A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds up a sign during his election night rally, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Election Day 2016 (all times EST): 
 
 2:29 a.m. 
 
 Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States. 
 
 The Republican nominee won Wednesday after capturing Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes, putting him over the 270 threshold. 
 
 Voters eager to shake up the nation's political establishment picked the celebrity businessman to become the nation's 45th president. 
 
 Trump rode an astonishing wave of support from voters seeking change and willing to accept a candidate loose with facts and accused of sexual misconduct. 
 
 He upset Democrat Hillary Clinton, who would have become the first woman to serve in the Oval Office. 
 
 Trump struck a populist tone and placed a hardline immigration stance at his campaign's heart. 
 
 Trump rose to political fame after questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States. He will now follow Obama into the White House. 
 
 ___ 
 
 2:22 a.m. 
 
 Donald Trump has arrived at his election night headquarters after winning the state of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Trump's motorcade traveled from nearby Trump Tower to the midtown hotel where thousands of his supporters and hundreds of reporters are gathered. 
 
 Trump is expected to address the crowd. 
 
 ___ 
 
 2:08 a.m. 
 
 Republicans have officially retained control of the U.S. Senate. 
 
 It comes as Missouri Republican Roy Blunt and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski won their two races in Tuesday's election. 
 
 Republicans have a 51-47 edge in the Senate. Two races remain outstanding: In Louisiana, the seat will head to a runoff election next month. And in New Hampshire, Democrat Maggie Hassan and Republican Kelly Ayotte are locked in a too-close-to-call race. 
 
 ___ 
 
 2:05 a.m. 
 
 Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman says it has nothing more to say even as votes turn against her. 
 
 John Podesta told a crowd in New York early Wednesday that with states still uncalled "we're not going to have anything else to say tonight." 
 
 Clinton trails in the Electoral College count and Donald Trump is close to breaking the 270-vote threshold to become president. 
 
 Podesta told the crowd Clinton "has done an amazing job" and "is not done yet." 
 
 ___ 
 
 1:56 a.m. 
 
 Hillary Clinton has won the statewide vote in Maine. 
 
 Clinton has won one of the state's congressional districts, giving her three electoral votes. Trump has won one district in the state and wins one electoral vote. 
 
 Trump also won the remaining congressional district in Nebraska, which gives him another electoral vote. 
 
 Clinton now has 218 electoral votes. Her Republican opponent has 266, just four shy of the threshold needed to be elected president. 
 
 ___ 
 
 1:36 a.m. 
 
 Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania and its prize of 20 electoral votes. 
 
 Trump's stunning victory in the key battleground state gives him 264 electoral votes. 
 
 It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, has 215. 
 
 Pennsylvania last voted for a Republican for president in 1988. Trump repeatedly campaigned there, believing his populist message would resonate with the state's working-class voters. 
 
 Clinton long viewed the state as a key part of her "firewall" and rallied in Philadelphia with President Barack Obama on Monday night. The Democrats also held their nominating convention in the city. 
 
 ___ 
 
 1:30 a.m. 
 
 House Speaker Paul Ryan has congratulated Donald Trump on "his big night." 
 
 A Ryan spokeswoman confirms that the Republican speaker called the Republican presidential nominee Tuesday evening. The spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, says they had "a very good conversation." 
 
 She says, "The speaker congratulated Trump on his big night and also spoke with his good friend Gov. Mike Pence." 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:42 a.m. 
 
 The mood is dark at Hillary Clinton's election night party. 
 
 Stony-faced supporters were crying and anxiously staring at the big screens showing election results. Some began leaving as the race wore on into the early hours of Wednesday morning. 
 
 Thousands had gathered at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City for Clinton's election night party. The glass-ceilinged building was picked as a nod to what aides expected would be the historic election of the first female U.S. president. 
 
 Clinton, her family and close aides have spent hours ensconced in a suite at the Peninsula New York, a luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan. 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:30 a.m. 
 
 Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is describing the mood inside Trump Tower as "buoyant." 
 
 She tells The Associated Press that the team is hopeful as results continue to roll in. 
 
 A Trump victory would represent a stunning upset against his rival Hillary Clinton. 
 
 Thousands of his supporters are gathered in a midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom watching the results on Fox. 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:25 a.m. 
 
 Former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens has won the Missouri governor's race, beating Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster. The contest offered voters a vivid choice between experience and a fresh start. 
 
 Greitens, a first-time Republican candidate, has touted himself as an outsider and pledged to tackle corruption in the state Capitol. Koster took the opposite approach, emphasizing that his nearly 22 years in elected office make him qualified to run state government. 
 
 Without a voting record, Greitens was running on his time as a Navy SEAL officer and founder of a charity for veterans, The Mission Continues. Greitens' lengthy resume also includes stints as a Rhodes scholar and White House fellow, champion boxer and martial artist, a best-selling author and motivational speaker. 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:23 a.m. 
 
 Republicans have clinched continued House control for the new Congress. They'll likely lose seats from their current historic high, but they won enough seats to extend their six-year streak of commanding the chamber. 
 
 With voting results still being counted early Wednesday, Republicans have won at least 218 House seats. That exceeds the number needed to control the chamber. 
 
 Democrats started the year hoping Donald Trump's divisive presidential candidacy would cost Republicans bushels of House seats. His impact on down-ballot candidates proved spotty. 
 
 Republicans now control 247 seats in the House. With a smaller GOP majority, dissident hard-right conservatives could have added leverage to press House Speaker Paul Ryan and other party leaders on the budget and other issues. 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:21 a.m. 
 
 Hillary Clinton has won Nevada and its six electoral votes. 
 
 Her victory there in the presidential election brings Clinton's Electoral College total to 215. Republican Donald Trump has 244 votes. 
 
 It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. 
 
 Clinton's win in Nevada is the first time since the 1940s that the Democrats have carried the state in three consecutive elections. 
 
 The winner of the U.S. presidential election has failed to carry Nevada only once since 1908. 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:05 a.m. 
 
 Democrat Jay Inslee has been re-elected governor of Washington, beating challenger Bill Bryant. 
 
 Inslee, a former congressman, touted his environmental record throughout the campaign. He said the state is requiring the biggest polluters to reduce emissions and is promoting alternative energy. 
 
 Bryant, a former Seattle Port commissioner, sharply criticized Inslee in the months leading up to the November election. He said Inslee had mismanaged state departments, especially the state's mental health system. He also said Inslee had failed to come up with a plan to fund K-12 education, as mandated by the state Supreme Court. 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:02 a.m. 
 
 Donald Trump has won the battleground state of Iowa. 
 
 He was awarded the state's six Electoral College votes early Wednesday. 
 
 Trump now has 244 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 209. 
 
 Iowa had voted for a Republican only once since 1984 but polls remained tight throughout the campaign. Trump proved popular with the state's sizable evangelical population while Clinton and her allies campaigned frequently in its college towns. 
 
 __ 
 
 11:53 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump has won Utah. 
 
 The Republican nominee was awarded its six electoral college votes. 
 
 He now has 238 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 209. 
 
 Utah is normally one of the safest states on the map for Republicans. But the presence of independent Evan McMullin changed the calculation this year as polls consistently reflected a tight three-way race. Trump also had struggled with Mormons, who are normally reliably Republican voters. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:44 p.m. 
 
 Kate Brown has been re-elected governor of Oregon over Republican newcomer Bud Pierce. 
 
 Brown became governor in February 2015 after the resignation of John Kitzhaber over an influence-peddling scandal. Brown was then secretary of state and next in line to succeed him. 
 
 Tuesday's gubernatorial vote was a special election to fill the remainder of Kitzhaber's four-year term. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:43 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump's victory in Ohio demonstrates the Republican nominee's ability to energize working-class voters outside of America's largest cities. 
 
 Mahoning County stands out as a working-class county where organized labor still maintains political clout. Trump didn't win the county that surrounds Youngstown. But he might as well have. 
 
 Hillary Clinton won by just 3 percentage points and less than 3,500 votes. Four years ago, President Barack Obama outpaced Mitt Romney by almost 25,000 votes on his way to a 28-point margin in the county. Clinton fell more than 20,000 votes shy of Obama's total. 
 
 Youngstown is represented in Congress by a Democrat who offers some of the same populist appeal to labor as Trump. But those loyalties to Rep. Tim Ryan apparently didn't transfer to Clinton. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:37 p.m. 
 
 Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott has won election as governor of Vermont. 
 
 He defeated Democrat Sue Minter. 
 
 The popular construction company executive and part-time race-car driver had served three two-year terms as Vermont's part-time lieutenant governor. He was previously in the state Senate. 
 
 Scott takes over in January from Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin, who decided not to seek a fourth two-year term. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:36 p.m. 
 
 The crowd at Donald Trump's election watch party is jubilant as returns continue to roll in putting him closer to 270 Electoral College votes. 
 
 Supporters packed into a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan are breaking into chants of "USA!" and embracing each other in groups. 
 
 Others are breaking into song, bellowing "God Bless America" at the top of their lungs. 
 
 The screens in the ballroom are turned to Fox News. When the station shows images of Clinton's election headquarters, the room breaks into boos and chants of one of Trump's slogans: "Drain the swamp!" 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:33 p.m. 
 
 Donald Trump has won Georgia. 
 
 The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its 16 electoral votes. 
 
 Trump now has 232 electoral votes while his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 209. 
 
 The Democrats had some hopes that changing demographics in Georgia could allow then to flip the reliably Republican state but their efforts fell short. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:29 p.m. 
 
 Hillary Clinton has won Washington state and its 12 electoral votes. 
 
 The victory in Tuesday's elections brings the former secretary of state's electoral vote total to 209. Republican Donald Trump has 216. 
 
 It takes 270 votes to win the presidency. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:15 p.m. 
 
 California voters passed a ballot measure to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, giving a big boost to the campaign to end the drug's national prohibition. 
 
 Adults older than 21 can legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow six plants. 
 
 California was one of five states where votes were considering the legalization of recreational marijuana Tuesday. Four other states were considering measures to legalize medicinal marijuana. 
 
 So far, voters in Florida and North Dakota have also passed marijuana measures Tuesday. 
 
 Collectively, it's the closest the U.S. has ever come to national referendum on marijuana. ||||| Early on the morning of Nov. 9, Republican President-elect Donald Trump addressed supporters in New York, declaring victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Here are key moments from that speech. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) 
 
 Early on the morning of Nov. 9, Republican President-elect Donald Trump addressed supporters in New York, declaring victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Here are key moments from that speech. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) 
 
 Donald Trump was elected the nation’s 45th president in the stunning culmination of a campaign that defied expectations and conventions at every turn and galvanized legions of aggrieved Americans in a loud repudiation of the status quo. 
 
 Hillary Clinton’s quest to make history as the first female president was thwarted by the Republican nominee’s breathtaking performance at the polls. He was carried to victory by voters fed up with the political system and mistrustful of Clinton, a former first lady, senator and secretary of state. 
 
 Trump, a 70-year-old celebrity businessman who had never before run for office, is poised to become the oldest president ever elected to a first term. 
 
 After running a divisive campaign, Trump sounded a magnanimous note of reconciliation as he claimed victory shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday. 
 
 [Live updates on the presidential race and other contests] 
 
 “Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country,” Trump said, minutes after Clinton called him to concede. “I mean that very sincerely. Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division. We have to get together. To all Republicans, Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.” 
 
 He had portrayed his opponent as the embodiment of a rigged system that had failed the everyday American. Her credentials through a quarter-century on the national stage, which in another electoral climate would have been an asset, pegged her in his supporters’ view as the ultimate establishment insider. 
 
 Trump said that under his administration, “America will no longer settle for anything less than the best.” And he promised foreign countries that “while we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone,” adding: “We will seek common ground, not hostility.” 
 
 The real estate developer thanked his wife, Melania, and his children for their patience, saying: “This was tough. This was tough. This political stuff is nasty and it’s tough.” 
 
 [How Donald Trump pulled off an upset of cataclysmic, historic proportions] 
 
 With Trump’s ascension to the White House, the nationalist wave that has swept capitals around the world — including in Britain, which voted to break from the European Union this year — came crashing onto U.S. shores. 
 
 The prospect of an impulsive authoritarian in the Oval Office rattled investors around the world. On Wall Street, all three major stock index futures sank more than 3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei index plunged 5.4 percent; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell by more than 2 percent. The Mexican peso — which had fallen when the Republican nominee rose in the polls during his campaign — nosedived to an eight-year low, according to Bloomberg. 
 
 1 of 46 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × What Election Night looks like View Photos Donald Trump, 70, will be the 45th president of the United States. The real-estate developer and former reality-TV star is the first person to win the presidency without having previously held public office or served in the U.S. military. Caption Donald Trump, 70, will be the 45th president of the United States. The real-estate developer and former reality-TV star is the first person to win the presidency without having previously held public office or served in the U.S. military. Nov. 9, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump addresses supporters at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 [Markets plunge worldwide as Trump surges to the White House] 
 
 Across Europe, major markets all pointed downward. 
 
 The general election, which riveted the nation and produced a record television audience for a presidential debate, turned on the question of national identity. While Clinton assembled a diverse coalition that she said reflected the nation’s future, it was no match for the powerful and impassioned movement built by fanning resentments over gender, race and religion. 
 
 Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” inspired millions of Americans alienated by the forces of globalization and multiculturalism and deeply frustrated with the inability of Washington to address their needs. 
 
 Voters anxious about the economy, convinced that the system was stacked against them, fearful of terrorism and angry about the rising gap between rich and poor, gravitated toward Trump. In him, they saw a fearless champion who would re-create what they recalled as an America unchallenged in the world, unthreatened at home and unfettered by the elitist forces of “political correctness.” 
 
 “It’s a movement comprised of Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs who want and expect our government to serve the people, and serve the people it will,” Trump said in his victory speech. 
 
 He vowed: “Every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.” 
 
 The presumption held by both campaigns, right up to the hours when polls began closing, was that Trump had a far narrower path to victory than Clinton. But he capitalized on nearly every opportunity across the electoral map. 
 
 One by one on Tuesday night, electoral prizes that for hours had been too close to call deep into the night fell into Trump’s win column. First, Florida and Ohio. Then North Carolina. And then Pennsylvania and, at 2:30 a.m., Wisconsin. 
 
 A few minutes after 2 a.m., Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, told stunned supporters who had gathered in anticipation of celebrating her victory to go home because there would be no further statement as outstanding votes were counted. “We can wait a little longer, can’t we?” Podesta said. 
 
 Clinton claimed Colorado and Virginia as she thought she would, but she underperformed expectations in the traditionally Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states where Trump campaigned aggressively in the final weeks. 
 
 Clinton had so taken for granted a region thought of as her “blue wall” that she did not hold a single event in Wisconsin during the general-election camapign. 
 
 Control of Congress was on the line as well, with Republicans poised to maintain their majority in the House and a string of hotly competitive Senate contests going their way as well. 
 
 [Republicans keep control of Congress after decisive Senate wins] 
 
 Trump’s feuds with Republican leaders created deep fissures in his party, and his victory has set the GOP on a new path. Whether he can achieve any of his grandiose ideas could hinge on his relationship with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who had all but abandoned Trump in the campaign’s final weeks. In an early sign of detente, Ryan’s office let it be known that the speaker had placed a congratulatory call to Trump. 
 
 President Obama campaigned vigorously for his former secretary of state — going so far as to label her opponent temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief — but his resurgent popularity did not rub off on his legatee. 
 
 Trump had pledged to dismantle Obama’s achievements, starting with his signature law, the Affordable Care Act that became known as Obamacare. He also will be in position to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court. 
 
 A Trump presidency is certain to produce significant geopolitical repercussions. He has promised to transform U.S. foreign policy and take it in a more unilateralist direction. 
 
 He also has promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico and deport immigrants who are in this country illegally. Trump said he would “bomb the s---” out of the Islamic State and says he has a secret plan to annihilate the terrorist organization. He has also expressed admiration for strongmen such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has promised to forge a closer relationship based on mutual respect. 
 
 Never one to let go of a grudge, Trump has vowed to send Clinton to prison. At his victory party early Wednesday, his supporters chanted, “Lock her up!” 
 
 Trump, a flashy real estate developer who extended his brand with reality television, would be the first person to become president without having previously held elected office or served in the U.S. military. Trump’s vice president will be Michael Pence, 57, the governor of Indiana and previously a longtime member of the House. 
 
 Until polls closed on Tuesday, confidence in the Clinton campaign had been high that she would topple a barrier that has stood for nearly a century after women in the United States got the right to vote and be elected president. For her election-night party, she chose a utilitarian convention center in midtown Manhattan notable for one architectural feature: a glass ceiling. 
 
 [A traumatic campaign produces a shocking ending, with Trump victorious] 
 
 But Clinton’s historic quest hit head winds early in the evening as key states she had expected to carry easily, such as Virginia, remained in doubt. Though she prevailed there, the contest proved significantly closer than the pre-election polls would have indicated. 
 
 Inside the Javits Center, the jovial atmosphere quickly grew dark as the night wore on. Senior Clinton aides, who had been circulating among the press risers, had long since disappeared and stopped answering their phones. The only Clinton staff in evidence as the 11 o’clock hour approached were fairly junior aides, looking nervous and uncertain. By midnight, supporters were streaming out the exits. Many of those who remained were in tears. 
 
 “I’m actually speechless right now,” said a dejected Julia Beatty, 38, who left the Javits Center with her Clinton sticker peeling off her leather jacket. “I just want to make it safely uptown so I can sob into a glass of wine.” 
 
 Clinton faced the additional burden of running for what would be the third consecutive term for one party in the White House — something that has happened only once since the middle of the 20th century. 
 
 After nearly a quarter-century in the nation’s consciousness, Clinton had become a walking paradox, a Rorschach test of what defines character and values. Trump nicknamed her “Crooked Hillary.” And for more than a year, she was hobbled by her use of a personal email server as secretary of state, which flouted protocol and became the subject of an FBI investigation. 
 
 FBI Director James B. Comey roiled the campaign 11 days before the election by announcing that a fresh trove of emails had been discovered on the computer of Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s estranged husband, former New York congressman Anthony Weiner. On Sunday, Comey said the investigation found no cause for the FBI to reverse its earlier decision against an indictment. Still, the developments took Clinton off her stride in the home stretch and contributed to a tightening of the polls. 
 
 Clinton got an early warning of trouble ahead, even before the general election. To win the Democratic nomination that had once been presumed to be a coronation, she had to fend off an unexpectedly potent primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), a self-identified democratic socialist who sparred with her until the final primaries in June. 
 
 Trump proved resilient against an onslaught of negative advertising from Clinton’s campaign and her allied super PAC, Priorities USA, which portrayed him as racist, misogynist and unhinged. Nearly a quarter-billion dollars was spent on ads supporting Clinton, while just $153 million went into spots backing Trump. 
 
 [Considering what America’s choice of Donald Trump really means] 
 
 Clinton’s sprawling and supposedly superior data-driven organization — which mobilized a broad coalition of Latino, African American, women and young voters — did not deliver the knockout blows it had hoped in critical contests. It appeared that Trump was following through on his promise to remake the political map by igniting a populist rage across among working-class whites in huge swaths of the country. 
 
 A razor-thin margin in Florida, which had decided the 2000 presidential election, was a microcosm of the story in many contested states. Clinton and her allies had helped spur record turnout among Democrats and Latino voters in early voting, but Trump rapidly made up ground on Tuesday with record turnout in exurban communities and GOP-leaning counties. 
 
 Meanwhile, Trump’s unexpectedly strong performance rippled down the ballot. His army of supporters helped power several endangered Republican senators to reelection, including Marco Rubio in Florida, Rob Portman in Ohio and Richard Burr in North Carolina. And in Indiana, Republican Todd Young defeated former Democratic senator Evan Bayh in a closely watched race for an open seat. 
 
 Rarely in modern electoral history had the two parties offered such a stark choice for voters at the top of the ballot. Trump and Clinton also registered the highest and second-highest personal negative ratings, respectively, of any two major-party nominees in the history of polling. 
 
 Initially dismissed by the GOP elders and the mainstream media as a mere showman, Trump vanquished a highly credentialed field of 16 other contenders — including governors and senators — in the nominating contest. 
 
 Indeed, the last Republican president, George W. Bush, and the party’s last nominee, Mitt Romney, refused to support Trump. When they voted Tuesday, Bush and his wife, Laura, did not select either Trump or Clinton, according to their spokesman. 
 
 Trump resisted building a traditional national political infrastructure, shunning the kind of data analytics that have become the norm in campaigns in favor for mega rallies and an omnipresence on cable news. 
 
 It fell to the Republican National Committee to pull together a ground-level operation on Trump’s behalf, which it did by following an example that Obama had set in 2008 and 2012. The party built a field operation that refocused on voter contact and early balloting. 
 
 In New Hampshire alone, party officials said, GOP volunteers and organizers had knocked on 1.5 million doors by the weekend before the election — three times as many as Romney’s campaign had in 2012. 
 
 Trump’s unorthodox campaign also severed the Republican Party from its philosophical roots. His populist stance against free trade diverged with the GOP’s long-held position, while his harsh rhetoric on illegal immigration flew in the face of the strategy party leaders presented in the wake of Romney’s defeat, of championing immigration reform as a means of broadening the GOP’s appeal to Latino voters. 
 
 Clinton, meanwhile, focused on building a diverse coalition that rejected Trump’s brand of divisiveness. Hers was a call for inclusion and tolerance — and for a recognition of how far the country has progressed beyond its founding as a society where power was vested almost exclusively in white men. 
 
 Ironically, it was not the first female major-party nominee who brought discussions of sexism and misogyny to the forefront of debate this year, but her opponent. 
 
 Trump unapologetically made frequent boorish references to the physical appearance and intelligence of women. A leaked video from 2005 revealed him bragging of groping and kissing women without permission. 
 
 Subsequently, more than a dozen women came forward to accuse Trump of various incidents of sexual assault, all of which he denied. It set off a national conversation, involving not just women, but their husbands and sons and brothers. 
 
 Having lived much of his adult life within range of a microphone, Trump provided decades of fodder for his critics. And once he rode a Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy in June 2015, he said things, again and again, that would have been disqualifying had a more conventional politician said them. 
 
 He characterized Mexicans who immigrated illegally as rapists and murderers, mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, insulted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for his time as a prisoner of war, suggested that a female debate moderator had been tough on him because she was having her menstrual period, and tangled with the Muslim parents of a U.S. soldier who was killed in the Iraq War. 
 
 With her singular credentials and experience, Clinton set out to forge a path to the nation’s highest office that no one had ever walked. At the same time, her public choices and personal ordeals became the emblem of a generation of striving women who had come of age with a feminist movement that promised they could “have it all.” 
 
 Clinton struggled throughout the campaign to articulate a simple, pithy reason for running. Her strategists considered 85 possibilities for a general election campaign slogan before settling on “Stronger Together,” according to an email stolen from campaign chairman John Podesta and published by WikiLeaks. 
 
 None of those matched the simple power of Trump’s pledge to “Make America Great Again.” 
 
 Gearan reported from New York. Abby Phillip in New York and Robert Costa, David A. Fahrenthold and Matea Gold and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 How Donald Trump broke the old rules of politics — and won the White House 
 
 The crowd yelled ‘Lock her up!’ Then Trump thanked Clinton for ‘service to our country.’ 
 
 They were sure Trump would be the next president
– The AP declared Donald Trump the next president of the United States in the early morning hours Wednesday, and Hillary Clinton called him to concede. That concession came soon after aide John Podesta said not to expect one because some states remained too close to call. In fact, NBC News held off calling the race for some time over uncertainty about Pennsylvania, but it eventually put the state in the Trump column and declared him the overall winner with a still-incomplete electoral tally of 278-218. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and others also called it for Trump. The only states still not decided are Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. The others: Trump: Alaska Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia Idaho Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Clinton: California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Hawaii Illinois Maine Maryland Massachusetts Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York Oregon Rhode Island Vermont Virginia Washington Washington, DC