Georgia, a state that Donald Trump narrowly lost in 2020, and North Carolina, a state he narrowly won, moved into the win column for the former president, giving him the first two battleground states in one of the most consequential presidential elections in modern American history.

Republicans also flipped control of the Senate with a string of key victories. In Ohio, Bernie Moreno defeated Sen. Sherrod Brown, a resilient red-state Democrat. The retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., will be replaced by the state’s Republican governor, Jim Justice. And Sen. Deb Fischer held off a dark-horse challenge in Nebraska from a blue-collar independent, Dan Osborn, eliminating any path Democrats had toward retaining control of the chamber.

In the presidential race, the so-called blue wall states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — remain too close to call. All three would be crucial to Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid to become the first woman elected president.

By locking down the Southeast, Trump took a leap toward making history as the first president in more than 120 years to return to the White House after being ousted four years before.

The crowd at Harris’ election watch party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, had already thinned by midnight, and the mood was glum when Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of the Harris campaign, told those who were left that the vice president would not be coming to campus. Her supporters streamed for the exits.

Although the election is not decided, Trump was showing strength across the country, winning Texas and Florida easily and defying recent polls, such as one in Iowa, that seemed to show a surge of support for Harris. Republican leaders in Florida were also able to defeat ballot initiatives expanding abortion access and legalizing recreational marijuana, both of which failed to reach the 60% they needed.

Republican-held Senate seats that Democrats had hoped to at least make competitive — such as Ted Cruz’s in Texas and Rick Scott’s in Florida — were not even close.

Still, many of the states that will decide the next president were still undecided.

A largely peaceful Election Day was marred by bomb threats that roiled polling places in Democratic regions of Georgia, Arizona and Michigan. Officials said none of the threats appeared to be credible, but at least in Georgia and Arizona, some polling places stayed open later as a result. Election officials in those states attributed at least some of the threats to Russian actors.

The Democrats did score some landmark wins. For the first time in history, the Senate will have two Black women, both Democrats, serving simultaneously: Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester won her Senate contest in Delaware, while Angela Alsobrooks defeated moderate former Gov. Larry Hogan in Maryland. Sarah McBride, D-Del., was elected the first transgender member of the House.

In the battle for the House, Republicans were holding their own in many key races, leaving control up for grabs.

But state Sen. John Mannion defeated Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., according to The Associated Press, delivering Democrats the first flipped House seat in the country. And Shomari Figures, a Democrat and former Justice Department official, won election in Alabama’s newly drawn 2nd Congressional District, according to The Associated Press, handing his party a rare pickup in the South.

The New York Times News Service