Trump tears down the 'blue wall' with sweep of battleground states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin
- Kamala Harris' campaign was relying on winning the vital rust belt states
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Donald Trump absolutely obliterated the Midwest 'blue wall' Democrats were hoping would hold in the 2024 election and deliver a victory to Vice President Kamala Harris.
The race was called for the new president-elect overnight after he won the battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin.
Then Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press called the race in Michigan as Trump prepares to sweep all seven of the swing states.
Harris's campaign had hope the VP could take at least some of the rust belt, but Trump's blue collar base showed up and handed him a victory in all three states.
According to calls made by the Associated Press, Trump won Pennsylvania by 2.2 percent, Wisconsin by 0.9 percent and Michigan by 1.4 percent.
Donald Trump swept all three 'blue wall' midwest swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The former president held his final rally before Election Day in Grand Rapids, Michigan in keeping up a tradition that goes back to his 2016 campaign
Michigan's GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra told DailyMail.com: 'We will not have created a crack in the wall. We will have obliterated the wall.'
Trump's victory in Michigan was finally declared Wednesday afternoon after he was able to secure a vote haul in populous Oakland and Kent Counties, as well as improving his numbers across almost the entire state.
Michigan played an outsized role in the primaries and again in the general election as one of the most competitive battleground states.
It has 15 electoral votes but looms large in the national consciousness as the heart of the U.S. auto industry.
The state is a key plank in the 'blue wall' that Trump cracked in 2016 – after Hillary Clinton famously failed to visit the state until days before Election Day.
But the real nail-in-the-coffin for Harris' campaign happened when the vital blue wall state of Pennsylvania was called for Trump over night.
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all voted red in the 2016 election by tiny margins, then flipped blue for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump and Harris were on a mission their entire campaigns to win over voters in the rust belt swing states.
Voters celebrate in Madison, Wisconsin in the early hours of November 6 after hearing fellow blue wall swing state of Pennsylvania was called for former President Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris also held her final campaign rally of the 2024 election cycle in Michigan
Republicans applaud at an election night watch party in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Green Party candidate Jill Stein addresses supporters in Dearborn, Michigan on Election Day, November 5, 2024 as she encouraged her supporters in the vital swing state to 'abandon Harris' and vote for her instead
The first sign that Michigan would pose trouble for Democrats came in the primary, where Israel's war in Gaza was proving increasingly unpopular.
That began a push for a protest vote for 'uncommitted' in the primary. There are about half a million Arab American voters in Michigan, and Detroit has the largest concentration of Arab and Muslim voters.
Although Biden won the state with 618,000 votes, more than 100,000 went for 'uncommitted' in the Democratic primary.
Both parties poured money into the race and lavished it with attention from candidates.
Not all the attention worked out as planned.
Trump at the Detroit Economic Club warned that 'our whole country will end up being like Detroit if (Harris is) your president ' – spurring an immediate backlash and pushback from the Harris camp.
Trump doubled down on the comments despite new growth and construction in the Motor City. The state also featured a top-tier Senate race between Mike Rogers and Elissa Slotkin.
'We are now winning in Michigan,' Trump said during his victory speech before the race was called
Trump held his last rally in Grand Rapids - the site of his final 2016 and 2020 rallies.
He also visited Traverse City in the final week of campaigning, making his crowd wait for three hours when he appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast. His supporters were streaming out of the venue after word spread of his long delay.
But the ploy may have worked: Rogan gave his endorsement Monday on the election eve.
And he tried to peel away Arab American and Muslim voters, saying October 7 wouldn't have happened on his watch and blaming Biden and Harris for calamities in the Middle East.
Trump brought an imam and local Muslim officials who endorsed him onstage at a rally outside Detroit.
A pro-Trump PAC ran ads in the state featuring older women in a Philly diner talking about Israel and the race, in a play to get Jewish voters 'permission' to back him. One of the women says she 'never cared for' Trump, 'But at least he'll keep us safe.'
Trump also made repeated appeals to black men in a race where Democrats count on running up big margins from African American supporters in Detroit.
President Joe Biden called himself the most pro-union president in history, and is believed to be the first to walk a picket line when he joined U.A.W. workers.
Harris tried to mitigate Trump's push by meeting with Arab American groups and talking up the administration's union support.
She tried to run up the score among younger voters, scheduling big rally in the college towns of Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
But in another factor making the race competitive, some prominent unions failed to issue an endorsement. Trump featured Teamsters head Sean O'Brien at the Republican convention in nearby Milwaukee, and the national union ultimately made no endorsement.
That prompted locals, including in Detroit, to break away and back Harris.
Trump and Harris both spent a good chunk of time in Wisconsin and the other 'blue wall' states over the last several months.
His victory in Wisconsin puts him over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to capture the presidency.
The 'Badger State' was regarded as a toss-up in 2024, with neither Donald Trump or Kamala Harris expected to have dibs on the 10 Electoral College votes up for grabs.
According to polling averages, Trump was up nearly three points over Harris in the week leading to the election.
And the now President-elect's victory in Pennsylvania, the biggest 2024 swing state prize.
Harris performed worse than expected in the commonwealth.
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, react as results are displayed
Meanwhile at Trump's watch in Florida, Tucker Carlson took pictures with supporters and the crowd was lively
Trump supporters were enthusiastic to hear the race called early Wednesday morning
Her decision not to choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate may have hurt her in her final effort, despite criticism from Democrats who thought it would help her win the state.
Harris made her final push in Pennsylvania on election eve, holding three rallies in the commonwealth and concluding her campaign in Philadelphia with Oprah, Lady Gaga, and a host of celebrities.
Republicans, also aggressively pursued problematic voting issues in polling places, filing legal challenges to keep the voting honest.
The Republican National Committee filed legal challenges in Cambria County after voting machines were not working properly.
In other counties, Republicans engaged with local polling places to ensure that Republican poll watchers were allowed access to the counting process.
