President Trump has claimed victory in Georgia and North Carolina after his campaign declared him the winner of Pennsylvania ahead of any major media outlet.
Trump tweeted on Wednesday afternoon that, for “Electoral Vote purposes,” he was declaring victory in Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, citing the voting lead he currently holds in those states. He also said he would declare victory in Michigan if ballots were “secretly” dumped there.
“We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact, there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!” Trump tweeted.
…..there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
Moments before, CNN called the Michigan presidential race for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. CNN was the first major media company to project a winner for Michigan, giving the state’s 16 electoral votes to Biden. Biden’s total expected electoral vote count has moved up to 253 versus President Trump’s 213.
Trump is leading in Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania vote counts, though none of the states have been called for him. He is also making a comeback in Arizona, even though Fox News and the Associated Press have already called that race for Biden. Trump’s likely best shot at winning reelection necessitates that he hold on to his leads in Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania while flipping Arizona, which his campaign is confident that he can do. The Daily Wire’s Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro laid out the Trump campaign’s pathway to victory.
“So, here are the latest stats I’m hearing via the Trump campaign — and they’re sounding pretty confident that Trump has a serious shot at taking AZ and PA,” Shapiro began in tweet thread. “In AZ, Biden currently leads by approximately 93,500 votes. There were 605K votes cast on Election Day. Trump would need to pull 57.73% of those votes to win. Team Trump says they’re pulling 62% in Maricopa County, and 72-80% in other counties. They’re projecting a 30k-40k win.”
“In PA, Trump is up by approximately 454K votes. There are 1.12M votes outstanding; Biden needs 78% of those votes to win the state. 300K of those votes are in Philadelphia. Even if Biden wins 95% of those votes, he still needs to pull 70% of the other votes. That’s a heavy lift,” Shapiro said.
A Phoenix-based data firm has said that although Biden is leading in Arizona, it projects that Trump will eventually overtake the former vice president as outstanding ballots from Trump-friendly territory are counted.
As The Daily Wire reported:
Data Orbital, a data analytics and survey research firm based in Arizona’s capital, is predicting that a number of outstanding ballots across the state will give Trump the edge over Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Arizona’s 11 electoral votes may be the deciding factor for whichever candidate wins the election.
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“This breakdown is inline with what we are estimating and why we believe @realDonaldTrump will carry AZ. These ballots are heavily Republican and will break in his favor. We estimate about 500k outstanding ballots,” Data Orbital said on Twitter.