President Donald Trump will be the winner of the Ohio presidential election.
CNN called Ohio for President Trump at 12:00 a.m. Eastern time.
“Eighteen electoral college votes — that’s a big, big, big win in the state of Ohio,” said CNN’s John King.
With 94 percent of the precincts reporting, Trump led Joe Biden in Ohio 53.4 percent to 45.1 percent, according to the Associated Press.
Trump had 3,005,975 votes to Joe Biden’s 2,534,751 votes at the time of publication.
Biden stayed afloat in Ohio in early network counts. Shortly after 8:00 p.m. EST, precincts rolled in from the state’s Democrat-heavy counties, showing the former vice president with a 55-43 lead with 42 percent of the estimated vote counted.
“No Republican has won the presidency in modern times without winning Ohio,” noted King at 8:10 p.m.
At 9:26 p.m., Biden had a 51-47 lead with 59 percent of the estimated vote counted. But by 10:00 p.m., Ohio began to shift Republican, giving Trump a 50-48 lead with 69 percent of the estimated vote counted.
“If you’re a Democrat at home, you’re looking at this map, and saying, ‘Oh my, it’s happening again,'” said King at 10:05 p.m. of the overall estimated votes counted.
At 11:00 p.m., King mentioned that Ohio will likely go to President Trump. “That’s his,” said King of the president, pointing to Ohio.
Supporters of Joe Biden became concerned a few hours before the polls closed in Ohio, as there appeared to be a lower turnout in Cleveland than in the rest of the county, according to a report by Cleveland.com.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections had reported 127,963 absentee or in-person votes cast in the city, which represented 51 percent of the registered voters in Cleveland, compared to a countywide turnout rate of 65 percent.
Candidate John F. Kennedy was the last president to win the White House without winning the state of Ohio. The year was 1960 when Kennedy lost Ohio to then-Vice President Richard Nixon.
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