Donald Trump moved within reach of the White House on November 8 night,capturing crucial victories over Hillary Clinton in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, and a remarkable expose of strength in an unexpectedly tight race for the presidency.
Trump also battled for a breakthrough in the upper Midwest,a region that reliably backed Democrats in presidential elections for three decades. His victories left Clinton with a perilously narrow path and no margin for error in battleground states where votes were still being counted, the Associated Press reports.
As the race lurched past midnight, and neither candidate had cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. Trump stood at 244 to Clinton's 215.
The uncertainty sent Dow Jones futures and Asian markets tumbling,reflecting investor alarm over what a Trump presidency might mean for the economy and global trade.
As Clinton's team anxiously waited for results to roll in, the candidate tweeted to supporters, and "Whatever happens tonight,thank you for everything."
Clinton, a fixture in American politics for decades, and was hoping to become the first woman to serve as commander in chief. Her race against Trump,a celebrity businessman with no political experience, was among the nastiest in recent memory, and exposing and deepening the nation's economic and racial divides.
Exit polls underscored the deep divisions that have defined the 2016 contest. Women nationwide supported Clinton by a double-digit margin,while men were significantly more likely to back Trump. More than half of white voters backed the Republican, while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and two-thirds of Hispanics voted for the Democrat.
Source: tert.am