In today’s issue:

• Voters elect Trump: ‘We’re going to fix everything’ 
• Senate flips red; House outcome pending
• Historic ‘firsts’ elected to Congress 
• Six states expand abortion protections 

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Trump wins; Republicans capture Senate

Former President Trump is projected to capture Pennsylvania and other battleground states, the prizes he needed to return to the White House by blocking Vice President Harris’s path to 270 electoral votes, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ.

Despite defeat in 2020, the Jan. 6, 2021 riot attack the Capitol, two impeachments, 34 criminal convictions and pending federal indictments, at least two assassination attempts and assertions from critics that he’s unfit to be president, Trump, 78, built a sweeping coalition through the Rust Belt, the South, the Midwest and the West to reclaim power.  

Georgia became the first swing state to flip from the 2020 results Tuesday. Trump lost the Peach State four years ago to President Biden by 11,779 votes — a number that became memorable after he pleaded with Georgia election officials to help him find one more vote to overtake Biden’s victory. 

Ballots are still being counted this morning in swing states Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada, but Republicans, remade in Trump’s image, are confidently jubilant. The former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), 40, trounced the Democratic administration and, as a bonus, helped flip the Senate to Republican control. The outcome in the House remains up in the air and may not be clear for days and official for weeks. 

The Hill: An improbable comeback.

Trump appeared early this morning at the Palm Beach Convention Center in Florida, the site of his campaign’s election watch party, and ventured that the House will remain under GOP control.

He celebrated “the greatest political movement of all time,” adding, “now it’s going to reach a new level of importance because we’re going to help our nation heal.” 

“We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country,” he said.

If the White House, Senate and House are all under Republican control beginning next year, the direction of U.S. governance will shift dramatically at home and abroad. Trump, wielding executive authority and with partners in Congress, vows to be pro-business while cutting taxes, and has pledged to shrink government, institute mass deportations, raise tariffs, end U.S. assistance to Ukraine and reverse Biden’s clean energy policies. The former president also offered effusive praise during his victory remarks before 3 a.m. to Elon Musk, who wants to lead a government “efficiency commission.”

Voters in surveys and exit polls have described the country as on the wrong track and joined Trump in criticizing Biden and the vice president for what many Americans describe as their economic upheaval and fears about migrants and insecure borders.

Harris’s supporters wore expressions of disbelief while watching Election Night returns. The vice president, whose backers had gathered to cheer her on Tuesday night at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington, never arrived. No Democrat stepped forward to challenge Trump’s victory speech or the outcome of ballot returns. 

Democrats face a reckoning over the results. In fact, it’s underway. Biden, who will be 82 in two weeks, insisted — until being nudged aside as his party’s nominee — that he could defeat Trump again. He will be asked by reporters whether he should have bowed out earlier, whether America is really ready for a female president and whether what he views as the achievements of his term are teetering toward extinction.

The Hill’s Niall Stanage has five takeaways on Trump’s victory.

Harris’ campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, told supporters after midnight that they would hear from Harris today, “We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken,” he said.

To win so decisively, Trump made inroads with Black and Latino men, early exit polls showed (Politico). Harris counted on women voters. But her margin was no better than Biden’s showing in 2020. Early exit polls found women favored the Democratic nominee by 10 points, compared with Biden’s 14-point advantage four years ago. The vice president’s focus on reproductive rights did not play out as decisively as Democrats hoped (The Washington Post). 

Trump’s standing with women voters improved from 2016 to 2020 and again this year, according to exit polls. That was despite worries inside the GOP that the Republican nominee alienated female voters with his crude campaign style, anti-abortion stance and past reputation with beauty queens, a porn star and models.

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SMART TAKE FROM THE HILL'S BOB CUSACK:

The 2024 presidential race was supposed to be a nail-biter. It wasn't.

Pollsters were once again wrong about Trump, who will be the first candidate since Grover Cleveland to reclaim the White House after losing his reelection bid. 

Trump will have a Republican-controlled Senate and possibly a GOP-led House.  His agenda will be aggressive and he very well may have the chance to appoint another justice to the Supreme Court.

For Democrats, Election Day 2024 was a nightmare. Where do they go from here? They have called Trump every name in the book and expressed confidence Harris would be the first woman president. Harris adviser David Plouffe said this week the vice president could win all seven battlegrounds. That prediction didn't age well. 

Trump courted voting blocs that have traditionally leaned left, including union members, African Americans and Latinos. Democrats scoffed, but the strategy worked. Trump has upended the Republican Party forever while the Democratic playbook is outdated. After the second guessing and finger pointing subsides, Democratic leaders need to do a lot of soul searching. Otherwise, they're going to lose again in 2028. 

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HOW THE HILL REPORTS ELECTION RESULTS 

I’m Brandon Conradis, The Hill’s Campaign Editor. This year, we partnered with the experts at Decision Desk HQ, who specialize in reporting election results. Together, The Hill and DDHQ are calling White House, Senate and House races. Live results appear at TheHill.com and across our social media platforms.

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3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY 

▪ Hackers linked to Chinese intelligence recently used precision strikes to compromise cellphone lines used by senior national security and policy officials across the U.S. government.

▪ World leaders are rushing to congratulate Trump.

▪ Hurricane Rafael is approaching Cuba after forming in the Caribbean.

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LEADING THE DAY 

REPUBLICANS HAVE FLIPPED THE SENATE and are poised to hold a majority in the upper chamber. Crucial pickups in West Virginia and Ohio pushed the GOP over the edge — as of this writing, Republicans have secured 51 seats. Republicans entered the election cycle as favorites to recapture the Senate, as Democrats had to defend 23 seats — including four rated as “toss-ups” and one rated “lean Republican” — while the GOP only had to worry about 11 seats, all in states that supported Trump in 2016 and 2020.

“Look, today starts a new wave. You know, we talked about wanting a red wave. I think what we have tonight is a red, white and blue wave in this country,” Moreno, who clinched the Ohio Senate seat, proclaimed in his victory speech.

▪ The Hill: Dejected Democrats hope for a House win after losing the Senate.

▪ The Hill: Republicans had a great night in the battle for the Senate. Here’s where the races stand.

▪ The New York Times: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) fended off an aggressive and well-funded Democratic challenger to win a third term.

HISTORIC FIRSTS: In Delaware, voters made history twice-over. Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester will become the first Black woman to represent the state in the Senate. And Democrat Sarah McBride was projected to win the state’s only House seat, making her the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks will become the state’s first Black woman elected to the Senate, defeating former Gov. Larry Hogan (R). The Prince George’s County Executive will keep the Senate seat in the Democratic column. Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks will become the first two Black women to serve together in the Senate.

In Texas, Democrat Julie Johnson was projected to win her election for the 32nd Congressional District, making history as the first openly LGBTQ person to represent Texas in Congress and the first elected from anywhere in the South, where legislation targeting LGBTQ rights is largely concentrated.

North Dakota Republican Julie Fedorchak is projected to win the state’s at-large district, becoming the first woman to represent the state in Congress. Mississippi is now the only state yet to send a woman to the Capitol.

In Arizona, Democrat Yassamin Ansari will become the first Iranian American to serve in the House.

Virginia Democrat Suhas Subramanyam will be the Commonwealth’s first Indian American member of Congress.

Moreno’s Senate victory in Ohio cements him as the state’s first Latino member of the upper chamber.

New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) will win the state’s open Senate seat, cementing his rise from an underdog candidate to one of the state’s top officials, Decision Desk HQ projects. He will be the first Korean American senator.

Ballot snafus and bomb threats: All in all, voting Tuesday went pretty smoothly, states reported. Disruptions were scarce, disinformation was widespread and officials responded to it all. There were some glitches at polling stations that were swiftly corrected and some foreign disinformation meddling, including bomb threats in Georgia that state authorities almost immediately traced to Russian email domains but that still forced a brief closure of two polling locations. A judge declined a request to extend voting hours in Louisville, Ky., after a tech problem Tuesday caused a lengthy delay.

Some Pennsylvania and Arizona counties investigated batches of improper voter registration forms submitted by an Arizona-based firm in recent weeks. There is no evidence that the forms led to any fraudulent ballots being cast, but Trump latched onto the revelations, telling his supporters “Pennsylvania is cheating.” Officials linked disputed applications to a Field+Media Corps, a left-leaning firm run by Mesa, Ariz., Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia. Heredia told The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld he hasn’t been contacted by officials in any of the counties that flagged his group’s work. 

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MORE ELECTION UPDATES

As results came in, Biden made congratulatory calls to Democrats who won their races.

North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein (D), the state’s attorney general, defeated controversial Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson Tuesday, according to projections. Stein will succeed term limited Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and become the state’s first Jewish governor.

New Hampshire voters elected Republican former senator Kelly Ayotte as governor. 

Republican Sen. Mike Braun won Indiana’s open governor’s race. Braun, a Trump ally finishing out his first term in the Senate, beat out Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) won the state’s gubernatorial race, replacing the term-limited Jim Justice, who will succeed Sen. Joe Manchin (I) in the upper chamber.

Courts: Trump’s election victory likely means curtains for his criminal prosecutions.

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WHERE AND WHEN

• The House will convene for a pro forma session Friday at 9:30 a.m. The Senate will hold a pro forma session today at noon. 
  
• The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 2:45 p.m.  
  
• The Federal Reserve begins a two-day meeting.

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ZOOM IN

ABORTION ON THE BALLOT: More than two years after the Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion, voters in 10 states cast ballots on whether to cement reproductive rights in their state constitutions. Six states expanded access.

Measures to protect abortion access in Arizona, Colorado and Maryland will pass. New York voters enshrined abortion rights by adding anti-discrimination language to the state constitution. In New York, Colorado and Maryland, the measures will maintain current abortion access. In Arizona, the amendment is expected to overturn the state’s current ban on abortions 15 weeks into pregnancy.

Missouri voted to legalize abortion up until fetal viability and override the state's current ban on nearly all abortions.

In Nevada, residents voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to an abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. But amendments must pass twice in the state to be codified, meaning the same issue will be on the ballot again in 2026.

Meanwhile, Florida’s abortion rights amendment failed to reach the required 60 percent threshold, leaving the state’s restrictive six-week ban in place. Trump, a resident of the Sunshine State, said he voted Tuesday against the amendment, which means he effectively backed his state’s stringent abortion ban.

MARIJUANA: Florida voted against legalizing recreational marijuana, rejecting the ballot measure despite support from Trump. Nebraska voters overwhelmingly supported two initiatives to legalize and regulate medical cannabis. Both North Dakota and South Dakota appear poised to reject ballot measures legalizing marijuana.

VOTING: In multiple states, ballot referenda concerning ranked-choice voting and citizenship requirements for voting were on the ballot. As of this writing, the District of Columbia passed ranked-choice voting, while Idaho rejected a similar measure. Missouri voters rejected ranked-choice voting but supported citizenship requirements for voting. That issue also passed in Iowa, Idaho, South Carolina, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

MINIMUM WAGE: Missouri voters passed a ballot initiative to establish a $13.75 per hour minimum wage by 2025, and $15 by 2026, and require employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

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ELSEWHERE

GALLANT FIRED: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ousted his defense minister Tuesday after clashes over Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. Netanyahu’s decision to sideline Yoav Gallant, a powerful figure within his own party and the Biden administration’s most trusted partner in the Israeli government, signaled Netanyahu’s desire for more control. Gallant will be replaced as defense minister by Israel Katz, currently Israel's foreign minister. Gideon Sa’ar, a minister without a portfolio, will assume the role of foreign minister. The prime minister’s shake-up did not sit well with some families of Israeli hostages.

A U.S. official told Axios the White House was very surprised by Netanyahu's decision to fire Gallant. The prime minister tried to dismiss Gallant last year over his criticisms of the government’s judicial overhaul plans but backtracked after a public outcry. By firing Gallant, who was independent and challenged the prime minister's policies regarding the war many times, Netanyahu tightens his sway over national security decision making (The New York Times).

BBC: Protests have erupted in Israel after Netanyahu fired Gallant.

THE U.S. OUTCOME in the presidential race holds enormous stakes for Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the global South. “The world is hanging on America” said the headline of the Italian newspaper La Stampa on Tuesday (The Hill). 

“Talking to voters, I have the impression that they live … no, not even in a different country, it’s a different universe,” said Maciej Czarnecki, global affairs reporter for the Polish newspaper Gazety Wyborczej. “It’s like there is no shared reality anymore.”

NBC News: A New York federal jury found a man guilty this week of conspiring to steal a passenger jet and commit a 9/11-inspired attack to try to kill U.S. nationals under the direction of Somalian terrorist organization “al Shabaab.”

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OPINION 

■ Where did Harris’s campaign go wrong? by Matt Bai, columnist, The Washington Post.

■ Believe evidence, not rhetoric: U.S. elections are safe and trustworthy, by Margaret Hoover, opinion contributor, The Hill.

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THE CLOSER

And finally … Sure, it was unseasonably warm this week in much of the country. But let’s hear it for the Casper, Wyo., good Samaritan who over the weekend anonymously donated new, warm clothing with surprise reveals left across town, accompanied by handwritten notes to anyone who might need a little extra protection during Wyoming’s winter.

The donor taped new gloves and a scarf to a sculpture in downtown Casper with a note: “If you are cold and in need take this!”

❄️ It snowed there Tuesday. A well-timed good deed.

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