What to know about Donald Trump's presidential win over Kamala Harris

WASHINGTON — Riding a wave of voter unease about the economy and immigration, Republican Donald Trump won a second presidential term over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by boosting his support among a range of demographics over his previous two races.

Trump not only crossed the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to lock in the presidency, but as of Wednesday was on pace to win the popular vote with close to 51% — a feat he did not accomplish in 2016 or 2020.

In New York, Democrats flipped two upstate congressional seats and were on pace to pick up a third in a tight race between Democrat Laura Gillen and Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park) for New York’s 4th Congressional District. Gillen declared victory Tuesday night, but D’Esposito had yet to concede as of Wednesday   evening.

Democrats also notched a statewide victory with the passage of Proposition 1, a ballot initiative that supporters contend will enshrine abortion protections into law by expanding the state constitution’s anti-discrimination provisions. Republicans, including former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), had campaigned against the initiative, arguing the language of the measure could lead to an increase in transgender individuals joining girls' sports teams.

Despite those Democratic victories, Trump improved his numbers in New York. Harris won the state with 55.4% of the vote, as of Wednesday morning. But Trump carried 44.6%, up from 37% in his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.

Here are early takeaways from the 2024 election:

Widening Trump’s base

Trump’s victory was built on expanding his base of support to include more Black and Latino men, according to exit polls.

More than half of Latino men — 54% — reported voting for Trump, compared with 45% for Harris, according to a CNN exit poll. Those numbers were flipped from 2020, when Biden carried 59% of male Latino voters compared to Trump’s 36%, according to exit polls.

Trump made inroads overall with Latino voters, with CNN exit polls showing 45% reported voting for Trump, up from 36% in 2020. Harris received 53% of the Latino vote, a dip from the 65% who voted for Biden in 2020, according to CNN’s exit polling data.

Trump garnered 11% of the Black vote in seven battleground states, according to NBC News exit polls, a jump from the 7% he received in 2020.

In his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Trump described his support among minority groups and young voters as "the biggest, the broadest, the most unified coalition."

"America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate," Trump said.

The gender gap

In the first election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Harris and Democrats were counting on the issue of abortion to help run up her numbers among female voters and moderate undecided voters.

While Harris ultimately carried the female vote over Trump — garnering 54% of women voters to Trump’s 43%, according to CNN exit polling — the numbers were not enough to secure a victory.

Abortion ranked as the third top issue to voters, behind the state of democracy and the economy, according to an NBC News exit poll.

A reckoning for Democrats

Harris essentially had three months to make the case for her candidacy, after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July amid mounting pressure from Democratic leaders who were concerned about his age.

She brought in record fundraising numbers. But the surge of enthusiasm among Democratic donors and the massive spending on ads did little to move the needle in the critical battleground states, where she and Trump were virtually locked in a statistical tie for months.

Harris struggled to define herself to an electorate that was vastly familiar with Trump and an electorate that polls showed had increasingly soured on Biden’s handling of the economy. In TV interviews she seldom distanced herself from Biden, despite his sagging poll numbers, telling the female-centric talk show "The View" on ABC last month that "not a thing" came to mind when asked what she would have done differently than Biden over the past four years.

In her concession speech Wednesday, Harris touched on the short nature of her campaign, telling supporters at Howard University: "I am so proud of the race we ran ... and the way we ran it over the 107 days of this campaign."

House call

After Republicans won control of the White House and U.S. Senate, all eyes now will turn to the toss-up and close elections in the U.S. House of Representatives that will determine which party wins the majority.

Republicans now have a thin eight-member majority in a chamber with 435 representatives.

As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Associated Press had called 205 seats for Republicans and 189 for Democrats, with 41 pending.

Democrats launched vigorous campaigns in New York’s seven in-play House seats and the eight seats up for grabs in California to wrest control of the House from Republicans.

In New York, the only House race the AP had not called remained the 4th District on Long Island. With 98% of the vote counted as of Wednesday, Gillen, of Rockville Centre, had a 50.9% lead over D'Esposito.

Democrats flipped two other House seats in New York: Josh Riley over Rep. Marc Molinaro in the 19th District and John Mannion over Rep. Brandon Williams in the 22nd District.

Control of the House will be crucial.

In Trump's first two years as president, Republicans controlled both the Senate and House. But Democrats won the House majority in the 2018 elections, giving them the ability to block or reshape legislation and federal spending.

Should Democrats win the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) would be expected to step up from House Democratic leader to House speaker, which is a constitutional office and second in line to be president, after the vice president.

Schumer back to minority leader

Republicans flipped Senate seats in West Virginia and Ohio, allowing them to regain control of a chamber that Democrats have controlled since 2021.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who was elevated to Senate majority leader after Democrats flipped two Republican Georgia Senate seats in a January 2021 special election, will now return to his longtime role as Senate minority leader.

Schumer will need to build a new negotiating relationship with whomever Republican senators pick as their next majority leader. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the longest serving Senate leader, announced earlier this year that he would step down from his leadership after this election cycle.

Republican senators are set to vote for a new leader on Nov. 13. Sens. John Thune, of South Dakota, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Rick Scott, of Florida, are all running.