Former President Donald J. Trump survived coordinated lawfare, two assassination attempts, collusion among major tech companies, and a sustained negative campaign from the Washington, D.C., establishment and Vice President Kamala Harris to become the 47th president of the United States.
By 2:00 a.m., most major media outlets had called the election in President-elect Trump’s favor, with major victories in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia.
Late Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for Vice President Harris announced to disappointed supporters that Harris would not be issuing a public address on Nov. 6 as the results became increasingly clear.
Harris’s late-night withdrawal from the public eye was oddly reminiscent of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision in 2016 to buck presidential tradition by refusing to concede the election when several major media outlets had called the race in favor of Trump.
Trump, who previously served as president from 2016 until his controversial and disputed loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020, will enter office for the first time with a popular vote mandate centered largely on reining in the United State’s open borders and broken immigration system.
In the intervening years while Biden occupied the White House, Trump faced multiple lawsuits in Georgia, New York, and Washington, D.C., all of which Democratic operatives hoped would combine to drag down his campaign and spoil voters on his bid for redemption.
Despite — or perhaps because of — those attempts to wage legal warfare against Trump on scurrilous grounds, Trump managed to become the first Republican president since George W. Bush in 2004 to win not only the Electoral College, but also the popular vote.
Harris, for her part, became the candidate only months before the general election when Biden was forced to step down as the Democrats’ 2024 nominee following a disastrous debate performance in which the commander-in-chief displayed clear evidence of severe cognitive decline.
Despite an early bump in the polls, driven largely by cheerleading media, Harris struggled to communicate effectively during her media appearances, regularly becoming the subject of mockery on social media for her nonsensical, rambling, and sometimes interminable sentences.
As Harris struggled to connect with average voters, Trump assembled a broad and diverse coalition of high-profile supporters. That included political types, like former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as non-political types, like billionaire tech visionary Elon Musk and UFC founder Dana White.
At the suggestion of his youngest son, Barron Trump, the former president delivered robust podcast interviews with the likes of Theo Von, Joe Rogan, Andrew Schulz, Logan Paul, and Lex Fridman. The strategy proved not only advantageous in connecting Trump with voters he might not have reached through major television media venues, but it also signaled a shift away from the importance and centrality of cable news outlets.
In Maine, Trump met predictions with a third consecutive victory in Maine’s Second Congressional District, winning 56 percent of the vote to Harris’s 42.3 percent. Although Trump did not win Maine’s statewide total, Harris drastically underperformed previous Democratic candidates, including President Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, winning barely more than half of the statewide total.
Even as the presidential race was too close to call, Republican Senators became confident that that they would take control of the upper house of the U.S. Congress.
The GOP control of the Senate will be key to Trump approving not only judicial nominations, but also the members of his cabinet that will require Senate approval.
For Maine, Republican control of the U.S. Senate likely means that longtime Maine Sen. Susan Collins will become chairwoman of the all-powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, a committee on which she currently serves as Vice Chair. The spot will put one of Maine’s most significant political figures in Maine political history in charge of congressional discretionary spending.
As the dust began to settle around U.S. House races across the country, it appeared that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) would hang onto his majority, effectively completing the trifecta necessary to implement Trump’s agenda through the legislative process.
Yet by 2:45 a.m., Maine’s Second Congressional District race between incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and Republican State Rep. Austin Theriault of Fort Kent remained too close to call.
A pall over the country has been lifted.
The deceit , the coverups, the general daily democrat party bullshit , has finally come to an end . America can’t wait to clean these weasels out of office . Bye bye Chuck , bye bye Nancy . Time to shut up and go home .
We might be garbage but you democrats are done . God bless America. God bless Donald Trump .
“As the dust began to settle around U.S. House races across the country, it appeared that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) would hang onto his majority, effectively completing the trifecta necessary to implement Trump’s agenda through the legislative process.”
Pardon me if I don’t hold my breath. Still too many RINO’s in the hall of congress.
As usual the people of Maine have voted the exact opposite of the rest of the country . Typical . At very least we saved our flag from the tee shirt merchants.
i am glad of that .
The wars will end. The corruption will end. The Chines weed farming in Maine will end, Governor
Why is Austin Theriault underperforming so horribly in his race?? Trump cruised locally and nationally, showing great coattails in the Senate, yet Theriault might actually lose this race. Pathetic.
Shame Repubs didn’t nominate a man of substance like Sobeleski. Instead they went for a R version of AOC. Who has a campaign manager who is a clone of Randi Weingarten.
Guess Mainers won’t elect a RINO.
Maybe he will pull it out. Even a RINO is better than a Dem.
In your face, Bellows!
This is sweet justice after SCOTUS bitchslapped you for you election interference!
Now, to rid our state of YOU!
New Mainer, consider becoming an EX Mainer!
We already have enough useless Mainers down south!