This is an Epoch Times News Brief presidential election update. From the News Brief desk, I’m Bill Thomas and here’s what’s happening right now.
Most polling locations nationwide have already closed and the votes are being counted in all the battleground states.
So far, former President Donald Trump has won a number of southern states including Missouri, and he can now add Texas and its 40 electoral votes to his growing tally.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris has won New York, Colorado, and several of the New England states.
As we continue, results are coming in regarding a number of crucial senatorial races, and here’s what we know.
The Associated Press projects that in Delaware, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester will keep a U.S. Senate seat in Democrat control after she defeated Republican Eric Hansen in the race to succeed the state’s retiring Sen. Tom Carper.
Blunt Rochester is the first woman and the first black person to represent Delaware in the upper chamber. She’s been the state’s representative in the lower chamber for four terms.
Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Jim Banks is projected to beat Democrat Valerie McCracy in the race for the Senate seat left open by Sen. Mike Braun, who’s projected to win the Indiana gubernatorial race.
In New Jersey, Rep. Andy Kim is projected to beat Republican Curtis Bashaw for the Senate seat that was left open when Sen. Bob Menendez resigned after a jury convicted him of bribery.
And in Maryland, Prince George’s (County Executive) Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, has defeated former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan for that state’s open seat in the Senate.
Additionally, a number of incumbent senators in Tennessee, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Mississippi are all projected to win reelection.
However, in West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice has flipped a Senate seat to GOP control by picking up the seat of outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin, an independent who was formerly a Democrat.
By the way, Justice was a Democrat when he was elected back in 2016, but he later switched over to the GOP.
We move along now to Florida, where the issue of abortion was on the ballot, and the state’s voters just rejected a measure to guarantee the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution.
A 60 percent majority was required to adopt the measure, but with more than 90 percent of the vote in, 57 percent had voted in favor of the amendment.
The amendment sought to establish a right to abortion until fetal viability, which is the point at which a baby can survive outside the womb, or at any time if it was deemed necessary by a “health care provider” to protect a mother’s health.
Its adoption would have nullified the state’s six-week abortion law, which took effect earlier this year.
Once again, Vice President Kamala Harris has taken New York, former President Donald Trump has picked up Texas and its 40 electoral votes, and like you, we are closely monitoring this election, state by state, as the votes continue being counted.
This has been an Epoch Times News Brief presidential election update. I’m Bill Thomas and please stay with us for the remainder of the evening for continuous election coverage.
