Trump leads Hillary in tight races in battleground states

Donald J. Trump is holding on to razor-thin leads in several crucial battleground states, including Florida and North Carolina, giving the Republican nominee a path to victory if he can defeat Hillary Clinton in one of the Democratic strongholds that until recently seemed firmly in her grasp.

The vote margins separating Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton remain razor thin in the states that will determine the outcome of the presidential contest, with voters clearly demonstrating the polarized nature of the American electorate.

Campaign advisers to Mrs. Clinton watched nervously on Tuesday night as healthy leads that had been predicted in polling for much of the past several months appeared to evaporate while the votes were tallied. At 10 p.m., Mr. Trump was clinging to small leads in Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.

In Florida, Mr. Trump was leading among white voters, including those with a college degree, while Mrs. Clinton was buoyed by a rise in nonwhite voters. Roughly four in 10 Florida voters in Tuesday’s election were nonwhite, and they accounted for well over half of Mrs. Clinton’s backers there.

In a boost for Republicans in the state, Senator Marco Rubio, a onetime presidential hopeful, won re-election in a hard-fought contest that could help thwart Democratic hopes to take over the Senate.

In Virginia, where Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton had campaigned intensely, it remained too early to determine a winner as polls closed across the commonwealth. And in Georgia, a Southern state where Democrats had expressed hope for a surprise victory, the race also appeared too close to call shortly after balloting ended.

A race that was dominated by ugly, personal attacks appeared to have taken a toll on voters, and the country’s mood appeared darker and more pessimistic than it was four years ago, with about 60 percent of voters saying the country was seriously on the wrong track.

Voters said they were eager for change in Washington, though they expressed dismay that issues had been overlooked in the brutal, long and nasty campaign.

Source: The New York Times