a trove of Democratic votes.
Trump was active in the region, as well, and he improved on his 2020 margins across the three key states.
Donald Trump has promised sweeping action in a second administration.
The former president and now president-elect often skipped over details but through more than a year of policy pronouncements and written statements outlined a wide-ranging agenda that blends traditional conservative approaches to taxes, regulation and cultural issues with a more populist bent on trade and a shift in America’s international role.
Trump’s agenda also would scale back federal government efforts on civil rights and expand presidential powers.
Read more about Trump’s proposed policies here.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had a simple message for Georgians on the morning after a hotly contested election: The voters have spoken.
The secretary canceled a scheduled 10 a.m. press conference, but he issued a statement Tuesday morning on the social media site X.
“The voters of Georgia have spoken, and we are prepared to defend the election results against any legal challenge,” Raffensperger said.
“This election was free, fair and accessible to every eligible Georgian,” the secretary said. “As always, we will follow the law and the Constitution to protect the will of The People.”
According to unofficial results, nearly 5.3 million Georgians cast ballots in this election — a new record.
One of the less prominent but still impactful choices on Georgia’s ballots Tuesday was a statewide referendum on increasing the tax exemption for tangible personal property — such as business inventory and farm machinery — from $7,500 to $20,000. It passed by a wide margin and the change will take effect starting Jan. 1, 2025.
“Raising the threshold for paying this onerous tax from ($7,500) to $20,000 is going to ease the financial pressure on employers struggling with rising costs due to inflation,” Hunter Loggins, the Georgia state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said in a statement. The small business association helped write the legislation that led to the referendum.
Donald Trump’s victory in Georgia halted years of Democratic gains in the state and proved that Republicans can still win here by focusing almost exclusively on the party’s base.
Ahead of the election, we spotlighted four questions that would shape the results. Now that we have a victor, let’s take a closer look.
Read the analysis here.
Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.
The victory validates his bare-knuckle approach to politics. He attacked his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in deeply personal — often misogynistic and racist — terms as he pushed an apocalyptic picture of a country overrun by violent migrants.
The coarse rhetoric, paired with an image of hypermasculinity, resonated with angry voters — particularly men — in a deeply polarized nation. As president, he’s vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and retribution against his perceived enemies.
Donald Trump vowed in his election night speech to fight “for your family and your future.”
He promised that he would “not rest until we have delivered the strong safe and prosperous America.”
“Every single day,” Trump said, “I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.”
Trump, whose political career has been defined by division and acrimony, told the audience that it was “time to unite” as a country.
“We have to put our country first for at least a period of time,” he added. “We have to fix it.”
The AP’s current count has the former president at 267 of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the White House.
He is leading in key races left to be called, including Michigan and Wisconsin.
His victory in Pennsylvania put him three electoral votes short of winning the presidency.
He could win the White House by capturing Alaska or any remaining swing state.
Former President Donald Trump won Pennsylvania on Wednesday, defeating Democrat Kamala Harris in the critical battleground state.
Both candidates campaigned vigorously in the state, visiting it more often than any other. Trump won Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes four years after Democrat Joe Biden carried the state, flipping it from Trump’s column in 2016 on his way to capturing the “blue wall.”
No Democrat has won the White House without also winning Pennsylvania since 1948. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 2:24 a.m. EST.