Trump takes Florida, Iowa, and Ohio and holds small leads in key states

President Donald Trump reprised his 2016 wins in three key battleground states early Wednesday. The president led by more than 8 percentage points in Ohio and Iowa, and he held a nearly 4 point edge in Florida. Republican candidates usually must win those states to have a chance at the presidency.

What does this mean for Biden? The Democratic candidate has a viable path to victory, but he likely needs to win two of three major Rust Belt states—Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—to get to the winning number of 270 Electoral College votes. Officials in those three states said they would not finish counting votes until later Wednesday at the earliest. A lot of those votes are mail-in ballots, which have been trending toward Biden. The remaining East Coast swing states of Georgia and North Carolina also remained uncalled. In the wee hours of Wednesday, Biden told supporters his campaign was on track to win the election. Later, Trump spoke to supporters, claiming victory in North Carolina and Georgia and pledging to take any disputed results to the Supreme Court.

Dig deeper: See up-to-the-minute results at WORLD’s Election Center.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.