WEST PALM BEACH, Florida—President-elect Donald Trump addressed jubilant supporters early Wednesday morning after networks projected the Republican nominee would defeat Vice President Kamala Harris, capping an hours-long election night celebration here that finished with a larger than expected victory after a grueling two-year quest for the White House.
“We have a great feeling of love in this very large room,” Trump said to a hall packed with a few thousand admirers (at least) inside the Palm Beach County Convention Center. “We’re going to make you very proud of your vote.”
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” the former and future president added, crediting his victory and the GOP takeover of the Senate to the “MAGA movement.”
Throughout Tuesday evening, Trump supporters giddy with anticipation had milled about the vast convention hall that doubled as the soon-to-be president-elect’s election night party headquarters. They cheered intermittently as Fox News, broadcasting on large flat screens, flashed the Republican nominee’s emerging lead over Harris in the seven crucial battleground states.
“Everything seems to be heading in the right direction,” The Dispatch overheard an excited partygoer telling a female acquaintance. “I don’t want to jinx us.”
Trump spent election night with VIP guests across town at Mar-a-Lago, his winter residence and private social club across town in Palm Beach, where he monitored voting returns that began flowing in beginning at 6 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, over at the convention center, the atmosphere was festive. Even before the first polls, attendees were sipping cocktails, lining up to take pictures in front of a large “Make America Great Again” banner, and socializing with friends. Some supporters staked out space in front of the dais where Trump would eventually speak.
And no matter where you turned, there were red “MAGA” hats. Men in suits wore them, women in heels and cocktail dresses wore them, old people wore them, and young people wore them. Some were emblazoned with “Make America Great Again,” others with “MAGA.”
As midnight approached and Trump’s return march to the White House began to look inevitable, the energy in the convention hall kicked it up a notch. He’d won North Carolina, a major contested battleground; ditto Georgia. His accumulating vote totals in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—Harris’ seeming only remaining path to 270 Electoral College votes—painted a bleak picture for the vice president. The Democratic nominee’s position was additionally problematic in Arizona and Nevada, further buoying a crowd that would soon be rewarded with a battleground sweep.
Trump was additionally pressing Harris in Virginia, considered a blue state for at least the past dozen years, although the vice president eventually won it. Still, there was a sense of “cautious optimism” among some Republican operatives who have experienced close elections—and mindful of how the contest unfolded four years ago, when Trump appeared to hold the advantage, only to see it slip away as more votes were tallied.
“We’ve been watching the early returns, we know that the thought that the day-of voting was being cannibalized is not true,” Hogan Gidley, former Trump White House spokesman, told The Dispatch. “So now we have a lot of low propensity voters who really haven’t participated since 2018, now all of a sudden engaging.”
“When you couple that with what we were able to accomplish on Election Day, which looks really good for us,” Gidley added, “it’s the recipe for a good night.”
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