Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election early Wednesday morning to become the 47th president of the United States after serving as the 45th.
Despite election forecasts predicting a close race between President-elect Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Electoral College map showed a decisive win for Trump. He will be the first president to serve a non-consecutive term since Grover Cleveland, who was president from 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897.
At USC, reactions reflected the highly intense nature of the race leading up to Election Day.
Paula Acedo, a senior studying geodesign, said she was surprised by Trump’s win, but more disheartened by how the Latine community swayed in his favor.
“As a Latina student, I’m very disappointed in my own community,” Acedo said. “In a time where it’s very, very important for us to come together and to hold each other’s hands, we’re not doing that.”
Multiple battleground states, previously expected to take anywhere from hours to days, finished counting before midnight on the West Coast, with Trump winning 277 electoral votes overall. The 2024 race was called faster than 2020 when President Joe Biden was declared the winner four days after Election Day.
Thomas Hollihan, a USC Annenberg professor of media and politics, was surprised not by Trump’s win, but by him sweeping several swing states, including Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. However, he attributes the win to Trump’s popularity among men.
“Trump connected with blue-collar males who work with their hands,” Hollihan said. “These are the people who have economically suffered in recent years and who have been most impacted by inflation. They also feel that [the] government has not acted to protect their interests. There is also a good deal of sexism in this outcome. Sadly, many men were not prepared to allow a woman to have the keys to the White House.”
Sara Stienecker, a senior studying political science and president of Trojan Democrats, was also surprised by the win but saw the race narrow when Democrats struggled in Virginia, categorized before as a swing state but now a lean blue state. Although Harris lost the election, Stienecker hopes Americans will be inspired by the vice president’s strong campaign and goals.
“I’m hoping that people will come to see that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s platform was about helping them and was about lowering the burden for working class families,” Stienecker said. “And I hope that in four years or into the midterms, we’ll have a chance to take back the Senate or the House, if we lose the House, to put those policies in to help Americans.”
Republicans won the Senate majority prior to Trump being declared president-elect, flipping several seats against Democratic challengers and incumbents. House races are still ongoing, but Republicans held an early lead against Democrats.
Ben Sheyman, a senior majoring in political science and the social chair for USC College Republicans, saw the victory coming based on his Electoral College prediction and was only surprised by Trump winning in Michigan. Before Election Day, he felt the Democratic party focused on issues that were not relevant to voters.
“A lot of the media on the left really focused on issues that weren’t important to people,” Sheyman said. “They focused on that Puerto Rican joke, which turned out to not be a deciding factor at all in the election. They focused on issues that didn’t revolve around real people, [instead of] inflation, how taxes are going up, how it’s harder for people to make ends meet and I think that just proves how out of touch the media is.”
Harris conceded Wednesday afternoon in a speech outside her alma mater, Howard University. During her speech, she promised a peaceful transfer of power, a contrast from the January 6, 2021 insurrection after the 2020 election.
Hollihan predicts Trump will have more power than in his first term due to likely control in the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court. He also said the U.S. will lose influence overseas and will have more restrictions on reproductive rights, more anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, fewer climate change efforts and undocumented immigrants being deported en masse.
“Candidly, I think the U.S. failed to live up to its long-held moral values in this election. Trump is a twice-impeached convicted felon who has demonstrated his lack of respect for the Constitution and the rule of law,” Hollihan said. “We are in for a wild ride.”
Kamy Akhavan, executive director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, helped moderate the election watch party held at Wallis Annenberg Hall. Heading into Election Day, Akhavan said he expected a close race and that the election proceeded smoothly overall.
“Engagement was enormously high this election cycle,” Akhavan said. “The election itself was safe, secure and fast. In those regards, democracy won, and we should not lose sight of that. In terms of moving right or moving left, that is a harder judgment to make.”
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Donald Trump won seven swing states, including Nevada and Arizona. The election results in Nevada and Arizona remain uncalled. The article has been updated to reflect this correction.