U.S Election Latest Update, As Biden Told Supporters to ''Keep the faith''

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the presidential campaign (all times local):
12:51 a.m.
Joe Biden is asking his supporters to “keep the faith” as the counting goes on in the drawn-out U.S. presidential election.
The Democratic presidential candidate emerged Wednesday after midnight to speak on the election results that have left the outcome in the balance. He spent the evening watching the returns come in from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, then drove downtown by motorcade to make his statement outside the Chase Center.
He told a gathering of supporters that his hopes for victory remain high despite the uncertainty and cautioned them that it could take a day or longer to know who won.
He told them: “Your patience is commendable.”
Hours after the polls have closed across America, however, the result is up in the air.
A number of key states still have hundreds of thousands of ballots outstanding, after a large influx of mail ballots have slowed down the count in states across the nation.
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON:
12:35 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won Florida and its 29 electoral votes, the biggest prize among the perennial battlegrounds and a state crucial to his reelection hopes.
A victory in Florida means reelection is within Trump’s grasp. A loss in the state would have made it nearly impossible for Trump to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to retain the White House.
Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign had hoped the devastating toll of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly among older adults, would put him in a strong position in a state popular with retirees.
Trump moved his official residence to his Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago from New York last year.
Trump narrowly beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016.
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12:25 a.m.
Democrat Joe Biden will speak shortly on the election results, as many of his key states remain too close to call.
The Biden campaign gathered the press pool that covers him in Wilmington, Delaware, for an early Wednesday morning statement but offered no further guidance.
Biden has spent the night watching the returns come in from his home, while reporters waited near the Chase Center in downtown Wilmington for potential remarks.
Biden began his day early Tuesday with a handful of campaign stops across the all-important state of Pennsylvania as voters went to the polls.
Hours after the polls have closed across America, however, the result of the presidential election remains unclear. A number of key states still have hundreds of thousands of ballots outstanding, after a large influx of mail ballots have slowed down the count in states across the nation.
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12:21 a.m.
President Donald Trump has won Iowa and Montana.
The Republican nominee on Wednesday was awarded six electoral votes from Iowa and three electoral votes from Montana.
Trump won Iowa by more than 9 percentage points four years ago against Democrat Hillary Clinton, but his support eroded significantly over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the overall direction of the country.
Trump rallied in Iowa in the final stretch of the campaign, going so far as to announce he would be awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Iowa wrestling legend Dan Gable. In an appeal to the state’s farmers, he told them he was responsible for $28 billion in aid designed to help offset damage stemming from his trade war with China.
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12:19 a.m.
President Donald Trump has won Ohio and its 18 electoral votes, holding on to a battleground state where the race against Democrat Joe Biden had tightened in recent months.
The Republican nominee comfortably carried the Midwestern state four years ago, but polls heading into the final weeks showed Biden well within range, forcing the president to spend more time in the state than anyone expected.
In 2016, Trump saw notable support from blue-collar manufacturing and mining communities disenchanted with his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, and buoyed by the Republican’s promise to bring back jobs to their hard-hit communities.
Biden saw the gap as overly daunting early on but seized an opening in the closing months amid Trump’s softening support among college-educated suburban women. The campaign responded with a summer ad blitz and string of in-person campaign appearances.
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12:13 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has carried Minnesota, turning back a strong push by President Donald Trump and holding on to a state narrowly won by Democrat Hillary Clinton four years ago.
Biden was awarded the state’s 10 electoral votes on Tuesday.
Biden made up for his campaign getting a late start in Minnesota compared with Trump, who held several campaign rallies in the state this election cycle. The former vice president took advantage of anti-Trump sentiment and organizing efforts by the state’s Democrats, who stressed COVID-19 and health care issues.
Trump came within 1.5 percentage points of carrying Minnesota in 2016 and made winning the state this time a personal priority. Republicans invested time and money in building a field organization to boost GOP turnout, focusing on conservative rural Minnesota and suburban areas that were once mostly Republican but have become swing territory.
The last Republican presidential candidate to capture the state was Richard Nixon in 1972.
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12:06 a.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has won the state of Hawaii.
He was awarded its four electoral votes on Tuesday.
Hawaii is a reliably Democratic state and last went for a Republican presidential candidate in 1984, when it was won by Ronald Reagan.
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11:15 p.m.
Several hundred people have gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza, just one block from the White House, holding signs and chanting about democracy.
It was a generally festive atmosphere Tuesday night as election results came in, with a few scuffles along the edges.
There were fears of widespread unrest connected to the election, and authorities around the country were on alert in their communities.
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11:08 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won the state of Utah.
The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its six electoral votes.
Utah hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
Trump won Utah in 2016, but independent candidate Evan McMullin had a strong showing in the state owing to widespread distaste of both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. McMullin captured more than 20% of the vote.
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11 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has won California, Oregon and Washington state, while President Donald Trump has won Idaho.
California, Oregon and Washington are all liberal states, while Idaho is conservative.
California has 55 electoral votes, the biggest haul of any state. It’s also the home of Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris. She served as the San Francisco district attorney and the state’s attorney general before winning election to the Senate in 2016.
Biden nets 74 electoral votes for the three Western states, while Trump takes four electoral votes from Idaho.
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10:54 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has won New Hampshire and its four electoral votes, holding on to a state that President Donald Trump only narrowly lost in 2016.
The state was considered a 2020 battleground despite not going for a Republican presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2000.
Four years ago, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the small state over Trump by roughly 2,700 votes. That’s less than 1% of the 732,000 ballots cast, and it was the second-closest margin of victory in the country.
Biden didn’t fare as well in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation Democratic primary in February. He finished a dismal fifth, behind Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. But his candidacy took off after a commanding win later that month in the South Carolina primary, leading to the exits of several of his competitors.
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10:31 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won the state of Missouri.
The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its 10 electoral votes.
In 2016, Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state by 18 percentage points.
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10:15 p.m.
Republicans and President Donald Trump’s campaign got no quick decision from the Nevada Supreme Court on an appeal aimed at stopping the count of mail-in ballots in the Las Vegas area.
The state high court did not stop election night counting, calling instead for written filings to be completed Monday, Nov. 9, in a case that could affect the vote tally in Clark County, a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise red GOP state.
Trump campaign officials say they want transparency.
State Democrats say Republicans are trying to undermine the election.
Nevada is a presidential battleground state with six electoral votes at stake. Democrat Hillary Clinton won the state in 2016.
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9:59 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won the state of Kansas.
The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its six electoral votes.
In 2016, Trump coasted to victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 20 percentage points in the state.
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9:37 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has won the state of Colorado.
He was awarded its nine electoral votes on Tuesday.
The state, which went for Democrat Hillary Clinton four years ago, has trended sharply to the left since President Donald Trump’s 2016 election.
The state also has a competitive Senate race between Republican incumbent Cory Gardner and the state’s former governor John Hickenlooper. Gardner is considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable senators.
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9:27 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has won the District of Columbia.
He was awarded its three electoral votes on Tuesday.
District voters have been allowed to cast presidential ballots since 1964 and have always voted overwhelmingly Democratic. Hillary Clinton’s win in the District over Republican Donald Trump in 2016 was the widest margin ever.
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9 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won Louisiana, Nebraska, Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, while Democrat Joe Biden has won New Mexico and New York.
Nebraska, one of two states that divides its electoral votes, has five total electoral votes up for grabs. Trump won the statewide vote, which is good for two electoral votes. He also won the 3rd Congressional District, which nets him a third vote.
Nebraska’s 1st and 2nd congressional districts haven’t yet been called.
Trump nets 20 electoral votes from his wins in Louisiana, Nebraska, Nebraska’s 3rd, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, while Biden takes 34 electoral votes for winning New Mexico and New York.
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8:52 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won the state of Indiana.
The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its 11 electoral votes.
Indiana is the home state of Trump’s running mate, Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump won Indiana by 19 percentage points in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
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8:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won the state of Arkansas.
The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its six electoral votes.
Arkansas is a reliably Republican state that hasn’t gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1996.
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8:20 p.m.
A judge in Nevada has ordered 30 Las Vegas-area voting sites to remain open for an extra hour after President Donald Trump’s campaign and Nevada Republicans cited reports that some locations did not open on time.
Clark County District Court Judge Joe Hardy Jr. in Las Vegas heard immediate arguments in an Election Day lawsuit filed to extend voting times to 8 p.m. for 22 specified sites, which had been scheduled to close at 7 p.m.
Hardy added eight additional sites at the request of attorneys for Democrats.
Clark County has 125 voting centers in and around Las Vegas. The judge ordered that anyone in line at the 30 sites at 8 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.
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8 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee, while Democrat Joe Biden has won Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
The results were not a surprise. Biden is very strong in the states that went for him, just as Trump is strong in the states he won.
Trump takes 33 electoral votes for winning those four states, while Biden adds 69 electoral votes to his total for winning seven states.
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7:56 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won the state of South Carolina.
The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its nine electoral votes.
Trump handily won the state in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton. South Carolina hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Joe Biden’s victory in the South Carolina primary in February started a wave of wins that helped cement his status as Democrats’ presidential nominee. South Carolina Republicans didn’t hold a primary, an early sign of their support for Trump’s reelection.
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7:36 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has won the state of Virginia.
He was awarded its 13 electoral votes on Tuesday.
Democrat Hillary Clinton won Virginia over Republican Donald Trump in 2016, helped in part by her choice of running mate: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
Virginia has grown increasingly liberal over the last four years, and as a result of the 2019 elections, Democrats now control every branch of government in the state.
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7:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump has coasted to victory in West Virginia, taking its five electoral votes.
The Republican nominee defeated Democrat Joe Biden on Tuesday in a reliably conservative state.
The last Democrat to win a presidential race in West Virginia was Bill Clinton in 1996.
Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia four years ago by 42 percentage points, one of his highest margins of victory in the nation. Many in the state credit him for his conservative populism and promises to help the declining coal industry, even as few expected he could bring back jobs in a dying field.
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7:20 p.m.
The Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans are asking a state court judge to extend voting by one hour at 22 Las Vegas-area locations, citing reports that those sites did not open on time Tuesday morning.
An Election Day lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court was getting an immediate hearing before Judge Joe Hardy.
Polls are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Pacific time, but election officials keep sites open until the last person in line at that time can vote.
Clark County has 1,150 precincts bunched into 125 voting centers in and around Las Vegas.
The lawsuit filed against Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria points to a Twitter message posted by the Nevada Secretary of State elections division at 7:22 a.m. referring to several polling locations having technical problems that delayed opening.
The message urged people in line to be patient, saying the sites would open soon.
The Trump campaign and Nevada GOP have been involved in several legal fights in Nevada, including an appeal on Tuesday to the Nevada Supreme Court, seeking to stop the mail-in ballot count in Democratic-leaning Las Vegas.
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7 p.m.
President Donald Trump has won Kentucky, and Democrat Joe Biden has carried Vermont.
They are the first two states called in the 2020 presidential election.
Kentucky is reliably conservative, while Vermont is considered one of the most liberal states.
Trump wins eight electoral votes from Kentucky, while Biden takes three for winning Vermont.
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6:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump called into talk radio shows in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin just hours before polls closed.
Trump projected confidence Tuesday that he will win key states like North Carolina and Florida and said he’s expecting a “great” evening.
He was set to call into conservative host Mark Levin’s show minutes after the first two interviews, but Levin abruptly said Trump would not be appearing. Levin said he was told the president couldn’t come on the show but gave no further details.
Trump told Wisconsin host Vicki McKenna that he is expecting a strong night based on lines of people waiting to vote. Trump has sown doubts about mail voting, without evidence, and is expecting most of his supporters to turn out on Election Day.
At the same time, his campaign was hosting a call with reporters in which they projected confidence but predicted a tight race that would come down to turnout.
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6:25 p.m.
In North Carolina, an armed man loitering at a polling site on Election Day has been arrested and charged with trespassing.
Thirty-six-year-old Justin Dunn was legally carrying a firearm but loitered at the Charlotte site after voting Tuesday morning, which prompted a precinct official to call police over fears of voter intimidation. A precinct official accompanied by a police officer asked him to leave the site and banned him from the location.
Police say Dunn left the precinct but returned about two hours later. He was taken into custody and charged with second-degree trespassing.
Publicly listed numbers for Dunn were disconnected when a reporter tried to reach him Tuesday.