US election results: How did Donald Trump break the ‘blue wall’?
Al Jazeera
Here’s how Donald Trump managed to defeat Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Former President Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election has been helped in no small part by his winning of multiple so-called “blue wall” states that are traditional Democrat strongholds.
“It appears Trump has breached the blue wall, or at least enough of it, to win the presidency,” David Schultz, an author and political science professor at Minnesota’s Hamline University, told Al Jazeera.
As the Electoral College voting map gradually turned red after polls closed and votes were being counted, observers initially suspected the “red mirage” effect, which can be produced as more Republican voters (denoted by blue) tend to go to the polls in person and more Democrats (denoted by red) mail in their votes.
Once Trump crossed the line of 270 electoral votes, however, Democratic hopes of catching up to his lead in the early counting stage were dashed.
Historically, more mail-in ballots are sent by Democrats while more Republicans vote in person.
