Despite Harris Win In MD Trump Projected To Win Presidency: Updates

Updated at 9:06 a.m. Wednesday

MARYLAND — While Vice President Kamala Harris won Maryland and its 10 electoral votes on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump is projected by the AP to win the election, retaking the White House. Local Democrats called his win a "disaster."

To capture the presidency, a candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes. By Wednesday morning Harris had 226 of those votes to 286 for Trump.

Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, a comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.

Maryland Democrats who gathered in College Park to celebrate Angela Alsobrooks’ historic win as the state's first Black woman elected as a U.S. senator Tuesday night mourned Trump's resurgence.

“This is like a national disaster,” Montgomery County Chief Executive Marc Elrich said, who predicted that total Republican control of the White House and, possibly, both chambers of Congress, could have dire economic consequences for Maryland’s D.C. suburbs, Maryland Matters reported.

Former state Del. Alice Johnson Cain (D) from Anne Arundel County said, “I’m scared as hell, but hoping for the best.”

Maryland has been a heavily Democratic voting bloc for presidential candidates since 1988, and is home to many federal workers. The state has a Black population of about 30%, the largest percentage of any state outside the Deep South.

Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 in the state. In 2020, Trump received just 32% of the vote. A Republican has not won a presidential election in the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner in Maryland at 8 p.m. EST.

For full coverage of the election in Maryland, go here.

National polls on Nov. 4 showed Trump and Harris — seeking to make history as the country’s first woman elected president — tied in an average of polls, according to Real Clear Politics. Both candidates had 48.5 percent support.

The poll margins ranged from a 1.7 percentage point lead for Trump in Georgia, 2.7 percent ahead in Arizona and 1.5 percent in North Carolina.

Nearly a month after a disastrous debate performance against Trump had Democrats concerned about their prospects in the general election, President Joe Biden said July 21 he would not seek reelection. He endorsed Harris as the party's nominee, and she claimed the party’s nomination at the August convention in Milwaukee, along with running-mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

The campaign season was marred by two assassination attempts against Trump.

Trump on July 13 was the target of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The accused shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed, along with a spectator, while two others were injured.

The second assassination attempt came Sept. 15 while the former president was playing golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. He was not hurt. The accused attacker, Ryan Wesley Routh, faces federal gun charges in the case.

On Oct. 12, local law enforcement said a man with firearms outside a Trump rally in Coachella Valley, California, was a threat. However, the man told a local newspaper group he was a Trump supporter.

Campaign Sprint, Contrasting Messages

Trump and Harris spent the closing weeks of the campaign battling over issues such as the economy, abortion access, and foreign policy while appealing to different demographic groups.

On Oct. 29 with just a week to go until the election, Harris delivered what her campaign billed as her “closing argument” from the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. — the same site where Trump spoke to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before they stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

In her speech, Harris sought to remind voters what life was like under Trump and then offered them a different path forward if they sent her to the White House.

“I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect. I make mistakes. But here’s what I promise you: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me,” she said.

Days earlier, a Trump rally on Oct. 27 at Madison Square Garden featured speakers that required his campaign to rebut criticism. An opening comedian described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and reiterated a racist trope about Black people and watermelon, the New York Times said. A spokesman said the comments didn’t reflect Trump’s views.

But given the opportunity to apologize at multiple events and in interviews, Trump instead leaned in. Speaking at his South Florida resort, he said that “there’s never been an event so beautiful” as his New York City rally.

“The love in that room. It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest. And it was my honor to be involved.”

Trump also claimed he didn’t know Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian who made the disparaging comments about Puerto Rico.

“I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” he told ABC News.

Harris previously countered that the remarks were proof of the former president’s “hate and division and that’s why people are exhausted with him.” She also pummeled him with the label of fascist, after Trump’s former chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, described him in those terms.

Critics argue Trump’s discussion of deploying the military to target political opponents, including people he has labeled the “enemy from within” is fascism. He has long talked about attacking his enemies and declared to his supporters that he would be their “retribution.”

The vice president delivered a speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., Oct. 29 — the same site where Trump spoke to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before they stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop Biden from being certified the president.

Presidential Debate Takeaways, Candidate Interviews

On Sept. 10, the only debate between Harris and Trump was held. Pundits and pollsters largely gave Harris the win for debate performance. And the night was capped for the VP when megastar Taylor Swift endorsed Harris soon after the debate ended.

Here's a glance at some key takeaways from the only debate, which offered half-truths, outright lies, juvenile personal attacks, and bizarre claims and commentary:

• During a discussion on immigration, Trump voiced a debunked Internet conspiracy theory claiming that Haitians recently arrived in Springfield, Ohio have been eating domesticated animals. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there."
• On the topic of abortion access — which is a statewide ballot measure in Maryland, Arizona, Florida and several other states — Trump refused to give his opinion on whether he would support a federal abortion ban.
• Harris said during the debate and in speeches in the following weeks that if elected she will restore abortion access as outlined under Roe v. Wade, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2022. "I pledge to you when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law," Harris said.

According to a September KFF poll, 61% of voters said this election will have a “major impact” on abortion access nationwide. Abortion is on the ballot in up to 10 states in the election, including Maryland.