After a tense election season, Mr. Trump has been elected as our 45th president. Late November 8th, voting had closed in the East but as voting continued in the West, news outlets continued to cover the election and color electoral maps. The morning of November 9th, Trump was announced the winner with 279 electoral votes according to The New York Times.

Along with Mr. Trump’s victory, Republicans retained the majority of the House of Representatives while several Democratic candidates for the Senate fell short of being elected. Taking the stage at the Hilton, his election headquarters, at just before 3 A.M., Mr. Trump delivered his victory speech. During his speech, Mr. Trump mentioned Secretary Clinton, saying that, “We owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country”. Mr Trump told supporters that Secretary Clinton had called to congratulate him and to concede the election. Mr. Trump also stated that he hoped that Republicans and Democrats could work harmoniously to the benefit of the country and that he wanted to “reclaim our country’s destiny” according to an article by The New York Times.

According to the same NYT article, Mr. Trump had significant support amongst the working-class, rural voters, and whites while only winning 8% of the African American vote. Secretary Clinton had 88% of the African American vote but did not gain momentum with young voters as was expected. With 30% of votes cast by people under the age of 30, Mr. Trump had only managed to gain 37% of the young vote whereas Secretary Clinton had 54%. Trump also won 47% of the independent vote, which made up 31% of the vote this year. Mr. Trump also won key battleground states including Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Election Day proved to be an intense end to a charged election.