US Vice President Kamala Harris is staging a comeback in the close presidential race, closing in on former President Donald Trump, who currently holds a strong lead with projected wins across 23 states. According to projections from the Associated Press (AP), Harris has secured a major boost by winning California, the largest Electoral College prize, along with Washington. This brings her to 179 electoral votes compared to Trump’s 214, with 270 needed to secure the presidency.

Both candidates are pursuing history in this election — Harris is seeking to become the first female President, while Trump aims to be only the second former President to return to office after a non-consecutive term. As more than 40 states have closed their polls, the election’s outcome now hinges on a handful of pivotal battlegrounds: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. With pre-election polling predicting a tight race, the final results may take days to confirm.

Harris’s strategy relies heavily on securing the “blue wall” states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. She initially led Trump in Pennsylvania, but with around 60% of ballots counted, he now leads by 2.4 points. Trump is also positioned ahead in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump appears to be pulling ahead in Georgia as well, leading Harris by 5.7 points with 66% of the vote counted, which would deliver him the state’s 16 electoral votes.

Early Wins for Trump and Harris

As polls closed in the first states, AP awarded Republican-leaning Indiana and Kentucky to Trump and called the Democratic stronghold of Vermont for Harris. Trump took Texas, adding 40 electoral votes, marking his third consecutive win there. Ohio also went to Trump, adding 17 more votes to his tally. In contrast, Harris claimed New York, netting 28 crucial electoral votes.

Illinois remained blue, giving its 19 votes to Harris, who also took 14 electoral votes from the reliably Democratic state of New Jersey. Additional wins for Harris included Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Colorado, and Washington, D.C.

Trump carried West Virginia for the third election in a row, adding four electoral votes. Several deep-red states, including Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, Wyoming, Louisiana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Utah, Kansas, and Iowa, quickly fell into Trump’s column. Trump also won Florida, which provides 30 electoral votes.

In this high-stakes election, voters turned out in unprecedented numbers to choose between Harris and Trump, with many citing democracy and the economy as major concerns in early exit polls. The election concludes a contentious campaign season marked by intense divisions and historic events. Trump, who experienced two assassination attempts during the campaign, voted near his Florida residence on Tuesday, stating, “If I lose an election, if it's a fair election, I’m gonna be the first one to acknowledge it.”

Harris, who submitted her vote by mail in California, stands to break new ground as the first Black woman and South-Asian American President.

In addition to the presidency, control of both chambers of Congress is also at stake in this election. Republicans currently hold a narrow lead in the House, while Democrats maintain a slim majority in the Senate. According to recent polling, both the House and the Senate could see a shift in control based on the election’s outcome.