Florida: Donald Trump wins key battleground

4 November 2020, 05:39 | Updated: 4 November 2020, 06:22

Donald Trump has won Florida - one of the key states which each Presidential candidate was desperate to take.

There had been fears that Trump could lose the state to his Democratic rival Joe Biden - which would have meant game over in his bid to win the top job for another term.

A Republican had not won the Presidency without winning Florida since 1924.

Its 29 Electoral College votes make it the one of the largest states, and in an election this hotly contested each candidate will be clambering for every vote they can get.

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To take the White House and be the next President of the United States, one of the candidates must get 270 votes out of the 538 available in the Electoral College.

Florida Battle: Why is it so important for the US Presidential Election?

LBC Correspondent warned that the race is still "incredibly close."

It was the most hotly-contested swing state of them all. Florida has been a nailbiter in almost every presidential election since 1992, most famously in 2000 when George W Bush won the state by just 537 votes out of a total of six million cast.

Support for both Republican and Democrats is finely balanced, with just one percentage point separating Barack Obama from Mitt Romney in 2012, and Mr Trump from Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Read more: Too close to call - Trump and Biden battle it out in US Presidential Election

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Shortly after Trump won Florida, Joe Biden told supporters in Delaware "we are going to win this" but warned patience would be needed, and the election would not be over until every vote was counted.

He said: "It ain't over until every vote is counted," adding that he is "feeling good" about current results. 

He assured voters that he was also confident about flipping Arizona, and said "we're still in the game in Georgia - although that's not what we expected". 

"Keep the faith guys, we're going to win this," he added. 

But Donald Trump issued his own quick rebuttal against Biden's speech, accusing the Democrats of trying to "steal" the election.

After having remained quiet on Twitter for a number of hours, the incumbent President issued a tweet - and then quickly deleted and reposted one after realising it had a spelling mistake.

His eventual tweet said: "We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!"