Donald Trump has won the presidential election. He overcame the polls, the expectations, and the faith-based belief of the political establishment that he couldn’t do it. As the results began to come in Tuesday night, as must-win states for Trump slid easily into his column, and as the Democrats’ “blue wall” of Great Lakes states began to crumble in the early hours of Wednesday, the truth became undeniable.
Florida was too close to call—until it was clear Hillary Clinton did not win enough votes in Democratic South Florida to overcome her deficit. North Carolina was too close to call—until it was obvious the lower black turnout in the early vote was a sign Clinton had a turnout problem there, as well. Democrats began sweating when Michigan, for which Barack Obama was declared the winner five minutes after the polls closed in 2012, remained too close to call for hours—until there was no other way to say it: Trump was going to win Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania as well. He was going to win the White House.
It wasn’t just Trump, of course. Tuesday’s election was a banner night for Republican candidates across the country. The GOP’s House majority was secured just a few hours after the first polls closed. Early Wednesday morning, the party’s Senate majority was secured, too. Republicans thought to be in real danger—Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Richard Burr in North Carolina, Roy Blunt in Missouri—would help keep control of the Senate in Mitch McConnell’s hands.
The victorious Republican party isn’t ideologically or temperamentally monolithic. Mike Coffman, a Spanish-speaking Colorado congressman who kept his distance from Trump throughout the year, won his more Democratically redrawn district. War veterans Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Brian Mast of Florida won their races, too. Marco Rubio, who won reelection to the Senate in Florida, was a sharp critic of Trump in the presidential primary and is one of the young leaders who offers an opposing view on foreign policy. Utah senator Mike Lee, who won an uncompetitive reelection race, never endorsed Trump and similarly articulated a different approach to politics as the GOP nominee.
But it’s worth restating who is the big winner of the 2016 election. Donald Trump has done something no Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988 has been able to accomplish: He’s won decisively in the Electoral College. It’s Trump’s party now. And, at the moment, it’s Trump’s presidency, too.
