Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pa. in November.
Evan Vucci/AP
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Evan Vucci/AP
This story originally appeared as part of NPR’s live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.
Former President Donald Trump has won the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to a race call by the Associated Press.
Securing the state’s 19 electoral votes is a major victory for Trump and a major blow to Vice President Harris.
Both candidates saw the Keystone State as critical to their success, each visiting Pennsylvania more than a dozen times and spending significant time in the state on the eve of Election Day. Ad spending in Pennsylvania totaled more than half a billion dollars.
The Trump campaign largely focused its efforts on boosting turnout in the rural and rust belt areas of the state that serve as Republican strongholds. The strategy echoed his 2016 victory, where he was able to win the state by winning over white working class voters and cutting into Democrats’ advantage with union households.
Both campaigns also prioritized outreach to the state’s growing Latino population. An estimated 580,000 Latinos were eligible to vote in this year’s elections in Pennsylvania, making up nearly 6 percent of the electorate.
Trump carried Pennsylvania in 2016 by less than a percentage point, or fewer than 45,000 votes out of about 6 million cast. But President Biden flipped the state in 2020, winning by 1.2 percentage points or about 80,000 votes.
