US presidential elections 2020: Joe Biden takes narrow lead in key states as Donald Trump suggests fraud

Election officials continued to count votes in several battleground states as Democrats, whose expectations for a “blue wave” were dashed, hoped to scrape together enough for a win and Republicans searched for a path for Trump to squeeze out a victory.

Democrat Joe Biden took narrow leads over Donald Trump in two critical Midwestern states with the presidential race hanging in the balance for a second day. Trump continued to complain he was being robbed of victory.

Trump won Florida, a crucial prize in the race to the White House that closed off Biden’s hopes for an early knockout in the election. The president also won Texas, which Democrats had hoped might turn blue and entirely reshape the electoral map. (File Photo)

In Michigan, Biden led by 32,000 votes of about 5 million cast and in Wisconsin, Biden led 20,000 votes out of 3.2 million cast. Either one could determine the outcome of the election.

Biden’s campaign said they expect to declare victory Wednesday afternoon, sooner than many expected based on delayed counts in battlegrounds, including Pennsylvania. Biden plans to address Americans later Wednesday, the campaign said.

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Election officials continued to count votes in several battleground states as Democrats, whose expectations for a “blue wave” were dashed, hoped to scrape together enough for a win and Republicans searched for a path for Trump to squeeze out a victory.

As of 11:30 a.m. New York time Wednesday, Biden had 238 electoral votes while Trump had 213, leaving both shy of the 270 needed to secure immediate victories.

Trump tweeted throughout the morning casting doubt on the count of mail-in ballots, which were heavily Democratic, after the Election Day in-person votes were counted, which leaned Republican.

“How come every time they count Mail-In ballot dumps they are so devastating in their percentage and power of destruction,” the president said on Twitter. Another tweet mused about his leads “magically” disappearing in states run by Democratic governors.

Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, insisted the president was headed for re-election and that the campaign was readying its lawyers to challenge results in some states.

In a middle-of-the-night speech from the White House, Trump threatened to ask the US Supreme Court to intervene to stop what he called the disenfranchisement of Republican voters, without offering evidence that any wrongdoing had occurred.

“Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said, noting that he held a lead in a number of states where results were still uncertain. “So we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what Trump meant, as states including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada were counting legally cast votes. It is routine for states to continue counting votes after Election Day, and Pennsylvania said results likely wouldn’t be finalized for several days.

Technology shares led a rally in US stocks. The benchmark S&P 500 Index rose for a third day after futures swung from losses to gains during the early US morning. As it appeared less likely that Democrats would take a controlling majority of the Senate, Treasuries surged as the traders bet that a divided government would make it harder to pass fresh economic stimulus.

The unresolved outcome -- due to an unusually large number of mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus risks stoking tensions further in the US, beset by an economic downturn and the raging virus.

A Biden win in the battleground state of Arizona -- which Trump carried in 2016 -- opened up a number of pathways to clinch a majority of Electoral College votes. If he won Wisconsin, and either Michigan or Georgia, he would reach the 270 votes needed to win.

“When all of the votes are tallied, we are confident that Vice President Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States,” said Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon.

O’Malley Dillon said in a statement early Wednesday that Trump’s remarks were “outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect” and “a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”

The Associated Press, relied on by many news organizations for election calls, said in a statement that it “is not calling the presidential race yet because neither candidate has secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to claim victory.”

Trump needs at least four of the following states to pass 270 electoral votes: Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He won them all in 2016.

In Nevada, where tallying was halted until Thursday, Biden was clinging to a lead of almost 8,000 votes. In the nationwide popular vote, Biden leads by roughly 2 million.

As results in swing states began to shift favorably toward Biden, Trump again on Wednesday morning cast unsubstantiated doubt on the developments.

There were few surprises among states where the AP announced winners, with Republican and Democratic states generally falling in line, despite expectations for several upsets. The only other Electoral College vote to flip so far, besides in Arizona, came from a congressional district in Nebraska that backed Biden after favoring Trump in 2016.

Trump won Florida, a crucial prize in the race to the White House that closed off Biden’s hopes for an early knockout in the election. The president also won Texas, which Democrats had hoped might turn blue and entirely reshape the electoral map.

Trump significantly overperformed in one of Florida’s most populous counties, Miami-Dade. After losing the county four years ago by 29 points, he lost by less than 8 to Biden.

The county is diverse, with large Cuban and Venezuelan populations Trump has courted by raising diplomatic and economic pressure on the socialist regimes in those countries. He accused Biden of sharing the regimes’ politics.

Trump won Ohio and Biden won Minnesota, states that each candidate had sought to take from the other but wound up politically unchanged from 2016.

Ohio was the first of several battleground states decided in the race.

Biden carried Minnesota even though Trump held multiple campaign rallies in a state he narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016. But Biden’s strength in the urban parts of the state kept it in the Democratic column.

Trump still holds small leads in North Carolina and Georgia, though there are votes outstanding in each. Trump won both states in 2016.

In addition, Biden won Nebraska’s second congressional district, Minnesota, Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New York, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Delaware, District of Columbia and New Hampshire, according to the AP.

Trump won Nebraska’s other four Electoral College votes, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Nebraska is one of only two states, with Maine, that award an Electoral College vote to the winner of each congressional district. Trump won two districts and Biden won one. Trump won the state overall, giving him Nebraska’s two remaining Electoral College votes.

Maine’s second congressional district remained too close to call.

Even if Democrats yet claim the White House, a wave of support they hoped would also give them control of both chambers of Congress may fall short.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, was re-elected, the AP said. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, was re-elected despite a Democratic challenger who badly outraised him, and Senator Doug Jones, an Alabama Democrat, was defeated by Republican Tommy Tuberville.

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, defeated Senator Cory Gardner, giving his party one pickup. Other contested Senate seats remain undecided.

Biden is winning over Latino and African-American voters in numbers similar to Clinton four years ago, and is narrowing Trump’s margin among White voters, early exit polls from the AP show.

Trump had a 12-point lead among White voters in Tuesday’s election. Network exit polls four years ago showed him with a 20-point advantage among those voters. Biden led among Latino voters 30 points, Black voters by 82 points, and women by 12 points.