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. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US election: Relive the wild ride in 170 seconds 
 
 Some of the wisest words I have heard during this campaign came from the Governor of Ohio and Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich. 
 
 During a campaign stop at a brewery in Michigan, he explained how he had implored young aides, during a picturesque swing through the upper peninsula of the Great Lake State, to avert their eyes from their smartphones and to take in the scenery passing by unnoticed outside. 
 
 Though sometimes it meant coming late to the newest Trump Twitter storm or reading the freshest batch of Clinton campaign emails a few minutes after Wikileaks released them - an eternity in this age of hurtling news cycles - I have tried to heed his advice. 
 
 For the landscape of America is not just a wonder to behold, but always provided clues to this election. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption John Kasich had some words of advice that Nick Bryant took to heart 
 
 The post-industrial wastelands of the rustbelt, with their skeletal remains and carcass-like old steel mills, are hardly a new feature of the topography in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. But to view them again was to look at the seedbeds of Trumpism - rubble-strewn but seedbeds nonetheless. 
 
 In New Hampshire, especially when we visited some of the state's pretty university campuses, it was impossible not to notice the Bernie Sanders signs dotting the snow-covered lawns and verges. In Florida, ahead of Super Tuesday, it was the absence of Marco Rubio placards and the proliferation of Make America Great Again signage that pointed towards a Trump victory. 
 
 US election: The essentials 
 
 More recently in the suburbs of Philadelphia, the home to many soccer moms, security moms and Starbucks moms, demographics that often have the decisive say in presidential elections, it was the surfeit of Clinton/Kaine markers. 
 
 Had we not been looking outside the window as we drove away from Pittsburgh airport one morning, we would have failed to notice the signpost to Clinton, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Down that road, greeting drivers as they entered, was a mammoth Trump/Pence billboard, which stood in towering defiance of the name of this small hamlet, and conveyed the message that Clinton was Trump country. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US Election: Voters in Pennsylvania sound off 
 
 Just this past weekend, had our eyes been trained on our smartphones as we drove through the steel town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, we wouldn't have seen the long queue stretching around the block. 
 
 Knowing that these people could not be queuing to cast their ballots, since Pennsylvania doesn't have early voting, we stopped to see what was happening. We found out they were waiting in the damp cold for food handouts. 
 
 Many of these working people, inevitably, were supporting Donald Trump, even though none of them could ever afford to stay at one of his hotels or play a round at one of his golf courses. 
 
 Indeed, the rule of thumb in this election, in non-urban settings especially, was the more impoverished the landscape, the more likely its inhabitants were to support the billionaire. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 Yet this election hasn't only provided a lesson in geography, physical and political. Teachable moments have come in all manner of forms. We've had to study again the fast-changing demographics of the American electorate. 
 
 For years we've been talking about the mounting importance of the Hispanic vote, and it is clear already from early voting that this sleeping giant has awoken. In Florida, the Clinton campaign estimates it has increased by 139% over four years ago. 
 
 The multi-ethnic make-up of this nation of immigrants could end up being decisive. Indeed, just as a sign hung in the Clinton campaign headquarters in 1992 declaring "It's the economy, stupid," this year it could easily read "It's the demographics, stupid." 
 
 Because it is weighted so heavily in the Democrats' favour at present, the Electoral College, the state-based mechanism by which Americans elect their presidents, is also key. 
 
 This is primarily because many of the most populous states, like California, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania, are reliably Democratic. They form part of the famed "blue wall" - 18 states, plus the District of Columbia - that have voted Democrat in the past six elections. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Election 2016: The race for battleground states 
 
 If recent history repeats itself, those states alone would give Hillary Clinton 242 Electoral College votes. If she won Florida, and its 29 electoral votes, she would bust through the 270 mark needed to win. 
 
 Understanding Electoral College mathematics is essential for any campaign reporter, but I wonder how many correspondents have, like me, checked the rules in Nebraska and Maine, the only states that are not winner-takes-all. Another teachable moment. 
 
 There have been others. Since most of us modern-day journalists like to try our hands at psychiatric portraiture, I have tried to learn more about narcissistic personality disorder. 
 
 Many commentators from both sides believe having a basic grasp of the condition was important in making sense of the behaviour of Donald Trump. It also came in handy when the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner made an unexpected cameo at the end. 
 
 On the psychiatric front, I've also learned more about co-dependency or relationship addiction. Defined as "an emotional and behavioural condition that affects an individual's ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship," it neatly described the media's relationship with Donald Trump. 
 
 Covering Hillary Clinton raised the fascinating question of what feminism means for millennial women, many of whom have been singularly unenthused by the prospect of a first female president. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 And as with Trump, her personality is endlessly intriguing. Why, for instance, does she struggle to convey the warmth and spontaneity in public that many of us have witnessed in private? Trump, too, can ooze charm when you meet him one-on-one. 
 
 Because of the criminalisation of American politics, and, more specifically, the FBI's investigations into Hillary Clinton's private email server, we've all had to brush up on our jurisprudence. If this election turns out to be disputed, maybe we will have to become quickly versed again in US constitutional law, as in 2000, although one can only hope that this year's contest will be decided by voters rather than jurists dressed in black robes. 
 
 Because of the "celebritisation" of American politics, the blurring of the lines between pop culture and political culture, we've all had to try at least to keep pace with the zeitgeist. 
 
 Katy Perry (Roar), Pharrell Williams (Happy) and Rachel Platten (Fight Song) have provided much of the soundtrack, but I confess that the most memorable musical moment of the campaign came for me when Donald Trump entered on the night of the Empire State primary with Frank Sinatra's thumping anthem, New York, New York, bouncing off the marble walls of Trump Tower. 
 
 That night I made the mistake of trying to record what we call a piece to camera while the billionaire was delivering his victory speech. 
 
 Blessed with a booming voice, in an atrium that doubles as an echo chamber, for a few seconds my words came close to overpowering his. Thinking he was being heckled, Trump stopped mid-stream, as his security and press team converged on my red-faced cameraman and me. 
 
 Image copyright AP 
 
 On other occasions, when Trump harangued the press in a thuggish and abusive way, I would happily have ejected myself from Trump Tower. 
 
 This has been an ugly and dispiriting campaign. All the more reason to look out the window at the landscape. 
 
 But what of the people who inhabit this great land - the voters who decide this election? 
 
 The commonplace has it that a country gets the politics it deserves. But as we reach the end to this absurdly long and costly process, my sense and profound belief is that America is better than this election.
– 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