Politics and views in the United States.

Trump wins the White House. Republicans will take over the Senate after flipping several seats, and seem to be on track to hold the house. In spite of bomb threats and charges of fraud, a very high turnout election went largely smoothly.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

We're going to help our country heal.

We're going to help our country heal.

We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly.

We're going to fix our borders.

We're going to fix everything about our country.

We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that.

Former President Donald Trump will be returning to the White House.

After a late night with extremely close totals in the battleground states, Trump pulled ahead in Pennsylvania, assuring him of an electoral college victory.

Despite bomb threats traced to Russia and Trump charges of fraud in Philadelphia, voting seems to have gone smoothly.

Alexis Anderson-Reed, president of State Voices, says the day was calmer than expected.

Overwhelmingly, the questions that we've been getting and what we've been having to navigate are what we anticipated, and it has been peaceful.

Republicans took the Senate.

As expected, they flipped the West Virginia seat vacated by the retiring Joe Manchin.

Businessman Bernie Marino beat Ohio Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown.

Sarah Briner with OpenSecret says he had help from dark money and groups linked to the cryptocurrency industry.

I think so far this cycle, we have around $45 million spent supporting him and then an additional $33 million opposing Brown.

The GOP also seemed to be on track to hold the House.

Measures to require proof of citizenship passed in both North and South Carolina, along with Kentucky and Missouri.

Ten states voted on abortion-related ballot measures.

In Florida, a measure to rock back the state's six-week ban fell short, getting more than 50 percent, not the 60 percent it needed.

Victoria Geller, an anti-abortion voter who supported Trump, says she's ready to be patient with the count, but remains confident about what his re-election will bring.

He's going to come and he's going to make a deal like he does, and all that fighting is going to stop, and all our money is going to stay here in America and stop going over there.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza were on the minds of many voters.

Californian Lorraine McGurl, who usually votes Democratic, made a last-minute shift to Trump.

I have been very concerned about what I've been seeing in the Middle East, and I think based on that and a few other things within this country, I changed my vote from four years ago.

Republican David Haggard says Trump is not ideal, but he trusts Congress to uphold the party's values.

He voted by mail and says he's also confident about the electoral process.

I got a response back saying we received it, then I got another response saying it's been counted, and so that was pretty cool.

I voted for Trump.

The Republican ideal.

Not really the man.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials reports that over a million Latino voters between 18 and 29 have cast ballots.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.