At 5pm EST on Tuesday, the Exit Polls started trickling in.
I turned on the TV and heard Chris Wallace, the former Fox News host turned CNN analyst, soberly weigh in on a statistic showing that a whopping 72 percent of Americans were dissatisfied or angry about the direction of the country .
It would be a “miracle,” Wallace said, if Harris can win “with such a headwind.”
Co-host Dana Bash scoffed. It was not clear which candidate, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, would bear the blame for America’s problems, she argued.
Indeed, it was still too early to tell.
I had expectations of a strong Trump showing, but even I lost my nerve a little when the actual votes came in.
President Trump is seen here leaving an election watch party in the early hours of Wednesday morning in West Palm Beach, Florida, after the first results
It would be a “miracle,” Wallace said, if Harris can win “with that kind of headwind.” Pictured with his co-host Dana Bash
In the predominantly Hispanic Miami-Dade district, seen here on Election Day, Trump won by a double-digit margin
My adopted home state of Florida was one of the first to start reporting results.
At 8:01 p.m., the Associated Press called the old Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County in the southeastern part of the state. No Republican presidential candidate had won there since George HW Bush in 1988.
Across the state, Trump dramatically outperformed his 2020 results in the Sunshine State, winning by a margin closer to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ huge 2022 state victory.
In the predominantly Hispanic district of Miami-Dade, Trump won by a double-digit margin. He had the upper hand in blue Hillsborough County, where the city of Tampa is located, and was neck-and-neck in posh, elite Palm Beach County (where he lives).
Trump significantly outperformed his RealClearPolitics average of polls in Florida, winning by eight percentage points. (Today he is expected to win by more than 13 points).
Conservative votes also won: A proposed measure to codify abortion in the Florida Constitution failed, as did a pro-marijuana measure that was widely expected to pass.
It was a red wave in Florida – but how far would the tide take Trump and the Republicans?
Rural counties in the South and Midwest began reporting. It became clear that Trump was overachieving elsewhere too – and Harris was lagging behind. Black voter turnout in major metropolitan areas, such as Atlanta and Charlotte, was lower than Team Harris had anticipated.
Trump significantly outperformed his RealClearPolitics average of Florida polls, winning by eight percentage points
Before a single swing state was declared, Democratic campaign guru James Carville (photo) sounded the alarm
“Let me just give you a taste of what we’re hearing from…Harris headquarters,” CNN’s Abby Phillips reported as the evening wore on. ‘I think the key word right now is silence. Not much is said as the Harris team seems to be looking for bright spots on the map.”
The lights flashed red.
It became clear that Harris was also struggling to match Biden’s vote share in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Old Dominion was not supposed to be in the game. Before a single swing state was declared, Democratic campaign guru James Carville sounded the alarm.
“There are troubling signs out there…the early indications aren’t real here,” the Ragin’ Cajun said during Amazon’s live Election Day coverage.
The liberal faces on the panel paled and the Democratic panic began to set in.
Iowa was called for Trump. No big surprise: It’s a bright red state. But Trump’s defeat in the Hawkeye State shattered the myth of pollster Ann Selzer, who had confused so many politicians over the weekend with her eyebrow-raising latest poll showing Harris in the lead there.
The success of the MAGA movement in the Acela corridor was also notable.
Voters wait in line at a polling place on November 5, 2024 in Orlando, Florida
Harris won bright blue New Jersey by a paltry margin of less than five percent. In New York State, the statewide margin was barely double digits — with embattled Republican members of Congress like Mike Lawler prevailing, and Trump gaining huge additional support in New York City and neighboring Nassau County after his four-year victory past.
In Queens County, one of America’s most racially and ethnically diverse counties, Trump gained 20 points with his 2020 performance.
Then the dominoes started to fall quickly.
The first battleground, North Carolina, was declared. Trump overperformed there – just as he did in Georgia. Neither state was as close as the polls suggested.
Harris’ path to 270 Electoral College votes narrowed.
It was clear then that the Harris campaign had been forced to go all-in on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
But by 10:30 or 11 p.m., it was already clear that forecasters were predicting a Trump victory that was more likely than not in the Keystone State — as well as in the other Rust Belt battlegrounds, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Around 12:30 or so, Team Harris announced that they would not be addressing the supporters. They sent Cedric Richmond to do that thankless task
The New York Times’ infamous “needle,” the source of so many Hillary Clinton jokes eight years ago, began to lean toward Trump.
Gloom descended on the sets of CNN and MSNBC.
Around 12:30 or so, Team Harris announced that they would not be addressing the supporters. They sent Cedric Richmond to do that thankless task. It was Hillary Clinton again at the Javits Center: liberal tears flowing all the time.
By 1:20 a.m., many of the networks had called Pennsylvania. It was all over. It looked not just like a victory, but an electoral blowout.
The subsequent results in the Rust Belt and Sun Belt have only confirmed the Electoral College carnage.
Ultimately, Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win the national popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004.
He did this by outright winning over Hispanic men, winning over a historically high percentage of black men and younger voters, and maintaining his margins against his demographic base, the white working class.
The result: the death of the Barack Obama Democratic Party’s intersectional coalition in 2008, the further MAGA-ization of the former country club GOP, and the greatest comeback story in American history.