Wednesday November 6, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 12:49 am PST | Updated at 8:00 am & 9:35 am & 4:35 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Tuesday night November 5, 2024 was quite the night, watching red votes come in to swamp over blue votes in the 47th US Presidential election.
While the final tally is not yet in, the ‘path’ to winning the presidency is firm for Republican candidate Donald J Trump.
It takes 270 electoral college votes to win. As at 12:30 am Pacific today November 6, the results of the November 5 election are 266 for Trump and 219 for Democrat candidate Kamala Harris. All seven swing-states went to Trump and he has carried the popular vote.
[FIRM WIN: Electoral College Vote Results – Updated at 8 am: TRUMP/Republican – 276 | HARRIS/Democrat – 223]
Before midnight last night, Trump delivered a victory speech with the tone of essentially ‘I’m back’. He seemed truly pleased at his choice of JD Vance as his vice-presidential running mate. He thanked his campaign team and his family.
Canada has legitimate concerns in looking at a possible future where this country is forced to comply with an expectation to spend 2% of GDP on defence, and to deal with an another challenging round of trade negotiation with the USA.
Harris did not address her election-night gathering on Tuesday night. She is expected to make a televised speech today.
It’s likely that concerns for improving the economy was the tipping point for independent and so-called ‘swing’ voters to align on the Republican side in this election, despite Harris delivering defence for women’s rights and a compassionate approach to supporting people across society.
In his speech on Tuesday night Trump delivered praise for Elon Musk and Robert F Kennedy Jr for their contributions to the campaign.
Results were presented and analyzed all night long in Canadian media by CBC, using a balanced approach to assessing win/lead results from across the states.
Two non-consecutive terms:
Trump will be the first US president in modern times to hold non-consecutive terms. He was US President during 2016 to 2020 (45th president), and is now elected for 2024 to 2028 (47th president — with swearing-in usually held in January following the election date). He is 78 years old. Vance is 40 years old.
In the late 1800s Grover Cleveland was the US president for two non-consecutive terms (1885-1889 & 1993-1997). He was the first Democrat to win the presidency after the Civil War and was one of two Democratic presidents, followed by Woodrow Wilson, in an era when Republicans dominated the presidency between 1869 and 1933.
Harris from here:
People who have been inspired by Harris’ run for the presidency will feel let down at these election results.
Harris’ speech on the day-after will be listened to intently for where the direction of the Democratic Party goes from here as in weathering the next four years in American and global political realities.
Ahead of last night’s closing of the polls, Harris had posted in social media: “To everyone who has worked hard and brought back the joy during this campaign—thank you.”
Harris could well be the best candidate for the Democratic Party in 2028.
BC leaders weigh in:
- “Congratulations to President-elect Trump. Americans have sent you to do a critically important job for them. British Columbians are close neighbours with family, relationships and businesses on both sides. Looking forward to working collaboratively on our shared priorities,” said BC Premier David Eby today in social media.
- “Congratulations to Donald J. Trump, President Elect of the United States of America. America is BC’s largest trading partner and our closest international ally. Now, BC’s number #1 priority must be to push America for progress on ending punitive softwood lumber tariffs,’ said BC Conservative Leader John Rustad in social media today.
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