Trump clinches a key victory in swing state Georgia

Caption

Supporters watch as Georgia is called for Donald Trump during an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center. / Getty Images

This story originally appeared as part of NPR's live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.

Former President Donald Trump has won Georgia and its 16 electoral votes, according to a race call by the Associated Press, striking a blow to Democrats’ chances in the Sun Belt and narrowly flipping a state where he faces criminal charges for trying to overturn his 2020 defeat.

More than four million votes were cast before Election Day, led by an initial surge of Republican voters in rural counties heeding Trump’s advice to “bank your vote” early.

Many Democratic voters who used mail-in voting during the pandemic in 2020 also shifted to early voting, with larger urban and suburban counties seeing an influx of voters in the final week of Georgia’s 18-day in-person voting period. But lower Election Day turnout in Democratic strongholds was not enough to overcome the GOP advantage.