The Associated Press has officially called Florida for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
BREAKING: Trump wins Florida. @AP race call at 10:50 p.m. EST. #Election2016 #APracecall pic.twitter.com/bzh1foNMlO
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 9, 2016
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The state, considered crucial in every presidential election and infamously at the heart of the bitterly contested 2000 race between George W. Bush and Al Gore, gives Trump an additional 29 electoral votes on his march to the magic number of 270. It’s been an extremely close nail-biter all night, but now that it’s firmly in the GOP column, Hillary Clinton and her team are definitely sweating bullets now…and they were already put on notice by Trump’s strong showing.
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The Washington Post reports:
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That victory gave a boost to Trump’s presidential hopes, which looked doubtful at the start of Tuesday evening – but have risen sharply, on the strength of over-performances in a series of battleground states he was favored to lose. Besides Florida, Trump has been projected as the winner in Ohio, and he is leading in a series of other swing states.
Florida also sent Trump’s former GOP primary rival Marco Rubio back to the Senate tonight, where he’s likely to join a continuing Republican majority in January.
The race remains close, with the New York Times putting the Electoral College tally at 172 for Trump and 168 for Clinton. It ain’t over ’till it’s over.
