2024 presidential election live updates: Trump and Harris notch easy wins as focus turns to battlegrounds

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, has reported its first votes. The massive county is key for candidates. Its first update included more than a million votes, about half of the expected total there. The first reported votes were ballots that arrived or were cast ahead of Election Day. County election officials have warned it could take as long as 13 days to tabulate all ballots.

The Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit hosted a "pray and watch" party Tuesday night. Voters bowed their heads in prayer led by the Rev. Charles Williams.

A "pray and watch party" is underway at Detroit's Historic King Solomon Baptist Church, which features a rotating group of pastors saying a prayer as results roll in and about two dozen attendees.

When TV coverage of the election goes to commercial, a pastor takes to the pulpit and says a few words.

"I am so glad we are here," said the Rev. Charles Williams II, the event's host. "If I was at home, I would turn off the TV and go to bed."Because this is challenging," Williams said, reflecting the anxiety in the room filled with Harris supporters.

Vice President Kamala Harris won the District of Columbia on Tuesday, securing the capital's three electoral votes. Harris' win in D.C. is no surprise – the District is a longtime Democratic stronghold whose government repeatedly feuded with Republican Donald Trump when he was the president. Trump has described modern-day Washington as a crime-ridden dystopia, and Republican allies in Congress have threatened to strip D.C. of its limited autonomy. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner at 10:20 p.m. EST.

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Trump won North Carolinian Jordan Voigt's vote because she believes he will make life safer for her children by curbing child sex trafficking and illegal immigration, the 34-year-old single mom told AP at a GOP watch party in Asheville, North Carolina.

"Any time we go to a playground, my senses are very up," Voigt said.

Also at stake is the economy: Voigt said she has been feeling the squeeze financially in the last two and a half years, and Hurricane Helene made things worse. Voigt said she and her family spent 18 days without power after the storm.

"There is no wiggle room" in Voigt's budget. "Christmas is going to be really tight this year," she said.

Donald Trump won Utah and its six electoral votes on Tuesday. The Mountain West state is a rare Republican stronghold that has in past elections only half-heartedly supported Trump, whose brash style and comments about immigrants do not sit right with some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, make up about half of Utah's 3.4 million residents. A Democratic presidential candidate has not won in Utah since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Voters have historically favored moderate Republicans in statewide elections. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 10:00 p.m. EST.

Former President Donald Trump won Montana for the third consecutive election on Tuesday, adding four electoral votes to his tally. Montana has one more electoral vote this cycle than it did in the previous two, as the state received an additional congressional seat following the 2020 census. Montana has gone to the Republican nominee for president in all but one election going back to 1968. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 10:00 p.m. EST.

Results could take a while since the state doesn't release anything until the last person in line has voted. First updates usually include mailed and early votes. The state will add mailed ballots that arrive through Nov. 9, and these have gone strongly Democratic in the past. In recent elections, Nevada has added more than 15% of its vote after Election Day.

Republican Donald Trump won the reliably conservative state of Missouri on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Kamala Harris. Missouri voters overwhelmingly favored Trump over Democrats in the 2016 and 2020 elections, and he was favored to win again this year. In the past decade, the GOP has become increasingly dominant in Missouri, and Republicans now hold all statewide political offices. Republicans also hold large majorities in both legislative chambers. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 9:49 p.m. EST.

Abortion policy remains central to some voters' decision-making, and majorities support access to legal abortion in at least most cases. But that may have limits.

Florida voters on Tuesday rejected an attempt to repeal the state's strict six-week abortion ban. The ballot measure had a big hurdle to clear, needing robust support — 60% of voters — in order to pass. It didn't register as hugely important to a majority of voters; just over half said the outcome of the ballot initiative was very important to them, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 4,700 voters in Florida.

Nationally, about 1 in 10 voters — including 2 in 10 Harris voters — said they see abortion as the top issue facing the country, an issue that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris made a central focus of her campaign.

Democrats deployed celebrities to keep their voters fired up while they wait in long lines to cast their ballots.

Paul Rudd handed out water to students at Temple University in Philadelphia. Jennifer Garner, Josh Gad, Mark Cuban and Demi Lovato communicated with voters via FaceTime in various battleground states.

Republicans have also encouraged their voters to stay in line, even after polls close.

"Hi, Republicans. We're doing really well," Donald Trump said in a social media video. "If you're in line, stay in line."

As of about 9:30 p.m. EST, Harris isn't doing as well as Biden in election returns at the same time during his race four years ago. Election officials in several counties in Virginia have also not yet reported results for votes cast by mail, which tend to favor Democrats. The race is too early to call.

Michigan: Harris voters in Michigan were more likely than Trump voters to say they were motivated to vote against their candidate's opponent. About 4 in 10 Harris voters in the state said they were mainly casting their vote to oppose Trump, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,700 voters in Michigan. That compares to about 2 in 10 Trump voters casting their vote to oppose Harris.

Arizona: Nearly two-thirds of Arizonans who backed Harris said they viewed their ballot as a vote for her, while about a third of her supporters said it was a vote against Trump. That's according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 4,100 voters in the state. Among Trump's voters, about 8 in 10 said their vote was for him. Only about 2 in 10 said it was a vote against Harris.

New Yorkers approved an amendment that would expand the state constitution's antidiscrimination language in a way that supporters say would protect the civil rights of people who are seeking or have had abortions.

The state constitution already barred discrimination based on race, creed or religion. Opponents argued that the amendment might give transgender athletes the constitutional right to play on girl's and women's sports teams. This is another victory for Harris and Democrats nationwide as they see abortion as a key campaign issue.

A judge has ordered polling places to remain open two extra hours in nine precincts in an eastern Arizona county following a rocky start to Election Day that included malfunctioning equipment and a lack of printed ballots.

Apache County Superior Court Judge Michael Latham agreed to keep the polls open at the request of the Navajo Nation, which filed a lawsuit asking for extended hours due to the problems.

Meanwhile, bomb threats to polling places at schools in neighboring Navajo County prompted some to close momentarily and one to evacuate and send students home for the day.

Authorities said they received email bomb threats at four locations in Navajo County, including at least three polling sites. They determined the threats were not credible.

There has been little surprise in results so far with polls across most of the country having closed.

Trump won Republican-leaning states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, while Harris won a swath of New England and the Northeast including New Jersey and New York.

Meanwhile, attention is gravitating toward the Eastern battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Republican Donald Trump won the electoral vote tied to Nebraska's vast, rural 3rd Congressional District on Tuesday. The former president easily defeated Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris in the state's most conservative of its three districts, covering 80 counties and two time zones. The district is also one of the most conservative in the country and supported Trump by about 3-to-1 in both 2016 and 2020. The last time the district voted for a Democrat to represent it in the U.S. House was in 1958. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 9:25 p.m. EST.

Harris voters in Pennsylvania were more likely than Trump voters to say they were motivated to vote against their candidate's opponent. About 3 in 10 Harris voters in Pennsylvania said they were mainly casting their vote to oppose Trump, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 4,000 voters in the state. About 2 in 10 Trump supporters said their vote was a vote against Harris.

President Biden made a round of congratulatory calls to Democrats who have emerged victorious on Election Day.

According to the White House, he's called Lisa Blunt Rochester, who won a U.S. Senate seat in his home state of Delaware, and Matt Meyer, who was elected the state's governor. He also called the outgoing governor, John Carney, who was elected mayor of Wilmington.

Other calls went to Andy Kim, who will be a senator from New Jersey, and Josh Stein, the next governor of North Carolina.

Russian disinformation aiming to reduce trust in the U.S. election received some last-minute help from China, according to research from the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Investigators identified several videos linked to Russia that made false claims about voting. Some of the videos mimicked legitimate U.S. news outlets and featured fake audio clips of law enforcement officials supposedly acknowledging widespread voter fraud.

The researchers found the videos were being amplified by a network of fake social media accounts that originated in China. The accounts had spread pro-China propaganda in the past and shifted their focus to the U.S. election only recently.

Mark Robinson, the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate rocked by a CNN report indicating he posted racist and explicit messages on a pornography site more than a decade ago, has lost his race against Democrat Josh Stein.

The loss is a cap on a turbulent run for Robinson , the state's lieutenant governor, who rocketed to conservative fame in 2018 by seizing on Trump's MAGA movement.

His campaign was continually tagged with controversial comments Robinson made about everything from abortion to race to gay rights. Trump compared Robinson to Martin Luther King Jr. before his pornography site scandal, and did not explicitly back away from him after the scandal engulfed the North Carolina Republican's campaign.

Stein, the state's Attorney General, will succeed Roy Cooper, North Carolina's popular two-term governor who was term-limited. The race was one of the most closely watched governor's races in the nation this year.

State officials are preaching calm and patience in the counting of votes in the face of large voter turnout across the state and a spate of disruptive bomb threats at polling locations and government buildings.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said at a Tuesday night news conference that every legal, eligible vote will be counted. He says that takes time and that the state's goal is to do it right and accurately.

Al Schmidt, the state's top elections official, said in-person turnout numbers will not be available Tuesday night. He said the state's counties could not even begin processing and opening the millions of returned mail ballots until 7 a.m. EST Tuesday and that the last of them would not have been received until 8 p.m. EST.

A measure that would have protected abortion rights in Florida's state constitution failed Tuesday after not meeting the 60% threshold to pass.

The rejection of the measure makes Florida the first state where a measure protecting abortion rights failed after Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022. The initiative would have prevented lawmakers from creating and enforcing restrictions or prohibitions on abortions before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health. Amendment supporters were hoping to overturn Florida's current six-week abortion ban.

Republican Donald Trump carried Ohio for a third time on Tuesday, defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to capture the state's 17 electoral votes. Support for the former president helped turn Ohio from a presidential bellwether to reliably Republican in recent years. Ohio voters supported him by wide margins in 2016 and 2020, and they delivered for him again this year. No Republican has reached the White House without carrying Ohio. In 2020, Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win the presidency without winning Ohio since John F. Kennedy in 1960. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 9:08 p.m. EST.

Former President Donald Trump won Louisiana on Tuesday for the third consecutive presidential election, increasing his electoral vote tally by eight. In addition to voter support, Trump has various powerful political allies in and from the Bayou State, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Gov. Jeff Landry. In Louisiana, where the GOP currently holds each statewide elected office and controls the legislature, the Republican nominee for president has won every election since 1996. Trump won Louisiana with about 58% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Former President Donald Trump won South Dakota's three electoral votes for president Tuesday. The Republican nominee had been expected to prevail comfortably in a state where GOP voters outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1. No Democratic nominee has carried South Dakota since President Lyndon Johnson won in 1964. Trump received nearly 62% of the vote in each of his previous runs for president, and both times his margin was more than 26 percentage points. Almost 51% of the state's 616,000 registered voters are Republicans, while fewer than 24% are Democrats. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Former President Donald Trump won North Dakota's three electoral votes on Tuesday. His victory continues a decadeslong streak of Republican presidential wins in the conservative state known for its agriculture and energy production. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. North Dakota has about 784,000 residents. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Vice President Kamala Harris won New York's presidential contest on Tuesday, picking up the state's 28 electoral votes. New York has now voted for the Democrat in every presidential contest since giving Ronald Reagan the nod in his landslide 1984 election. Former President Donald Trump has consistently struggled to gain traction in his home state, losing New York in each of his three runs for the White House. New York's electoral vote haul is the fourth richest, after California, Texas and Florida, but has one fewer vote than it did four years ago due to population shifts. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Republican Donald Trump won the statewide popular vote in Nebraska for the third consecutive election on Tuesday, receiving two electoral college votes. Nebraska is one of two states that divide electoral votes with two votes going to the statewide winner and one apiece to the winner of each congressional district. Trump won Nebraska by 25 percentage points in 2016 and by 19 points four years later. The last Democratic presidential nominee to win the statewide popular vote in Nebraska was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The AP declared Trump the winner at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said there had been multiple bomb threats called into polling locations across the state, but said so far there is "no credible threat" to the public.

Shapiro, a Democrat, spoke at a news conference. In a statement, the Pennsylvania State Police said they were working with local partners to respond, if needed.

Neither Shapiro nor police gave more details about who might be behind the bomb threats or why Shapiro believed there was no threat to the public.

Polls closed in the presidential battleground state at 8 p.m. EST, except for two jurisdictions where judges granted requests for extensions.

Allies, donors and some of Trump's most loyal supporters are filing into the Palm Beach Convention Center for his watch party.

Red is the color of the night, with some dressing in sparkles and sequins, and others wearing American flag blazer and pants.

Tables with lines of red "MAGA" and "" hats were available for guests to take as they arrived.

Trump spoke to Philadelphia radio host Rich Zeoli and talked about his support in Pennsylvania's largest city, often asking more questions than the other way around.

"What were you saying about Philly?" Trump asked. "Because I have been hearing a lot about Philly."

Zeoli shared news about a Philadelphia Inquirer analysis finding support from working-class and Latino voters in the city.

"That's great. Wow," Trump said before saying he was feeling confident about it on Monday but was hearing bad things Tuesday.

Both Democratic and Republican election officials in Pennsylvania have denounced Trump's earlier post on social media about "massive cheating" in Philadelphia, saying it is untrue.

It must be bittersweet for Joe Biden to watch as his vice president carries his home state of Delaware.

Until four months ago, Biden had counted on giving his election night speech from his adopted hometown of Wilmington, until quitting the race in July and endorsing Harris to succeed him on the ticket.

He first won a statewide election in Delaware in 1972 — 54 years ago — as a 29-year-old U.S. Senate candidate, before winning reelection five times. Add to that, two elections to the vice presidency on the ticket with Barack Obama, then his election to the presidency in 2020, and Biden has become a half-century staple on Delaware ballots.