The Latest: Trump and Harris cede stage to voters who’ll also decide control of House and Senate
The Latest: Trump and Harris cede stage to voters who’ll also decide control of House and SenateBy The Associated PressThe Associated Press
Election Day is here. Voters are gearing up to head to the polls to cast their ballots for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in one of the nation’s most historic presidential races. They’ll also be determining which party will control the House and Senate.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
US Rep. Lauren Boebert will find out whether switching races worked in Colorado
Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert will soon find out whether her political gamble, abruptly switching congressional districts in Colorado mid-election, will cost the GOP or reinforce its position in the U.S. House.
Boebert, a far-right standard-bearer whose following reaches far beyond Colorado, won by only 546 votes in 2022. Facing a rematch against the same, well-funded Democrat in 2024, and suffering a scandal where she was caught on tape vaping and causing a disturbance with a date in a Denver theater, Boebert left the race.
As an outspoken patron of presidential candidate Donald Trump, Boebert said Democrats were targeting her. Her exodus, she said, would better help Republicans retain the seat.
Boebert then joined the race for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a more conservative area of the Great Plains, arguing that her voice is still needed in Congress.
The packed and dramatic Republican primary was the biggest hurdle. Boebert maneuvered around a major political threat, weathered accusations of carpetbagging and tended the bruise of getting booted from the Denver theater. With a near household name and an endorsement from Trump, she pulled through the Republican field.
▶ Read more about the Colorado U.S. House race
Democrat Ruben Gallego faces Republican Kari Lake in US Senate race in Arizona
Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, faces well-known former television news anchor and staunch Donald Trump ally Kari Lake in Tuesday’s election for U.S. Senate in a state with a recent history of extremely close elections.
The race is one of a handful that will determine the Senate majority. It’s a test of the strength of the anti-Trump coalition that has powered the rise of Democrats in Arizona, which was reliably Republican until 2016. Arizona voters have rejected Trump and his favored candidates in every statewide election since then.
Arizona is one of seven battleground states expected to decide the presidency.
The winner of the Senate race will replace Kyrsten Sinema, whose 2018 victory as a Democrat created a formula the party has successfully replicated ever since.
Sinema left the Democratic Party two years ago after she antagonized the party’s left wing. She considered running for a second term as an independent but bowed out when it was clear she had no clear path to victory.
▶ Read more about Arizona’s Senate race
The DNC says it’s launching an Election Day persuasion campaign urging people to vote
That includes more than 100 new billboards in battleground states, including 34 in Pennsylvania and 32 in Nevada, and 300 digital kiosks targeting college campuses in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
In Pennsylvania, voters will see the ads in more than 1,700 convenience stores.
GOP Gov. Jim Justice battles Democrat Glenn Elliott for US Senate seat from West Virginia
Voters in ruby red West Virginia will decide Tuesday whether a U.S. Senate seat will flip to Republican.
Two-term GOP Gov. Jim Justice faced Democratic former Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott for the right to succeed Sen. Joe Manchin. Manchin decided not to seek reelection and switched from Democrat to independent earlier this year. Before he changed parties, Manchin was the only Democrat holding statewide office.
Republicans haven’t held both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats since 1958.
Justice boldly declared himself the winner more than a month before the election.
The 73-year-old Justice hoped to continue taking advantage of former President Donald Trump’s popularity in West Virginia. Trump won the presidential race in the state by 42 percentage points in 2016 and 39 points in 2020. Justice was elected governor as a Democrat in 2016, then switched to the GOP seven months after entering office, taking the stage at an event with Trump to make the announcement.
▶ Read more about West Virginia’s Senate race
A tiny village in India where Kamala Harris has ancestral roots is praying for her victory
THULASENDRAPURAM, India — The temple reverberated with rhythmic Sanskrit and Tamil hymns, as a Hindu priest held a flame before the god. As this tiny South Indian village gathered to pray for Kamala Harris, a gaggle of reporters jostled for space and camera angles.
There’s little to distinguish the village of Thulasendrapuram from any other rural community in Tamil Nadu, except its connection to a woman who could become America’s first leader with South Asian roots.
As millions of Americans vote, Harris has people rooting for her from thousands of miles away in a village surrounded by rice paddies and coconut trees, where her mother’s family has ancestral ties. They talk about her at the local tea shop. Banners and billboards bearing her face are seen throughout the community.
▶ Read more about the village that reveres Harris and her family
Rematch pits Republican US Rep. Don Bacon against Democrat Tony Vargas in Nebraska’s 2nd District
Nebraska voters will elect representatives for the state’s three U.S. House seats Tuesday, and those in the state’s Omaha-centric 2nd District will not only decide one of the country’s most competitive House races, they could also affect the outcome of the presidential race.
In a rematch of the 2022 race, Republican incumbent Don Bacon faces a strong challenge from Democratic state Sen. Tony Vargas. Recent polls show a tight race in the state’s most demographically and politically diverse district. Both candidates sought to depict themselves as pragmatic problem-solvers who eschew their parties’ partisan fringes.
Races in the district have been very close in recent years. In 2022, Bacon defeated Vargas with 51% of the vote.
The district also has a recent history of backing Democratic presidential candidates in an otherwise solidly Republican state that allows three of its five Electoral College votes to go to the winners in each congressional district, with the other two going to the state’s overall winner. Nebraska’s 2nd District has twice awarded its one vote to Democratic presidential candidates — to Barack Obama in 2008 and to Joe Biden in 2020.
▶ Read more about Nebraska’s House race
Trump returns home
Donald Trump has landed back in Florida after finishing his last rally after 2 a.m.
Dixville Notch splits presidential vote 3-3 in first Election Day vote
In a presidential election that appears to be incredibly close, it was fitting that the first votes cast on Election Day were evenly split, with three for Donald Trump and three for Kamala Harris.
The tiny New Hampshire resort town of Dixville Notch has a tradition dating back to 1960 of being the first in the nation to complete in-person voting. The town’s six voters began casting their ballots on the stroke of midnight Tuesday and the vote count was complete 15 minutes later.
In an election where tensions have run high, the setting in Dixville Notch couldn’t have been more congenial. Voting took place in the living room of the Tillotson House, with cookies and coffee and a couple of very friendly dogs.
