Who was the presidential election's popular vote winner? Here's where the vote count stands
President-elect Donald Trump secured a second term in the White House with a decisive electoral victory over Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, though the final popular vote count remains undetermined as ballots continue to be counted.
While Trump appears to be the first Republican to win the presidential popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004, his lead continues to fluctuate as remaining ballots are tallied.
Trump's victory was largely aided by capturing swing states that were previously won by President Joe Biden in 2020, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
According to NBC News , Trump leads the popular vote count with 74,672,841 votes to Harris' 71,144,667 votes as of Friday afternoon.
See the latest results here:
Trump's victory was already largely secured as he was projected win the electoral votes in nearly every key swing state.
Both campaigns believed the race was extremely close across the seven swing states that were expected to decide the election, barring a major surprise. Those states included Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
"Well, you look at Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and a couple of blue collar economies really jump out at you," Political strategist Pete Giangreco told NBC Chicago Wednesday morning. "If you look at Kenosha County just over the line, Trump won that by three points against Biden in 2020."
In 2024, Trump won it by six, Giangreco said.
"You look at Lackawanna County, Scranton - Joe from Scranton - Joe Biden won that by 6.4 years ago. Kamala Harris only won it by three. You look at Macomb County, Michigan, blue collar north of Detroit, Trump owned by eight. Four years ago, Biden won it by 16 this time. So you saw those blue collar counties really where Trump built out a margin where Kamala Harris was not able to meet it."
Giangreco went on to say that Trump overperformed with Latino men, Black men and young men.
Illinois' presidential vote likely the closest in decades
"All Donald Trump had to say was, were things better off?", Giangreco said. "Were you better off four years ago? And he drove that message. The question in our party is, were we better off if Joe Biden had stepped out earlier? Could Kamala Harris have defined herself a little better if she had more time?"
The president-elect will also have at least Republican control of the Senate as well . Previously, Democrats held a narrow majority in the senate.
In Ohio, Republican Bernie Moreno projected to beat Sen. Sherrod Brown . And West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice captured that state's seat.
