Former President Donald Trump will return to the White House. Trump won the key states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, with a combined 29 electoral votes to clinch the 270 necessary to win the presidency. As of early this morning, Trump had 277 electoral votes total.
 
This morning, Donald Trump was up 71,681,676 to Kamala Harris’s 66,770,049 in the popular vote.
 
In Illinois, Donald Trump was trailing Kamala Harris by just 8 points. All votes are yet to be counted, of course, but that margin is less than half the 17-point margin he lost by in his last two presidential elections in the state. If Trump’s 45 percent holds up, that would be the best showing for a Republican presidential candidate in Illinois since 1988, when George H.W. Bush won the state with 51 percent. George W. Bush scored 44.5 percent 20 years ago. Trump is so far doing a few points better in the suburban collar counties than he did four years ago, and has, with votes yet to be counted, improved his percentage by 7 points in Chicago (currently winning one ward) and 5 points in suburban Cook County. Those margins will likely decrease as late-arriving vote by mail ballots are counted, but the Republicans put an emphasis on “bank the vote,” so the final numbers might not change much.