US election: Trump ahead of Kamala in polls as he wins North Carolina, a key battleground state

Former US President Donald Trump has won North Carolina, taking the first major major battleground state of the election so far and cementing the Republican party’s hold on the state’s 16 electoral votes.

Voters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia did cast ballots in the presidential contest between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. Presidents are elected using the Electoral College and a candidate needs at least 270 Electoral College votes to win. Most states allocate all of their Electoral College votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote. Nebraska and Maine both divide their votes.

Polls had shown Vice President Kamala Harris cutting into Trump’s lead in North Carolina when she entered the race in July, after President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid.

Democrats had been optimistic that Harris could make gains among well-educated voters but Trump made gains among Black voters and young voters and marginal gains among independents to clinch North Carolina.

Black voters made up 19% of the electorate in the state according to the exit poll. And Trump won over 12% of them, a 5-point increase from 2020, including a 12-point increase among Black men.

As at press time Trump has 246 electoral votes while Kamala has 189 . A candidate has to reach 270 to be declared winner.

Trump’s victory in North Carolina underscores the resilience of his MAGA political movement. It is the third straight time he has won the battleground state, even though he was impeached twice as president and indicted in four separate criminal cases after he left office in 2021.

Harris’ most promising path to victory will now have to involve the three so-called blue wall states that Trump won in his upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, but Trump leads in all three as at press time.