President Donald Trump is projected to win Florida, a state that always seems to have implications in how the presidential election shakes out.
Decision Desk HQ and the New York Times have called Florida for Trump. The president had just a shade over 50% of the vote as compared to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s 48% with more than 95% of votes counted.
Putting Florida in the win column gives Trump 29 electoral votes. To win the presidential race, either candidate needs 270 electoral votes.
In a race complicated by the deadly coronavirus pandemic, both candidates campaigned heavily in the nation’s peninsular swing state, which many experts consider necessary to win the presidential race.
Trump, who narrowly won the state in 2016, even went so far as to make Florida his permanent domicile.
Democrats had maintained a lead in early and mail-in voting, but Republicans, as they have historically done, turned out in large numbers on Election Day. Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods about widespread voter fraud and the validity of mail-in ballots, even as the Republican Party encouraged its members to vote by mail.
As it stands, with Florida’s 29, Trump has won 174 electoral votes to Biden’s 223, per the Times. Decision Desk has Biden with 215 and Trump 210 electoral votes.
As election day neared, polls showed Biden maintained a lead, both in the Sunshine State and nationally. The outcome in Florida may harken back to the 2016 election when Trump won despite nearly all polls favoring Democrat Hillary Clinton.
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