Anticipating a Close Race, the Nation Watched Momentum Shift Toward Trump
The first signs came in the suburbs.It was not yet 9 p.m.Voters in key battleground states were still at the polls.
There was even a marching band regaling voters at a polling site in Bethlehem, Pa., that was packed with supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris.But in Loudon County, Va., the very sort of well-heeled and highly educated suburb that Ms.Harris hoped would lift her to victory over former President Donald J.
Trump, the early returns contained a flashing warning for Democrats: She just wasn’t winning by enough.For weeks, Americans had been told that the presidential race was a tossup, that Mr.Trump and Ms.
Harris were tied in all the battleground states — and that it might take days for clarity to emerge and a winner to be declared.But in the hours after the polls closed and the counting began, the momentum began to shift steadily in Mr.
Trump’s direction, leaving the country to either reckon with or celebrate the fact that the nation might be about to do this again.Mr.Trump had lost his bid for re-election four years ago to Joseph R.
Biden Jr., having been rejected by voters in the throes of a pandemic.Leaders in his own party turned on him — briefly — after his efforts to overturn that result culminated in an attack on the Capitol on Jan.
6, 2021.As the results trickled in on Tuesday, though, even Mr.Trump’s allies seemed shocked by the signs of his strength — and the improbable political comeback it appeared to foretell.Shortly before 10:30 p.m., the Fox News host Bret Baier was ready to proclaim Mr.
Trump “probably the biggest political phoenix from the ashes that we have ever seen in the history of politics.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Alread...